Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Forum for kitesurfers
User avatar
Toby
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 50281
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 1:00 am
Kiting since: 2000
Weight: 95 kg
Local Beach: Cumbuco, Brazil
Barra do Cauipe, Brazil
Favorite Beaches: same
Style: Airstyle
Gear: Rebel 2015 18
Brand Affiliation: None.
Location: World (KF Admin)
Has thanked: 826 times
Been thanked: 2354 times
Contact:

Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby Toby » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:02 pm

I just saw these boards on the PKRA Germany...and I wonder, where do we go to?

Wasn't the beauty of kitesurfing the smaller gear? Now those race guys are back at windsurfing board bags!

And listening to some chats, many riders want to have a box of dimensions...part of the industry as well, other parts not.

Olympia getting closer, and shouldn't the dimension be limited to develop within with enough time?

Let's discuss!
Attachments
CIMG6684.jpg
CIMG6684.jpg (118.74 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
CIMG6685.jpg
CIMG6685.jpg (88.57 KiB) Viewed 3361 times
CIMG6686.jpg
CIMG6686.jpg (99.25 KiB) Viewed 3361 times

PeterP
Medium Poster
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:38 am
Gear: Airush
Brand Affiliation: Sales Manager Airush Kiteboarding
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby PeterP » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:33 pm

I think the windsurfers have a max. width of 100cm - would probably make sense to have a similar thing in kiting - not sure what it should be though...60cm????

leepasty
Frequent Poster
Posts: 382
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:27 pm
Local Beach: porthleven, west cornwall, uk
Favorite Beaches: gnaraloo,curral jouel, One Eye, Haakgat,
porthleven, Gwithian
Style: Waves
Gear: Duotone Pro Wam, Pro Session and Neos
Brand Affiliation: sponsored by Duotone & Ion
Location: West Cornwall, UK
Has thanked: 16 times
Been thanked: 44 times
Contact:

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby leepasty » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:03 pm

I would say more than 60cm seeing as the low wind linit is only 4knts. Maybe 65cm is enough? otherwise it really restricts bigger guys and girls and will give the racing to the lighter guys when its low wind. Fins are limited now but I think the biggest thing that needs to happen soon for the ISAF Worlds and Continentals is for them to be on Production only equipment which has to be registered by a certain date as for the windsurfers and dinghys.
PKRA racing can and should stay as open to aid development.
Lets hope something happens soon and more people can be competitive without spending thousands, otherwise we have no chance for the Olympics in 2016.
happy riding
lee

gbleck
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 546
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:39 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby gbleck » Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:54 pm

Unlimited dev classes are sexy. To heck with restrictions. The fin thing was realy just put in to limit foil boards anyway.

d0uglass
Medium Poster
Posts: 59
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:31 pm
Local Beach: Fort Pierce, Florida
Style: Freeride
Gear: 12 m Cabrinha Crossbow 2006, 14 and 17 m Cabrinha Contra 2008, Litewave Spirit 137, Litewave Freeride 179
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby d0uglass » Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:57 pm

I think it would be premature to set limits on board dimensions, since even the hugest race kiteboards are still quite compact compared to windsurfs. And there might be good, untapped performance potential in slightly larger boards that could help kiting be competitive against other kinds of high-performance sail craft.

Setting a reasonable minimum wind limit (like 8 knots) and a limit on the amount of gear you can take to a competition (like only one or two boards) ought to be sufficient to keep boards at moderate sizes.

ronnie
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 4184
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:39 pm
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 59 times

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby ronnie » Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:51 pm

I haven't seen any slalom boards yet, but those are likely to be slimmed down raceboards that can be gybed and are built for maximum speed and control on a beam reach.
That may take the pressure off the race boards for size, as manufacturers would (I think) sell more of the slalom boards, and race boards would be used largely for racing, so if extra width works, that's the way to go for racing.

Similar comparison with the windsurf formula and slalom boards. These 2 are 68 and 100 cm wide.
Attachments
slalom.jpg
slalom.jpg (215.54 KiB) Viewed 3278 times
formula.jpg
formula.jpg (30.68 KiB) Viewed 3278 times

Rabidric
Frequent Poster
Posts: 227
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:49 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby Rabidric » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:28 pm

those steps cut out of the tail corners of the board look interesting.... i guess they allow you to stand on the rear corner of the board, while not touching the water there as much...maybe to make turning easier? i dunno.

windsurfer geek input needed. 8) :-?

EDIT: this windsurf thread explains the concept here:
http://www.star-board.com/forum/showthread.php?t=900

ronnie
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 4184
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:39 pm
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 59 times

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby ronnie » Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:37 pm

The most efficient planing surface is short and wide. Windsurf speed boards tend to be narrow, but that is to give directional stability.

I dont know but guess that the tail cut-outs give a short wide planing area, but with a tail extenson that helps the board track and keep air away from the fin.

User avatar
kitepark
Rare Poster
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:10 pm
Gear: 2009 fuels
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby kitepark » Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:35 am

raceboards are getting huge,here the last board from newind,it's 175x68 4 fins.
definitely fast,tried it with 36/34 fins and 30/28 bit more difficult than the production one, but faster on upwind performance in light wind (ozone zephir on 7/8 kts)
plus more comfortable.
damn! last year 50's wide board were the top performance machine..after few months they are smoked by this fat boards also in moderate winds.
where will we go?? :D
http://www.newind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=291

Image

User avatar
swell
Frequent Poster
Posts: 312
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2004 6:48 pm
Gear: the fastest
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Race Board Sizes - where do we go?

Postby swell » Sun Oct 03, 2010 7:35 am

Hi, Toby,

can you tell us what fin setup was on these proto NKB race boards, 4 or 3 fin setup? As I can understand from the picture, the one (wider) is for light wind and the other one for stronger winds. Is that right?


Return to “Kitesurfing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ARK, Bing [Bot], Brent NKB, Breze, Chriz76, Google [Bot], ham-er, jaros, lifeinthehood, Majestic-12 [Bot], mrcrss, vp, wrogu and 141 guests