Product Watch - Kites

Liquid Force have produced their new Havoc for 2009.  The kite still sports their traditional logo through the top main section of the kite.  They have some nice large 3D bumpers on the leading edge over the segmented joins of the kite.  The re-enforced stitching is also quite noticable.  The kite features an external one pump system.  The wingtips are an interesting shape, with an attachment directly in the middle point of the wingtip.  The paneling on the kite runs down to a trailing edge that runs horizontal between the last foot of the struts.  Overall it seems the Liquid Force Havoc has received a very nice update for 2009.

The murmurings were that Ozone was working on a new kite called the Yakuza GT.  Well at the most recent 24 hour SPO in Europe the GT was unveiled, and boy was it hard not to notice!  The new Ozone  Yakuza GT has similar a theme to the Ozone Frenzy FX with the "bubble" or "tear drop" type look to it, making it stand out from all the other race kites.  Ozone has taken a while to make an update to it's current Yakuza, which at the time of release set the benchmark in performace.  Over the past couple of years that gap has been reigned in by other brands releasing newer kites based on new designs to suit the current range of pilots and the evolution of their piloting skills and race styles.

Peter Lynn it seems has been busy working on a new Race Kite.  The kite has mentioned to be similar to a PKD Combat in terms of having the "same cell count."  However the similarities seem to stop there, the wingtips on the end of the new unnamed Peter Lynn race kite are very different.  The kite has been flown in a number of races in Europe and has placed respectively so far.  It is interesting to see Peter Lynn entering the race scene, this could be influenced by their center of operations now being  conducted by VliegerOp based in Europe.

HQ made a bit of a buzz earlier in the year with their new closed cell foil the Neo.  Now photos of HQ's new Montana 4 are appearing online, showing that they are continuing to develop their Ram Air Depower Foil range.  HQ started by introducing the Montana a few years ago, and are now on their fourth version of the depower foil.  The new HQ Montana 4 looks very different from the first Montana, and an evolution of the kite can be seen.  With Tom Bordeau now working for HQ the changes between previous versions of the Montana may be more significant then in the past.

Slingshot has appeared with photos of Reuben Lenten riding the new 2009 Fuel!  This year it seems Slingshot have changed their graphics on the Fuel, something not seen for a long time to accompany a list of other small changes.  There are three attachment points on the leading edge, allowing the adjustment of bar pressure and two on the trailing edge.  There are also changes to the wingtips, with a small "swept" part instead of the traditional square tips.  The kite has the patented Slingshot one pump inflation system and will most likely ship with a bar similar to the Slingshot 2009 Rev Bar. 

We have some new photos!  This coinciedes with the release on Flysurfer's Newsletter illustrating that the new Flysurfer Psycho4 will ship with the new Flysurfer Infinity Bar.  Previously we showed some images of what was a possible "prototype" design bar from Flysurfer.  Our photos were accurate with the exception of the Chicken Loop.  The new Flysurfer Infinity Bar will ship with a different chicken loop to the one we publish according to Armin Harich.  The chicken loop being used on the Infinity Bar that ships with the Psycho4 is a design by Core Kiteboarding.

Or was there?  Ozone released their new 2008 Land Kite brochure a couple of months back, however there were no changes to the product line.  Shortly after this Ozone released their "Ozone Factory Vietnam 2008" video which was a tour around the Ozone factory in Vietnam.  The Video showed part of the process of Ozone creating kites, R&D and overall giving us an idea of the physical hand work involved.  However, is it possible that there was a new kite meant for 2008 that we may see in 2009?  Ozone are working on a new race kite called the "GT" to replace the Yakuza some time next year, however the kite in the photos on the wall of the factory are definitely not that of a race kite profile.  The photo is placed between kites already in production such as the Cult, Access2 and Manta II.  So what kite is it ?  It is easy to mistake it as a Frenzy FX on intial view, however we have put some photos up which clearly show the difference confirming it is not a current kite.  Take a look at the photos!

New Slingshot Rev2 2009 photos have emerged online.  The colours of the kite are rather plain, so this would indicate it is still possibly a prototype and not indicative of the final design.   The kite has a new distribution of the panels, and three attachment points on the kite for adjustment.  The new Rev2 will be on display at the Slingshot Party in Torquet France on the 28th and 29th of June, and availability of the kite is expected in September.

Flysurfer is introducing a new bar to their line up, a number of photos of the bar have been circulating the internet.  However what is unclear is what chicken loop and safety the bar will have, we have now seen three different designs.  However the latest to appear seems very "ahead of it's time" with particular attention on the chicken loop setup.  The new bar is shown to feature above the bar trim adjustment, and what looks like a very large "jerk off" release system.  The bar ends are contour moulded.  The only innaccuracies that we could see in these photos so far is the bungees on the bar, they seem rather short and nowhere to really "hold." 

Royal Kiteboarding has a new kite in the range called the Solo.  Last year Royal promoted their seemingly popular kite called the "Era."  This year they have two kites to their line up, the Royal Solo and Royal Era.  The Solo is marketed as a beginner to advanced kite, so aimed at versatility.  One key design of the new Solo is that it is a 4 line kite which "features include a short bridle without pulleys to eliminate wear and breakage."  The kite is a 5 strut design with 6 colour options and coming in sizes of 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 meters.