I have a feeling twin skins kites will be the next big thing!

Peter Lynn kite owners... are your twin skins better than your LE kites

Fly Surfer is resonably popular in Perth (I guess due to Ian Young's influence). But I am curious Fly Surfer fans... are there any new school riders amoungst you in Perth... and if so do you prefer your FS better for tricks than your LE kites?? I presume FS is a twin skin & not just a parafoil??

Peter Lynn's new kite Venom is getting some attention, but will we see it used by the new school crowd

does this mean that only LEI kite companies continue to develop and improve their product? I think not!
surely all kite manufactures continue to look to improve on previous efforts. Ive seen great improvements in lei and twin skins in the last 12 months
take care and fly whatever makes you happy

watch out!!! twin skin LEI are out there

Whats twin Skin mean

i fly a cabrinha co2 12m, but i have bought 2 Peter Lynn kites, an older F-ARC 16 (mammoth jumps and upwind ability), and a Gurilla 10m for the windy days (22+knots). I also own a ARC460 for crazy wind days!

now i think the twinskins are awsome and wish i could afford a Venom 13m to replace my Cabinha. anyone who disses a Twinskin, please tell me why?

from my experiences the twinskins fly alot better than a LEI, and are so simple to fly, u can let go of the bar and it auto zeniths and STAYS THERE WITHOUT LUFFING for ages, they bounce back in the air like a beachball, u can reverse them, they take about 3min to set up on a windy day, and they are light weight!

Now i aint dissing LEI's, as i own a LEI, ARC's, Foils, and stunt kites, i fly them all and love em all for different reasons, but these Peter Lynn kites are awsome, no doubts, and i recomend that if you get a chance, try one..........or are you scared you'll like it

I have discussed in depth with people from both sides. I was trained by a friend of alex who disagreed with alex in regards to foils (very convusing as a student) and he trained me on LEI's. I have heard that argument before in regards to "everyone does it, and everyone can't be wrong", and this is partly why i bought a LEI.

The ozone frenzy is a depowerable foil, which is designed for snow, land and water. The smallest they make is a 5m which is recommended for use on water above 25 knots! So a 9.5 is not too large for mountain boarding. I took it out today in gusty conditions, of around 10 to 15 knots.

I'm not too familiar with the IKO in regards to their policies, but i guess they are dedicated to kitesurfing as such. I guess i'm posting my views in a wrong forum (this is a kitesurfing forum) but what Alex and Goshem are saying is that it's not Kitesurfing, but rather kitesports! i.e. anything that involves a kite.

I try to do as much homework as possible before spending the $$$ and i did before i bought my LEI, but now i am seeing the light. Although, i may be wrong, and 6 months down the track buy this new Hellfish thing, but i want to give it a go, rather than sitting on the beach waiting for that perfect front to come through.

cheers
James

P.S
"Alex is an incredibly enthusiastic and interesting character and I'm gonna leave it at that!"
HAHAHA, totally agree.

Hey Sheppo - r those venoms spongy or wot? They look like they would be pretty springy aye! One of the shots on the PL site makes m look like a killa comfy inflatable pool bed aye! Might have to give one a test to see wot they're like cheers

G'day Ellery
Goshens dad here. Don't listen to people who have basically only flown LEI kites or small 2 lined foil trainer kites, and who do not know my son.
Goshen is not biased, he is a much more widely experienced kite flyer than anyone who has posted on this thread (except for me!!) and he flies all types of kites, as you probably know.

I find it incredible that people post so much biased crap on this forum. As you found out for yourself, you certainly can fly an Ozone Frenzy on land, easily in 10 to 15 knots, even a bit more with experience.

Saying that kite landboarding does not use almost all the same skills you use on water simply shows the inexperience of the person making that claim. The differences have nothing to do with friction, and everything to do with drag and line loadings. The differences in drag and line loads are not as large as these inexperience people imagine either, especially with modern depowerable foils and vehicles like purpose built kite landboards.
The best tools for the job, on land are faster (than comparable sized LEI), smaller more lifty/powerful and efficient for their size, twin skin parafoil kites.

Sinbad, twin skin refers to all types of parafoil type kites.

Powerkiting and power kites existed long before the IKO, if people want good advice on power kites and power kiting they need to talk to people who specialise in KITEPOWER for all applications, not just water!

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve McCormack

Guys, great info. thanks.

