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Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

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Dave_5280
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Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby Dave_5280 » Fri Aug 06, 2010 3:33 am

A folding kiteboard would solve a lot of travel cost problems, but are they any good and are there any priced the same as a regular board?

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby Rorke » Fri Aug 06, 2010 1:20 pm

I saw a guy fold his board once. He was pissed off. He'd probably sell it cheap though. :D

I looked at those folding boards 4 years ago when I was travelling a lot. And I calculated that the savings would have kicked in after like 8 trips because they were so expensive.

The golf bags are the way to go. Bless the pull that the PGA has with airlines.
If we could encourage golfers to use 7ft drivers, then I could check my surfboard...er, I mean woods.

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby overboard » Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:43 pm

I use baliwind travel kiteboards and would not be without them. I have a twin tip and also a waveboard and they will both fit into a holdall. You can see my waveboard on their website at 'www.baliwind.co.il' as well as a twin tip. Went to Tobago with my wife about three years ago and took both boards and a couple of kites and got everything plus out clothes etc in two holdalls which checked in at under 20kilo each. They must have saved a good bit on charges over the years.

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby K-School SafetyFirst » Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:59 am

I have an 800 € Newind split board, customized.
It's okay after 20 days of kiting and 3 times screwing/unscrewing.
But the Pat Love footstraps sand off my toe skin so I replaced them.
Worse, the guy is the typically unreliable Italian. "Forgets" that the appointed sending day is an Italian holiday, so if you want to have the board on time, figure out the Italian holidays first.
"Forgets" to mention that he's out of grab handles and when asked, he promises he'll send it. Repeat that a few times and it's 8 months later, nothing happens but promise.
And you have to communicate in Italian because his English is Google translations.

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby cookiemonster » Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:36 pm

Hi!
Where are you based?

I make a Twin tip with traveling version and I can send anywhere inside the European Union
You can check my website:
http://www.seathroughboards.com/product.html

PM if you have any questions

Stephane
www.SeaThroughBoards.com

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby Toby » Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:17 pm


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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby DrLightWind » Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:18 am

cookiemonster wrote:I make a Twin tip with traveling version and I can send anywhere inside the European Union
You can check my website:
http://www.seathroughboards.com/product.html

PM if you have any questions

Stephane
www.SeaThroughBoards.com
Good idea :thumb:

DrLW

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby tomatkins » Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:31 am

Different idea and interesting discussion:

http://www.nwkite.com/forums/t-18805.ht ... a3bd36d094

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby antatack » Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:14 pm

I had a NO MAD board: http://www.kitesurf-ventdefolie.fr/
Good board, very well made!

They fit in a large suitcase with 2 kites/wet suit/harness, piece of cake for travelling!

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Re: Folding Kiteboards Any Good & Price?

Postby Miche » Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:41 pm

Since I am traveling a lot, I have two split boards, one from Baliwind and one from Newind and I also know the Nomad.

The concepts of those boards are completely different and all have their pros and cons.
The Baliwind is the smallest one to pack, it is connected by a bar in the middle which helps for stabilization. The Newind splits into 2 bigger pieces because of the overlapping part in the middle, so you need a bigger bag. The Nomad is a 3 piece board and is from a construction point of view theoretically the strongest, but I have used and beaten the Newind and the Baliwind and they are also still alive.

From a shape point of view, all of those split boards are pretty fast because of having basically no rocker in the middle part. The Newind and Baliwind are highly configurable in other terms though (size, shape, fin size).

As for prices: I paid for the Baliwind and the Newind around the same and that was around 200$ more than for a normal board out of the shop here. For instance they were way cheaper than a custom board from Carved. Normal boards you might get with a high discount though if you buy them from last season, so it always depends on what you are comparing with.

Baliwind:
Again, this is a custom board made according to your specifications and also the graphics are free to choose. It took me a long time to get the board as they were waiting for a batch of carbon I think and thanks to Overboard here on this forum I finally got it after many unsuccessful attempts to contact those guys.
The shape of the board is pretty nice, it's quite loose despite of the big fins and goes pretty well in choppy water and small waves as well. I guess the guys are really good board shapers, unfortunately they are not the best craftsmen I have ever seen. The quality of the board was IMHO quite disappointing, I had to turn every hole again before being able to assemble the screws, the connection piece I had to re-adjust and it took me 2 hours to assemble the pads until I finally gave up and bought another pad system. The coating on the bottom side of the board also started to fall apart or got bubbles and the painting on the board easily comes off. And the holes for the fins were just screwed holes through the board without any added reinforcements, so after a while of using the fins got a bit loose. The guys from Baliwind were not very open for my constructive critics, so my second travel board after retiring the Baliwind became a Newind.
The biggest draw-back of the Baliwind was the principle of the connection bar in the middle. I used the board in SA for two weeks without de-assembling it every time I used it and some sand and salt locked the carbon bar in. The night before flying to the next destination we were simply not able to split the board anymore and I had no board bag to take the board bag with me which resulted in some creative check-in tactics at the airport...
Some craftsmen at home were able to split the board by fixing it into some machines, and then pull the pieces apart by using another pulling device. The board didn't look very good after that treatment... anyway, it was at least back in two pieces and still somehow usable.
Maybe the build quality of Baliwind is better in the meantime (I bought mine around 4 years ago, I guess), but still, from a conceptual point of view, I would advise to split the board and wash it after every use to be on the safe side. To travel with the board is a piece of cake though, there is only one thin part on the board which could break if you put it into a normal bag instead of a hard-shell suitcase.

Newind:
Riccardo from Newind is a very good board shaper, and also the quality of the board is outstanding. When I received it I showed it to my father (an old-school Swiss high-precision engineer) and even he admitted that it looks pretty "neat"... ;)
Riccardo builds the boards according to your configuration, in my case he also changed the design to my likings. I ordered the board in a very direct freestyle setup and I start to like it more and more. It's a modern freestyle board, generates enough pop to use it unhooked but it's also pretty easy to jump with by sending the kite back. It's best to use the board on flat water, but I am sure Riccardo will be able to build another shape for you in case this is needed. He also has Mutant which he builds in a split version as well.
I can't understand the comment here about him being an "unreliable Italian"... please post your cliches about other cultures somewhere else... He delivered my boards and two boards of friends of mine incredibly fast and with top quality, but I can understand that his pipe-line of orders for boards is not always the same and that he might run out of handle bars once in a while. (Who is still using handles, btw?)
Back to the topic: It takes a while to screw the Newind together every time you use it because there are so many screws... but there is also no need to de-assemble it after every ride. The overlap-split is super reliable, you will be able to split the board even after it was used in salt water for a long time.
The fins are very good quality, the pads are crap, and what sucks is the fact that a Newind is usually delivered with only one possibility to attach the pads. So, before ordering, ask for multiple holes for different pads or even tell him which pads you use. And yes, order the board in Italian language, I am pretty sure you will find someone who is able to translate.
The board is made very precisely and the overlapping parts look therefore very delicate, so I would protect the board well before traveling with it! Best you use a hard case suitcase for it and don't put it into a soft duffel bag or so, as much for the cons of the concept of the overlapping boards.


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