what do u think the kite of the future will be?? some crazy box kite with so many lines ya have an electronic roller??
let me know what u thnik it will be??

The dream of the kite industry is to get windsurfers and even surfers to cross-over to kiting.
A pipedream or a nightmare ??
To get the average windsurfer to cross-over, he must first relate to a kite rig.

I believe a smallish (grunty) kite flying off very short lines (say 8-10m) might fit the bill.
(Windsurf rigs are 4-5m long).

Purist surfers of course have zero interest in kiting.
Why ?
Because when they check out all the ridiculous gear kite**** dick with,
they just laugh out loud.
The kite industry keeps pushing the surfboard model for wavekiting too,
in an effort to attract the attention of curious surfers.

But surfers hate wind, even offshore wind if its too strong.
And surfers only know two wind directions; offshore and onshore.
It's a question of education.

lol the reason y i kite is because when the seabrease is in i still wanna be on the water and only the "purest of surfer's" would do that [;). but back to the point.....
do ya reckon they will make self inflating gas kites as someone mentioned before a lighter than air gas??

My vision of the kitesurfing future:

One "adaptive" kite that will be able to "adapt and change it's shape/surface" to accomodate kitesurfing in all the wind range (10 - 35 knots).

Another kite, with a light weight ridgid frame, with the cannopy made of flexible solar panells suppling electric power to an electric motor with a light weight propeler. Launch the "monster" in the air and kitesurf in the windless days!!

Board - adaptive fins and rails to provide the least drag and the most buoiancy, for the given speed and water condition.

Ah, I really hope one day I will have them

quote:

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Originally posted by poor relative

secret beige coloured kites

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Hy Relly,
You know, you can dye yours
But biege is "different".

Like windsurfing kiting will go through crazy years with hundreds of new products all supposed to do everything well or make life so much easier, then once that has got out of our systems we will have realised that most of it was crap (reel bars, handles), some of it had the right ideas but wrong technology to pull it off (early foils and huge windsurf style boards) while others were absolute pearlers that will be around forever(four line kites).

Kiting will then evolve gradually to make simpler, more efficient wings that basically just work really well. there will be occasional breakthrough ideas and redevelopment of old ideas show up aswell.

thankfully the crazy stage only lasted about 5 years so from here on in it will just be gradual refining of proven theories.

imo twin skin inflatables would be the big thing to come and the bow kite idea will stick around but to a less extreme degree, as for boards, not much will happen because surfing, windsurfing and wakeboarding have already been through the hard yards for us but the fins could probably get a bit of a look into, they deserve more attention than they get.

James