All,

Just a heads up to all of you that maybe considering spending the $1000 + cash on a new Felix kite surfboard from Firewire.

Do yourself a favour, and dont bother waisting your money as my board has delaminated after only 2 months of weekend riding.

From my experience the boards are laid up too light on the top deck and its just a matter of "when" they will delaminate not if..

currently have raised the issue with FW but I dont think "Joe public" should be doing their R&D , I thought that was why they claim Felix is their team rider?

cheers

Drew

Thought of getting one of these but got a 6'1" Byrne Tuflite yesterday............$650 with nice bag The thing weighs nothing and seems solid enough for me.

tufflite/epoxy/double,triple ,4 layers, 5 layers of 6oz glass it doesnt matter. kite surfboard manufacturers need to wake up use some thought and come up with a new material that will take the knocks and bumps that happen on the water in the surf.. all those building methods above are not strong enough for our conditions..glass/ epoxy will always shatter/split under pressure
paying upwards of a grand for something that gets mass produced and is weak is sin. not only to have it de- lam , or split/ crack/pressure ding, from your foot after an air, or get holed by your bar...the list goes on.. like spot 1 said go see your local shaper and have a chat (customise people)... create a friendship, give him some work, you will get a superior product and get a better deal, and if you have any probs you know were he is. tell him your requirements.
kelly slaters board wont work for you, you aint him..
come on kite surfboard builders. think hard , come up with something that wont let us down... we need something that we can kite "hard" with that will last....

hux said...

I have had a kiteboard custom made with carbon and it is bullit proof.Been jumping and the usual harsh treatment they get and it is holding up awsome i've had it for nearly 12 months it cost way cheaper than the imports.go the local.

Can you post the contact details of the shaper

Hey venom had the exact same thing happen to me! after only a few weeks!
they made it such a mission for some one in WA to have it looked at, I gave up on them..
pity because they are so good to ride! J

Polupoluu said...

Alarm bells started ringing for me when i went to the firewire factory/showroom to check em out. With 30 or so boards on display @ $900 a pop. I was kindly offered to check out the "2nds" rack, there would have been 60 or so boards in various states of decomposition, from colours changing to having splits in the rails... At $500 with a "pavement warranty" I kindly said no thankyou

gotta love mass production techniques (NOT)

jackal said...

Hey venom had the exact same thing happen to me! after only a few weeks!
they made it such a mission for some one in WA to have it looked at, I gave up on them..
pity because they are so good to ride! J

Jackal,
Can you send me a private email re what happend and the details, I beleive FW are trying to hide the real issue and was told by email they have had no other boards delaminate so very interested to hear some more details for your experience
cheers

Drew

sammyd said...

Firewire have got to love this post!!!!!!!!!

I have read good reports on kiteforum about RESIN8

Felix's mate TOPHAT - rates them -

Latest is that Firewire have offered to repair the delaminated area , but I have to send the board back to the factory in Brisbane, etc

Point is, that even after the FW repair on the front section there is no guarantee the rest wont fail, so really have no confidence in their products after this.

re Felix and Crew , I think the issue is that they ride so many boards, so never really have the same board , day in , day out, like most weekend warriors do so fail to notice major issues with the laminate .

Anyhow , I am now going back to a custom shaper in expoxy as my last Amundson board is still going strong after 3 years.

Drew

As has been said, support the local (or surrounding areas) shaper, their are alot of guys who have some really good skilla that can be utilised at really great prices.

For example Al Emery in Byron Bay makes some top notch boards for some of the top WCT surfers, he also kites and knows how to get you what you want from a board.

www.emerysurfboards.com

This is just one example, their are tons of other people with similar talents around the country.
Stuey Martin from newcastle can also make some top notch boards!!

Surfboards are for riding waves not for jumping and doing kiteloops. If you break boards doing this I'm not surprised. Also if you ride unstrapped your board will work a lot better and last significantly longer.

p.s. Not to name names, but I have heard from a fair few good surfers and kiters that those FW boards are pretty average. Why not get a custom for a fraction of the price and get exactly what you want.

