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What will kiting look like in 2023?

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Bille
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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby Bille » Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:10 am

BWD wrote: ..

Future:
Better software hardware and materials change the industry.
More knowledge = getting the job done (often better) with less materials (5 to 3 to 2 to 0 struts may be a contemporary example).
Local laser cutting of panels and assembly with more glue and less stitching reduces hand-finishing to the point it becomes economical to do it in US and europe.

One piece seamless braided tubes.
...
.


***They already got the Super Seam Basting tape --
it's used on spinnaker sails :
http://www.sailrite.com/Seamstick-1-Sup ... -3M-60-Yds

*** My friend in HG, (7 time World Champ, that Kicked my Ass at the Worlds), said
he worked for a company that used bladders with an internal pressure of 30Lb + ; then
laid out exactly How they were made & contained ...

This is a Cool thread but ..
The Real problem with it is :

Soon as someone inadvertently comes up with a "Really Novel idea" ;
designers will be tripping over themselves , as they make there way to the patent
office !!

Bille
Last edited by Bille on Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tautologies
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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby tautologies » Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:08 am

kjorn wrote:Fabric will have changed -- a lot. Much stronger and lighter - carbon nano tubes are almost indestructable. Graphene can also be woven like thread, yet it conducts electricity - so giant kite sized displays (think LED but better) would be possible. Or you could make them so thin they'd be almost invisible. Like cellophane.

Currently fabric is produced in sheets, then cut into 2D panels and sewn into a 3D shape. I expect 3D shapes will be manufactured - maybe even whole kites just from a single sheet. The bladders laminated onto it somehow. Then you could buy a 3D fabric loom, download a kite 3D model and hit 'print' and out it'd pop.

If you ever watch a sea gull in high winds, it folds and tucks its wings in. The wing hinges at the elbow and wrist, the feathers slide over each other. Kites don't do this, but I think with a bit of engineering they could. So as you sheet out, the kite folds into a low aspect wing. Then as you sheet in it unfolds into a high aspect wing. Feathered kites - they'd be hard to rip. (Foils almost do this at the moment - they bend and warp with the bridle)

If you could make the LE tube ridged and light, then you could evacuate all the gas from it. The vacuum inside would be lighter than air and would float. Not sure how you could make the LE go from [floppy and easy to fit into a bag] to hard - but it can't be impossible. If it were made from some sort of artificial muscle that a small jolt of electricity would make it spring into shape... pump the gas out... kite floats up into the air.

I expect the software that kite designers use will get better at full simulation of a kite. Currently there seems to be a lot of trial and error designing a new kite.

Also, sensors everywhere. All over your body, in the kite and bar and lines. See how the GoPro is getting cheaper and 'smart phones' are getting tougher and will soon be water proof. Those Google Glasses will show all sorts of interesting overlays as you kite around. Hight of jumps, squall warnings, wind speed from other kiters around you (as all kites will be networked together - sharing info)

Kites powering ships? Self launching kites - computers flying them and never crashing the kite?
Killer thread.

I am with you and BWD...but I think it will take a bit longer than 10 years.
Download designs and get them printed...yeah I said print your kite not sew.

Do you think Graphene wil be at that point then? Did you see how many patents were taken out on graphene applications??? :o It would be awesome, I am guessing a little too expensive..but. I am not sure if you need to actually weave it in? Just make the material ultra thin..it would be see through....it will weight nothing, and be ultra strong? Use it as a fricking screen and modulate it from the bar.

How about a mix of shape memory polymer and graphene? Ultimate combo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_memory_polymer

Though I still think it might take a bit more than 10 yrs.

Display your own images on the kite. Kite shape / size. Change it as needed. It displays your mood as you are kiting.


On the fly changable designs, depending on what currents you send to the kite. Depending on if you are in waves or racing.

One size fits almost all.

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby Bille » Thu Feb 14, 2013 6:17 am

tautologies wrote:
kjorn wrote: ... Or you could make them so thin they'd be almost invisible. Like cellophane.


...

...

One size fits almost all.
Like THIS ? :
Attachments
GOPR0152.JPG

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby tautologies » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:02 am


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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby jakemoore » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:10 am

Gayla will make a strong comeback with kites blow molded out of fiber reinforced garbage bag plastic. I hope they do the all black one with eyes. Kites will cost $75 and be essentially disposable.

Boards will have a drink holder just right for a can of beer. They will probably be EPS foamies similar to boogie boards sold in beach souvenir shops worldwide. Also disposable but at least the wont hurt of they hit you in the head. Board leashes will make a comeback among the disposable crowd.

Jorts will be in style. Possibly a Dakine Nitrous harness with cut off denim. Or just blue jeans over the wet suit. Good times will be had by all.

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby tautologies » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:59 am

jakemoore wrote:
Jorts will be in style. Possibly a Dakine Nitrous harness with cut off denim. Or just blue jeans over the wet suit. Good times will be had by all.
:lol: :lol: hilbilly hair and mustaches for all.

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby pmaggie » Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:19 am

IMO, chances are two: if we look at the past and compare kiting to windsurfing or skiing etc, 2023 kites will most probably be different but not-so-different, just more refined and obviously better in all areas. Difficult to say "how much better", windsurfing gear of 10 years ago it's not significantly worse than the last one, I own 10 years old material that performs perfectly and compared to my most recent stuff I sincerely can't notice a real "jump ahead", just refinements.
The other way, it's possible that something is going to happen thanks to new (I mean REALLY NEW) materials and/or ideas. It could be both, new technology and new ideas. Anyway, I think at the moment kiting is a quite "mature" sport: there's room for refinements but a real revolution is not that likely.
What I like to imagine is something really good in the safety department (more efficient flag out system that really kills the kite or, better, an "automated" device that operates by itself when things are going the wronk way, maybe an electronic one like car airbags that don't explode any time you brake hard but just in case you're really having an accident).
As always, future is future and everything can happen!

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby edt » Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:50 pm

The waterproof micro in-ear iphone generation #17 will mean that even while kitesurfing your wife will be able to remind you which chores you are supposed to do when you get home and tell you that it's your turn to pick up the kids.

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby eree » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:29 pm

pmaggie wrote:...there's room for refinements but a real revolution is not that likely...
i wouldn't be very optimistic about much room for refinements.
my kite has six generations and its brand in kite business ten years or maybe more, but they still could not produce decent one-pump system that deflates without me pressing the air out of the bladders manually. same goes to bar ends bungees for fixing the lines on the bar, i mean how hard is to make them right? it is not like space technology, it is common sense and testing, not just writing about restless and continuous testing in marketing presentation.

why so much sloppy work? imo kite brands have no motivation to try harder.
pretty much anything they produce goes for ridiculously high amount of money. high enough to simply give away significant part of it to anybody who owns a car and calls himself a dealer.

so i'm not really expecting to see some significant progress next decade.

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Re: What will kiting look like in 2023?

Postby C Johnson » Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:29 pm

so will there be a space age price tag for these space age kites of the future?

howbout we work on making them cheaper rather then better? I think they are plenty good already. The prices just seem a little on the high side for what you get.


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