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Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5 & 3 and now 8.5

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LesFoilZ
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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5

Postby LesFoilZ » Tue May 16, 2017 9:57 am

All the tests I have done with the 6.5 were successful, the unique wave foil kite out there (it seems that it can be used for wake style as well, see >> here (in French, last 2 posts) <<

I have been pressing a bit 8-) Benoît Tremblay for a smaller version: A smart wave 4.5 for stronger winds (I am light weight and the smaller the kite the better). Benoît finally gave it a go and here is a picture from Québec during the test runs :

Image

I have now received the kite and will test it extensively in the next coming months.

Stef

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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby LesFoilZ » Sun May 21, 2017 3:15 pm

I had a quick test on the beach in 8-11 knots of the smart Wave 4.5 to have an idea on how it behaves. Behavior is in line with the previous generation: it loops very well, drift very good as well on the sand (giving it 3/4 steps downwind), very linear power and good depower. The kite is however more dynamics, there is a significant increase in performance. Here is a short raw edit with one hand high up on the front lines and with my cellphone in the other hand (not very good for stirring!). I was pulling hard on the front lines to test the stability and it passes the test very well:

https://vimeo.com/218228353

Wind increased to 15-20 knots, I was not able to go upwind with a Firewire Sweet Potato 5'2 (fortunately!!!) but it looks promising, very stable and it flies like a two lines trainer with depower, perfect wave kite. I then launched the 6.5 and I could go upwind (wind fully onshore) and try to catch some 30-50cm wind waves ... yes it is very very small :-)

Next test in high winds I hope. I have started sending emails to Benoît Tremblay for a smaller size though (2.5 / 3 m2) :-) 8-)

Once tried, once adopted ... that is a very very good option for a surfer who wants to throw 2 kites and a bar in his/her quiver bag.

Stef
Last edited by LesFoilZ on Sun May 21, 2017 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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jakemoore
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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby jakemoore » Sun May 21, 2017 8:33 pm

So is it available to the public or just in testing?

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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby LesFoilZ » Sun May 21, 2017 9:28 pm

jakemoore wrote:
Sun May 21, 2017 8:33 pm
So is it available to the public or just in testing?
Worth asking Benoît Tremblay himself! Benoît has a kind of custom / on demand production (I think he is the deuscustoms.com/ of kite design) and he will tell you.

Image

As for the 6.5, he was waiting for some returns to see how it goes. The 4.5 is a new attempt and it flies very well + I am also "the public". Well ... sort of as I am not sure that there were so many strapless riders believing in a foil kite dedicated to wave riding 5 years ago, but now we have it! Grab two of them, put them in your surfboards quiver bag and you're ready for surfing and kitesurfing. It is light, no pump, quick and easy launch solo and easy to repair in the middle of nowhere...

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Horst Sergio
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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby Horst Sergio » Tue May 23, 2017 3:39 pm

Sounds interesting,

also looking for a small water foil kite around 4 m² for 25 knts till 40 knts gusts @ 63 kg.
Sold my 6 m² PS4 2 years ago, maybe a bad idea, as I was always happy with it in this section.
Have difficulty to feel perfect with my 5 m² Boost² also if it is a very good kite, but also packing size with pump for sure double of a 4 m² foil kite.
Just too low experience with LEI and feel always at home with a foil.

Interested in further details especially about highwind ability, stability, etc.

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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby LesFoilZ » Mon May 29, 2017 11:11 am

Woooooooooo!!!

I have now tested the Smart Wave 4.5 in descent wind! 28-30 knots (gusting 35) side-on with wind swell (not very fat but still). Here is a picture of the conditions before I got into the water:

Image

I tested it strapless with my Firewire Sweet Potato 5'2 (waves were good but not very powerful so the need for a quick board with some volume). I am an experienced rider in waves (I started kitsurfing 15 years ago and I paddle surf for many more years).

Briefly, this is a perfect wave foil kite ... I waited for 5 years and now it is here! Thanks Benoît!

The 4.5 has been perfect, nothing to add/change. It turns very well, linear power, very good upwind. Depower is great and the kite is very very stable (I had no tips moving for 2h in 35 knots gusts!). The kite drifts perfectly and follows down the line without any pb. The bottom turn with kite low is great and by playing with the bar one can put it where it should be in the wind window. Bar pressure is medium and I like it that way, so it feels like a two lines kite when surfing without pressure on the harness, which I feel destabilizing for strapless riding. The kite is very reactive with immediate response to bar inputs. Great great wave kite. I think the kite can be used by a beginner without any problem but this is a performance kite dedicated to wave riding (not the opposite).

