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Ocean Rodeo 12m one kite

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 3:17 pm
by Chris@sharkless
Got to play with my new 12m one kite this weekend. I have to admit I'm Shocked! From what I've heard about the bow kites, is they fly really different, and there very slow. Not at all, My one kite moved a lot faster then I though it would. It's not as fast as my RRD ZH kites, but there really isn't that many kites that are anyways. I've tried a lot of kites over the years, and this was one of the faster kites, to compare, I would say this kite was a lot faster then my flexifoil strikes. I could loop this kite with no problem. The other big thing you hear a lot is these kites cant jump. Well i dont know about the other bow kites, but this kite can jump, and jump well. If you get a chance to try these kites give it a go for sure. You will have a lot of fun. I'll have this out in South Haven, Michigan this year for people to try.

Chris
http://www.sharkless.com

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:53 pm
by EvanOR
For more One kite reviews go here:

http://www.oceanrodeo.com/forum.html :thumb:

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:03 pm
by Chris@sharkless
Cabrinha is the number 1 big product in the great lakes, with naish second in my area. I am very happy to have OR because I really think this is going change the number one and number two kites to number 2 and number 3.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:17 pm
by Mikael
funny you mentioned, but I tried the 12m One the other day and it turned way slower then my 16m torchII. weird stuff.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:09 pm
by EvanOR
Mikael wrote:funny you mentioned, but I tried the 12m One the other day and it turned way slower then my 16m torchII. weird stuff.
Hi Mikael, I noticed your post today. You may not know this, but I am aware of the feedback yourself and Kyle have given on the 12m One you tried. Based on the way that Kyle describes how the kite was rigged, I am not surprised with your comments regarding the turning speed of the kite. Shortening up the front lines relative to the backs so drastically will greatly reducing the turning response (as with all kites). To rig the kite effectively:

Position the back leader lines coming off of the bar on the knot furthest from the bar. Attach the front and back lines to the kite at the settings furthest from the kite (end knots) using the rear line kook proof connectors. This way, you will not need to trim in the depower strap excessively for the kite to fly properly, unless you need to in order to depower the kite. You may find that in really marginal conditions, it will be beneficial to trim in the depower strap 2-4 inches in order to prevent the kite from backing up (if you prefer not to actively sheet the bar all the way out).

I hope that you get a chance to try the kite again - I suspect you will be very happy if you do. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:30 pm
by ORSales
Mikael wrote:funny you mentioned, but I tried the 12m One the other day and it turned way slower then my 16m torchII. weird stuff.
The thing that has to be realized with ALL of these Bow kites is that due to their flatter profile they are much more effected by the trim settings than any of the traditional C shaped kites. Specifically, the One from Ocean Rodeo is quite likely the flattest of these new flat kites and as such is the most effected by your trim settings.

I suspect that Mikael, after calling us to ask why the kite would not climb and being told to de-power the kite to allow it to climb, likely trimmed in too much and as such was flying almost completely off his front lines. This will, of course, effect the steering response of the kite as it will make any input very delayed, if effective at all! (Your back lines steer the kite!)

It is incredibly important when you fly this new generation of kites that you monitor your line lengths
and are active in trimming and tuning the kite as you fly. With your trim strap fully extended, or at full power, your line lengths should all be the same length. Check this by pegging the lines off with an object in the ground and pulling back on the bar. Look for line sag, most likely on the front lines. If there is sag you can use the various knot locations on the line leaders to adjust your relative lengths of your lines and get them all back to equal.

With a bow style kite you should be doing this every 3rd session!!!

So many riders tell us how they love to ride fully powered up against the stopper, often with a pulley bar. If this is your style buy a Diablo or similar C shaped kite as you are not ever going to appreciate the benefits of the sheeting and trim control offered by the new flat kites. (That being said, the new generation of C shaped kites such as the Diablo do offer some incredible de-power ability too!) If you are a rider who hopes to be able to ride powered through gusts and lulls, de-power on a wave face, work the kite in the window while generating consistent pull from the kite then you should choose the One or a similar flat style of kite as you are ready and willing to be active with the bar and trim settings of the kite.

Ocean Rodeo intends to release shortly a "Tech Talk" section where we have our head designer Ross Harrington walk through critical technical issues to help you become a better rider. The first installment of this section should be online in the next week as a video link on our web site. The first topic of discussion will be trim settings and how they relate to the performance of traditional and flat kite set-ups.

This was not meant to be a sales pitch, rather an educational posting that relates to all the different brand's kites and performance thereof.

:bye:

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:51 pm
by calikites
Mikael,

I can't believe that you said the 12 One turns slower than your 16 torch II. I recently had a session in Kailua on the 12 One, and so did my brother for a combined 5 hours. The 12 was one of the fastest turning kites we have ever used. Acutually word for word when switching off to my brother was, "That is a fast ass kite". It turns on a dime allowing you to whip the kite faster through the wind window than we thought possible. You must be tuning the kite wrong, or else you were flying a 20 meter kite and thought you were on the One 12 :lol:

-Brian

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:21 pm
by Chris@sharkless
I understand what Mikael is talking about. At first this kite seemed slow. We landed it and rerigged it. This kite will need a bit more backline slack, but after we did this it was a big change. You will be shocked after this happens. Is this Kyle from D kiting? Say hey to him for me. I may try to make it over to kite stock this year. If i do you can give this a try. I'll admit my nephew Eric is sponsered by Naish (joe B, and Steve N) so we had his 10m torch out too, and that kite is really really quick. But this kite was almost keeping up with it. This kite feels like a C in a way which I like. The torch is more of a pivoting kite, not a grunter. The OR one seems to be more of a mix.

Hey if you see joe Bidawid around tell him to give me a call he can be a shop rider for me hahaha. Tell him he needs to get on a real kite, that ill help him out hehe.

Later,
Chris C
http://www.sharkless.com

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:15 pm
by Mikael
thanks for the feedback OR dudes. I'm glad you're out there to support your product and offer suggestions, explanations.
I'm not too familiar with Bow kites. Only rode a few models for a little bit of time, but that's it. It could possibly (hopefully!) be trimmed wrong.

Maybe I'll get a chance to try it again with different settings and see if it makes a big difference. Sounds like a big discrapency between our observations and others.
If the kite is so trim sensitive like you said, maybe the knot settings where the kite flies the best, should be highlighted somehow? Because it looks like there's an easy way to set it pretty badly.

Anyway, just trying to provide honest constructive feedback. OR always had a good product. Use to ride a quiver of Broncos back in 2001. Good, strong stuff. Hope your One works as good as you say it does.


Chris... we were talking about a different Kyle, but I'll say hi to D-Kyle next time I see him (probably will forget by then, but I'll try!)
I'll also try to remember to convience Joe to be a shop rider for you. I'm sure he'll be stock about the idea! :lol:

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:41 pm
by EvanOR
Thanks for the great feedback Mikael. I agree we should make it diifcult to incorrectly set up the kite. Soon we will have a dedicated One kite manual, and we will also take further steps to accomplish this. I look forward to reading your review if you get another shot on the kite. :thumb: