Line extensions for Airstyle

[flybykite]

Mui ne can be dirty sometimes like after a big rain but that does not happen often in the windy season. Mostly quite clean, not crystal clear clean but acceptable. Main beach gets a dead chicken or 2 washing up sometimes. I like to go to different spots in Vietnam and some are pristine beautiful, loaded with fish, coral, endless deep blue water, ect.
There are rules to kites flagging lengths. If you flag to 2 front lines, the bar must travel not less than one width of the kite (length from trailing edge to leading edge) before it reaches the stopper ball.
If it flags to a single front line it must be not less than one kite span (length from wingtip to wingtip) before the bar reaches the stopper ball.
These rules apply to the largest kite in your quiver. No harm in having the bar go further.

Looks like you're not so bad with tools and plans yourself...
If you ever produce the fiberglass handles (or carbon fiber) I'm in. I was thinking of doing it myself with a simple wood mold release, even have all the materials, but It's on a distant back burner.

6-10 weeks a year is awesome especially working like you do.

[Macisback]

Haha, good with plans and tools maybe - usually too lazy

This weekend I plan to sand the fins from Flysurfer so the suit me for Airstyle (no sharp edges) and also adjust the grabrails for the thin/angled shaped edges of the Flyradical boards (otherwise they obviously wont glue perfectly, cause the edges have a stair profile, so nothing you can glue them to really). And glue all the grabrails with special glue after having softened the surface where I will glue them on. Need to go to my Dads, who has a basement full of machines...

So yes, for now I will also be a bit in customising

Frederik is now testing with the 3D printed molds and fiberglass and soon will have a first test handle.
I am sure he is willing to produce a few extra handles if we compensate him for his work.
I definitly need a few of those handles..

Hopefully soon Kitebrands will start producing Airstyle products we need and are building by ourselfes at the moment.

[flybykite]

Instead of superglue I'm going to use aquaseal without scratching the surface and see if that holds. For now I'm just using the supplied 3M tape that came with the rail. I have that step on my new monk as well but the tape stuck to it even with the step in the way. Seems solid for now but I'm sure it'll give after 20 sessions.
I really doubt companies will produce airstyle components other than grab rails. I think the micro hook and loop is one of the most important and so far only North has an acceptable clean design but even they discontinued it.
Oh well, building shit is fun for me and nobody else will have it.

[Toby]

Hopefully soon Kitebrands will start producing Airstyle products we need and are building by ourselfes at the moment.

first they need to understand that the majority out there is not interested in freestyle or race...and does not have those wave conditions.

And what the main idea of the sport is...

[Macisback]

Well Toby, you made a GREAT first step.

Your DVD was a game changer.

I think Airstyle can have a future IF:

- The Airstyle competitions draw the same or more visitors than freestyle or race (I have a good feeling they can do that)
- The industry starts to produce Airstyle parts (most important is the microloop/hook)

At the moment, it is just not popular enough, cause it is only known by to few.

Airstyle would need a driving force behind it, a sponsor.
The worldcups, events, price money would need a boost.

The moment Kitemagazines come up with regular Airstyle sections/reports, competitions are popular and the gear is offered by the industry, it will be a success.

If I would be the industry I would only produce what I can sell - at the moment Airstyle gear is not high enough in demand maybe.

The Red Bull King of the Air is a good step into the right direction I guess, so is your DVD and all the Airstylers out there.

The fact that Freestyle and race are not to attractive for spectators will help massivly.

If Event Organisers, Magazines and the Industry move a bit into the direction of Airstyle, it will start to grow by itself.

Now the only question is (within the next 3-5 years) - who could be that driving force (which would guarantee Airstyle to become popular)?

Or do we have no choice but leave Airstyle slowly developing, hoping it will speak loud enough for itself.


My opinion: Its a mix of both. The industry will only move if there is short- and midterm money in it. The magazines sell what their readers wanna read and what sells well. And sponsors sponsor what servers their purpose and boosts turnovers or PR.