I was not overpowered at all in these winds. As a matter of fact, with the trim pulled in, I felt completely safe on the beach (and I don't like walking on the beach with that wind). A smart wave 3m would be great for nuclear winds (which we have here, Tramontane and Mistral for those who know), Benoît if you read us :wink:

To sum-up: Woooooooooo!!!

Many thanks again to Benoît Tremblay who has accepted the challenge when I was on my way to Australia 5 years ago, for all the protos and the endless email exchanges to improve the prototypes.

PS: for those who flew the FS PS4, this is far far far better. This is another world. I had PS4 in 4m (proto), 6m, 8m and 10m DL which I flew extensively in waves all around the world (Europe, US, Australia, Brazil, ...). PS4 are an old story now.

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Horst Sergio
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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby Horst Sergio » Thu Jun 15, 2017 9:16 am

Hi LesFoilZ,

thanks for the review. As maybe seen, had similar questions for Gunnar about the Ozone Link 5 m²:

1. Will there be something as a release date and price for the 4,5 m² or is it just a kind of non serial production on demand? How long takes an order normally?
2. Can you say or show pictures of technical details as drainage, mixer, lines, fabric, sewing, etc.?
3. What was your impression about power per m² compared to high performance foil kite: a little bit less or significant less?

Don't think I will have the chance to test the it, so would have to order it blind and for this I need more info, otherwise I stay with my 5 m² Boost² and have to go on pumping :-?

Thanks

P.S.:
Oh and if now you want to sell your 4 m² Psycho4, I would think about it if it is in good condition. I know also my 6 m² was a bitch when talking about perfect trimm there have been about 5 mm between, instable tips and stable but boring behavior, but if you hit the middle it was very nice also till 40 knts gusts for 62 kg. Hard to imagine the Smart Wave to be so much better compared to a perfect trimmed PS4, but I am interested.

For next Oktober I will need something that is good for travel to lonely and high wind destinations and therefore has to be small small small in the bag and in the sky and better does not require a pump.

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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby LesFoilZ » Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:39 pm

Hi Sergio,

There are no "release dates" as such with Concept Air. Benoît starts selling when he has the feeling that the kite is ready and it will be the right kite for you (or ask you to contact other riders to discuss with them before buying). The tests were positive and the new smarts are available now I think (I know at least one other smart 4.5 which is on its way to France right now -- the rider wants to use it with an hydrofoil and a surfboard).

Benoît Tremblay is a real craftsman of kite design in the sense that he masters the whole production process locally, from kite design to kite production, usually on a on demand basis. We are far from typical big major companies, and in the good sense. I don't have the exact figures, but we are talking about several thousands kites build since 1997, so he knows his job! Best thing is to contact him directly. I am neither a sponsored rider nor a dealer. Benoît was the only kite designer who accepted the challenge of designing a wave foil kite 5 years ago when I understood that Flysurfer would not continue to develop a mid/low ratio performance kite.

In summary, with Benoît Tremblay you have to change how your mind was framed by the kite industry, back to the roots, kitesurfing! :-)

Here are a few pictures of the smart 4.5 I took for LesFoilz.com

Image

Image

Image

Construction quality is very good, very simple and reliable. Nothing is overdone . These are the usual comments you get about Concept Air kites. There are the two usual velcro at the tips to empty sand and water (you can see them on the first photo), the kite material comes from Porcher (32gr for the smarts) and the bridles are nicely done and tidy with colors to ease bridles check before launch. I'll post additional pictures when I have some free time (very busy currently).

Smarts behave very differently as compared to high ratio kites. The smart is dedicated to wave riding, but not by designing a beginner foil kite that could be used in waves as it used to be, rather by defining what should be the characteristics of such a kite (I must say rather what I think should be the characteristics as I had the chance to be in direct contact with Benoît and to exchange with him o a regular basis to improve the kites over the years). One thing that you don't want on such a kite is that the kite crosses the wind window too quickly and, consequently, delivers an extra boost of power that HR foils can deliver. The boost is not good at all for balance in the surf when one rides strapless. You don't want a thick profile as well because the kite will stay too far in the wind window with an extra grunt that you don't want (again for balance in the surf), in particular in the higher wind-range. Thick profiles are not very good for going well upwind as well. The idea is to go back quickly to the peak and not having to have to ride 2 miles upwind at sea to get back to it. So the smart is a thin low ratio kite. The difficulty was to have a very solid and stable foil kite, in particular in strong winds with this thin profile, that could also loops very well (this is uselful for down-the-line surfing). Benoît achieves this with the smart wave. Note also that there is some bar pressure because I like when I ride in waves to surf with the pressure in my hands rather than in my harness (it is along the lines of riding unhooked in waves with a 2 lines kite >> see the interview of Top Hat at LesFoilz.com << but still hooked). This is to free the hips when surfing.