Just picked up my winter short board f(or surfing) from my local shaper last week woo hooo.
Turns out my local shaper has done a couple of boards for a long time kiter to demo a few times over the last couple of years.
I showed him rylands vid of south oz' (i Know where it is Ha HA)
He didnt have much to say for FW. And so started a technical discussion.
He is so passionate and really immerses himself in shaping, you can just see his brain bubbling away as he contemplates the evolving world of kiteboards.
I wont pimp him yet...I will wait till gets more feedback
Im dont kite wave riding yet...so im no good for him.
Personally epoxy boards dont do much for me but when you get used to one in good waves its alright, but the slightest chop and its bounce city. Then getting used to a glassboard again throws me a bit, its probably diffreent with a kite eh?
If there is a better thread for the following questions could some one point me to it.
Otherwise I am curious- (in the same vein as the design your own wave kite)
What would you put into it??
What do you do to stuff a board up!

I am sorry for long post[}:)]... I tend to rant.. I cant help it.. look there i go again..ok Im out.

Expoxy is just a resin they use, you have to look at the whole construction method,
what type of foams, laminating method etc etc there are some expoxy kite surf boards that go off!!
Hey Herby burger check out Marty Littlewood from Delta he makes boards for North and all the guys that rip down south.. he has refined it to an art and I am sure could make something strong enough that goes well that handle anyhting you dish out... Remember surfboards are primary for the Riding of Waves! J

Don't get me wrong, I have and have had epoxy surfboards that I really like. They have a spot in your quiver and they work well in some situations and as a board that can take a beating. But nothing compares to the way a nicely shaped poly board feels, there is a reason pro surfers still ride them when there are so many other options out there.

Sounds like someone got a warranty then, which is good to know! However It would be better if it didn't happen in the first place.

p.s.
Is it just me or is the firewire felix model (or whatever its called) Just Taj's board with a bit of extra glass and some inserts?... Looks suspiciously like it to me. If so all their dribble about testing shapes to get the best board is just a load of cr@p, all they did was copy the Taj, which in my opinion would probably be a pretty good idea but still makes them looks like bull****ers.

Who wants an unresponsive dead plank though? not me.
In my opinion Surfboards can already be made strong and light enough in polyester construction if you have the right glasser/sander and you are using it for "waveriding" not flyboarding.
If your really worried you can get an epoxy board made with a regular blank, or if you want even stronger go with a closed cell extruded foam blank.

I think the problem is people are under the notion that boards should last forever. I agree boards should last a fair while but if you want something that is going to perform as well as possible likely hood is that it wont last that long at all. Take Skateboards, surfboards, parachutes, kites... etc.. nothing lasts forever and the better it performs usually the shorter it's lifespan.

Obviously you need to weigh up the pro's and con's between performance, cost and longevity of a product, but in my opinion regular surfboards glassed in poly and sometimes epoxy fill my kitesurfing and surfing needs just fine.

Any of the boards you mentioned above will be fine for "wave riding" , even the thinnest glassed board you can find should be fine for "wave riding" in fact they are probably the sweetest........ The problem is that when you use a board with a kite the forces are increased....... that fibreglassed board is no longer being ducked dived under 1,2,3 or 4ft of whitewash but is being asked to pop the nose and lift over it either in the air or by bouncing over the whitewash.... the boards are not made to handle that style of impact over and over again as you head back out......... similar impacts are felt when hitting the chop as well , this leads to creasing, cracks and eventually waterlogging.

All true Potttterrrrr, but if you know how to kite well enough and use a bit of common sense when it comes to heading back out, your board will suffer not much more than if you were just surfing it.
For example, instead of racing full pace into walls of whitewater pick a better line and learn to suck your board up and over, instead of attempting to plow through a couple of hundred ton of water. Also use your finesse in the chop instead of smashing through it straight legged. There are so many things that you can do which are not that hard in order to prolong the life of your kiteSURFING board.
Your board wont crack and crease and waterlog if you take some simple steps to look after it. Just think how you have to treat your regular surfboard... do the same with your kiting one.