Well, or here is a third one: We start crowd-funding a startup-company that developes Airstyle gear. 150k should be enough to develop the parts we need (Universal Airstyle bar with miniloop/hook / T-Handle / Grabrails+glue / Oversize Straps / Line extensions / Airstyle fins)

Im sure North, Flysurfer or Naish or any other company would deliver friendly support with selling (old) patents as a base (2010 North Bar eg., 2013 Flysurfer Straps/Grabrails/Fins) and support.

Let me know your thoughts

[Zkatez]

IMG_5062.JPG

Flybykite... I saw your picture of your barsetup. (I don't know how to get the picture in here).

But Wauw..I really like your depowerrope! If we are talking about improvements for Airstyl. This would be the one for me. I have got my skin stuck between the rope en the barhole few times. It can really hurt, ripped my skin off once. So it got me careful. But to be able to put my finger over the rope would give me a lot more control with some airstyl tricks. We are talking about slow kites and extentions to make them slower, so this would be a good solution for me. I am asuming that with the tubing the problem will be less. Right? I never had much problems with bars with tubing before.
Do any of you have the same problems with your skin. Found other solutions?

Anyway, please keep me/us informed if you go and try it out. Will it be strong enough?
How much bigger did you make the hole in the bar? Do you have a picture?

[flybykite]

IMG_5062.JPG

Flybykite... I saw your picture of your barsetup. (I don't know how to get the picture in here).

But Wauw..I really like your depowerrope! If we are talking about improvements for Airstyl. This would be the one for me. I have got my skin stuck between the rope en the barhole few times. It can really hurt, ripped my skin off once. So it got me careful. But to be able to put my finger over the rope would give me a lot more control with some airstyl tricks. We are talking about slow kites and extentions to make them slower, so this would be a good solution for me. I am asuming that with the tubing the problem will be less. Right? I never had much problems with bars with tubing before.
Do any of you have the same problems with your skin. Found other solutions?

Anyway, please keep me/us informed if you go and try it out. Will it be strong enough?
How much bigger did you make the hole in the bar? Do you have a picture?

Ya, I've been pinched with the rope too many times also. I've also got my gloves stuck in it also and could not depower, For that reason, I have not wanted to put the rope between my fingers but now I think it should be much better.

I'm very happy with the build of the power line and yes, I do intend to use the tubing again IF this ever wears out. I wish I could tell you more about it but I have not had a chance to ride with it yet. On November 13, I will start to ride daily in Mui Ne, Vietnam for 6 months. I compared the tubing to the tubing used by Ozone and its nearly identical.
The important thing to remember when choosing a tubing is that it must be a medium hardness. If its too soft it will be sticky when the bar slides over it and too hard, it could crack and be worthless.
I did not have to make the bar hole too much bigger. Maybe around 2mm bigger on the North Bar. The integrity of the bar is still very solid and I'm not worried about a failure at all.
I recently found someone else who has made almost the exact same thing but they used aquarium tubing and said it works fine.

Let me know if you need any help with it.
Cheers, Stephen

[Toby]

It is all a question of time.
That spectators and media want Airstyle has been proven this year at the German worldcup...this year we had no Airstyle and many people were dissapointed.
Specially media, since they used a lot of the Airstyle Footage for their reports.

But after the politics bullshit we had the year before it is clear that Airstyle needs its own tour and be apart from PKRA.

I have some people working on this and we are currently contacting the big brands for sponsorhip.
If anyone of you has good contacts, let me know so we can get in touch.

And if we do an Airstyle tour it has to be bigger than PKRA and more prizemoney.
But only 3-4 stops, so even riders with less money have the chance to become worldchamp, not only rich kids.

We have already the people who will run the events and IKA behind us, now we just need a big sponsor.

As to gear: if course there is a market with good money to be made...look at Flysurfer!
Most expensive kites on the market, always sold out, max 5% discount in shops...

And who has more money to spend: freestyle kid or Airstyle master?

Some things are in the pipeline...if they don't succeed, let's do the startup financing!

[Toby]

Back to the topic:

I think I will hit the water tomorrow with 32m lines on an 18...I assume it will be fantastic!

[Toby]

PS:

I guess no one left the beach at King of the Air but watched it all.
Tell me one person watching a whole elimination in freestyle besides the judges...

And this is sad.