As for power. The smart are powerful for their size but they don't deliver the power of a small HR foil kite, the smart delivers very good power but it is more linear, no peaks of power / boost. As for the high end, I rode the smart 4.5 in 30/35 knots without pb, I was feeling very safe, in particular on the beach, which was very surprising with the sand blowing around me. I haven't check the low end yet for the 4.5 (I think I can go down to 23-25 knots with no strong rips), but I can go down to 15/18 knots with the 6.5 for my weight (63 kg) with my low-rocker-with-volume surfboard. This said I am sending emails to Benoît every day for a Smart Wave 3m :-) (think Guincho, Cape Town, San Francisco, Beauduc, Tarifa ...)

As for the comparison with the PS4 ... well, they are now a thing of the past for wave riding with a foil kite strapless, at least for me. Smarts open new horizons, they change you 8-) :-)

Stef

PS: My PS4 4m may stay with me as I have developed a special relationship with this one-of-its-kind foilkite, even if it does not fly very much these days.

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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby Horst Sergio » Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:04 am

Hi Stef,

thanks a lot for the detailed answer and the pictures. So I think I will contact Benoît the next days to ask what he can offer and fits best to my demands.

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Re: Concept Air Smart Wave 6.5 & 4.5

Postby LesFoilZ » Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:04 am

A quick report from a French rider riding hydrofoil:
wiwi wrote:Merci les amis pour cette aile :-D
Test dans 16-20 noeuds max, bien laminaire, bien On, relevé piou-piou du coin. foil alpinefoil. Débutant en foil, houle de 1.5 - 2 m, première sortie dans du si gros en foil pour moi !

Le mouchoir dans la poche j'arrive sur la plage, c'est mort pour naviguer avec, je pense sortir une notus 9m. Comme c'est la seule occas' de jouer avec, je sors le mouchoir pour le plaisir de la faire voler sur la plage. Effectivement très sympa mais bon, rien dans le harnais, rien dans la barre...sans y croire une seule seconde , puisque qu'elle est au bout du harnais, je vais quand même à l'eau, Marc avait souligné son excellente plage basse, un vrai Marseillais ce type ;)

Premier water start, que dal mais surbordée, au deuxième je la laisse respirer et BOUM, c'est parti... :shock: :shock: :shock: pour toute l'a.m. 8-)

Mêmes impressions que la six en mieux, plus c'est petit, meilleur c'est ! ;)

"Sérénité, contrôle, simplicité, efficacité, plaisir" tout est dit !

C'est assez incroyable dans cette plage de vent, il n'y a rien dans le harnais, pas beaucoup plus dans la barre et ça vole, tu sais toujours exactement où est l'aile, tu lui demandes ce que tu veux, comme elle est béton tu la surbordes, elle revient dans la fenêtre et tu doses la puissance que tu veux après, et ça c'est vraiment cool, on peut vraiment l'oublier et la reprendre en main comme on veut. Je viens de découvrir ce style de nav' sans vraiment d'appuis, une révolution pour moi, ça permet de passer en mode surf-foil, modestement pour moi. Elle redécolle plus que fastoche, on peut se lâcher. Mise à l'eau dans ces conditions de mer, no stress, on se concentre sur la barre à passer et la gestion du foil. A noter que je suis parti d'une zone sous le vent d'un relief, moins de houle, l'aile a déventé plusieurs fois sans crasse aucune, top !

Seul bémol, la course de border choquer très fine, genre 5-10 cm, on s'y fait mais le surbordage n'est jamais loin.
La remonté au vent n'est pas génialissime mais vu le ratio et le vent, faut pas déconner non plus.
A tester dans 20-30 nœuds, on sent bien qu'il y a des watts sous le capot...une petite aile quoi !
Je suis tellement enthousiaste que ce cr ne présente sans doute pas l'aile sous les aspects qui vous intéressent, n’hésitez pas à exprimer vos interrogations, si je peux y répondre. Oui ça se bouscule un peu dans ma tête :oops: J'avais un smile en sortant de l'eau, un truc à se faire contrôler par les keufs !

Merci Stef de t'être acharné, fallait y croire,à Benoît (qui ne me réponds pas :) ), à Bozzo et au cuistot du meilleur troxon de St Malo pour le sympathique prêt :-D
http://www.lesfoilz.com/phpBB3/viewtopi ... 717#p40717

That was not mine but this one, recently received from Québec:

Image


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