the future is bright, the future is foil

[bigmark100]

All kites are great!!! LEI, Foils, ARCS.

Its good that there are lots of variations and preferences. Different strokes for different blokes

It would be a boring world if everyone flew the same kite. just like it would be a boring world if everyone drove a ferrari.

We need people like Chris to show that LEI is not the only way.
Good on him.

[GregW]

Yo Pumpy! We missed you buddy. I am in the mood to type some kite crap after a very nice kite tonight so here goes...

1: Lift to drag ration (L/D)

A depowerable ram air kite can be trimmed to any angle you want in flight. Fast and forward, slow and back or anything in between. The angles are still far in excess of those tubes are starting to get with 5th line systems.

2: Inertia
[\quote]

Yeah. This is probably true for a big foil. Tubes definitely zing about the window faster than the equivalent size foil.

3: Rigidity
[\quote]

In one context tubes are definitely more rigid than foils and that does give performance advantages. However, my foils never ever jellyfish and are much smoother and "quiter" in the air.

4: Wing tips[\quote]

Yep. Tubes turn faster and are more stable when sitting still at the edge of the window.

[jasevinda]

The day i see a decent rider do tricks like my mate lewis on a foil then i might concoder them equal to LEI

until then they are flying matresses that should be for christmas not for life.

or for beginners who need to learn how to fly a kite.

i have never ever seen anyone ride one well.

all they do is go upwind and do long floaty jumps. I like blades though!

[Carlos_C]

Jase - go to hunstanton and check Sven or Little Adam.....or look at the flysurfer site and see what Sebastian Bubman is doing

Mind you when I go to the beach I see loads and loads of tube riders and really only one Lewis.....so if we talk in terms of percentages....it's numbers game really

[jasevinda]

guess so but still not convinced

why isnt anyone decent sttracted to them?

why doesnt flysurfer buy someone?

[Carlos_C]

ok how about chasta....why don't a tube company use him or buy him out? why doesn't he change to tubes 5th line relaunch and all that ....either it's down to the rider or those ozones must be good...or both

[jasevinda]

isnt he the snowkiting guy?

[the_lone_wolf]

why doesnt flysurfer buy someone?

it's cause FS don't want or need to pay someone vast quantities of money to sell kites based on the unattainable image of the stereotypical "pro kiter", they sell by word of mouth and small adverts and so far that's proved a perfectly reasonable business strategy since they are definately a growing company - i remember last year or possibly the year before one of the major LEI manufacturers paid one of their teamriders four times what Flysurfer spent on R&D for the whole year, makes you think of how much a specialist company they really are - although Sebastian is doing some amazing stuff on FS, and the PL teamriders are doing all the right moves, some people will never be open minded enough to consider FS or PL a viable option, which is a shame

[RC-Kiter]

Ok, to throw some wood on the fire again, and back to the original topic starter, here is a shot I found on foilzone, it's with a psycho2 21m in 8-10 knots. You do the math how high it is. For me it's more then adequate to have decent fun in this windrange

[jasevinda]

I bet i could have more fun in 8-10 knots with my 11m fuel on short lines on a pulley bar.