Sadly I feel it is a bit about the $ somehow. Kiting is really an expensive sport and that comes through, not only on this forum, but also in the numbers and demographics practicing it. Perhaps this is the way it may or should be for a while...dunno.

I have been privaledged to fly a "twin skin" and my goal is to add a couple of these to my kit. Great for absorbing gusts and smooth rides from my one experience....so simple really.....a qiver of Twins AND Blow Ups. I personally would only use the Blow Ups in the Ocean because I am an old man and like the smooth ride.

Hey Darren, you say "I believe knowledge is king and you should go and talk to someone who is passionate about LEI's and get a balanced perspective. There are reasons why the majority of people fly LEI's."

I wonder if the main reason the majority of people fly LEI's is beacuse of the marketing hype surrounding them?? I have been designing LEI and am thus ignorant... But so many people in the know seem to say twin skins have heaps of advantages. So what is the reason twin skins are not used by the Australian Kiteboarding School. I understand why foils may not be so smart, due to water relaunch, but with twin skins this obviously is not an issue... so why?? maybe Australian Kiteboarding School is being supported by LEI manufacturers??

Obviously twin skins are expensive... maybe another reason??

Andrew

Indeed...

Andrew, even in this foil-loving place that is Kitepower; we almost exclusive use LEI's to teach with... Twin Skins may have advantages, but not for everybody and there are a few disadvantages for the pure beginner, which make LEI's just easier to teach someone with - especially as most people getting into kiteboarding will actually buy a LEI.

The reason why most people have LEI's has something to do with the fact that most kiteboarding shops, magazine ads, pics and the major kiteboarding companies, all have LEI's. Hell, even Flexifoil has an LEI as their premier kiteboarding kite. There's much more to it than that, but you can't expect one type of kite (ie Venom) to take over the kiteboarding world, just because it's meant to be better.

Ellery originally (well, post 6) wanted a kite for kiteboarding, but he's found it hard and is not progressing too well - after all, the idea is to have fun. It's not the kites fault, it's just he'll find more fun on land during these colder months, so a foil is looking like the obvious solution.

Darren (Kitehard) has made a couple of great open minded replies - on behalf of those who fly mostly LEI's, but it's a long way from foil bashing, which is great.

quote:

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Also the comment about "being crazy as a **house rat" is meant in the most respectful tones (just in case you may have taken it the wrong way).

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No offence taken

quote:

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Please people, don't make this into a Foil v LEI thread.

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No indeed, although that wouldn't be getting off the original topic would it? This area has been covered so many millions of times, that there's not much left to say about it.

But I guess the original question was - are "New School" riders using kites other than LEI's? It's sort of a redundant question, as it's got nothing to do with new or old school - young or old, it's just a numbers thing... there are more LEI's, and hence more new riders who are getting good. Venoms are in limited supply anyway, but I'm sure there's some young crew out there who are ripping and handle-passing on them.

Hi Kitehard - just curious are you affiliated with any Kite Brand/Shop? - I have done a quick search and noticed that you are very pro Airush. Just curious - cheers

Hey Surgeon,

Yep you got me, I have been sponsored by Airush for about 3.5 years as a rider.

My school (est early 2000) was originally supported by Wipika kites, (there was only 2 choices back then Naish or Wipika), as they were sponsoring me prior to my association with Airush. Up until only early season before last, I was still teaching on Wipika kites. Airborne approached me to use Airush kites in my school and offered me a great deal to swap over all my old school kites for new Airush Trios which were school and learner dedicated kites.

At the time, my old Wipi's were getting a little long in the tooth and I jumped at the chance to upgrade my gear. Since then, I have upgraded again to the latest Airush Pilots.

I use Airush kites and boards in my lessons because I truly believe they are great kites and boards and make learning fun, safe and easy. Also because I get "looked after" by Airush, as do all other schools which use gear they are sponsored by ie, Choicey and Slingshot, Ian Young and FlySurfer, Johnny G and Gaastra etc etc.

I also recommend other quality kites which are suitable for the students needs if they choose to look at other companies gear. My open minded and honest opinion is something that has gained me a lot of respect over the years from shops and students alike and something I take pride in.

In Sydney when I first started teaching kiting, I was Sydneys only kiting school and as such was teaching students sent to me by 4 different resellers, some of whom didn't sell Wipika, I always worked independently and helped whichever store was sending me work. My business success relied on my neutrality and honesty.

I have always worn 2 hats, my School hat, which is professional instruction and IKO Examiner, where my sole interest is seeing the students and instructors get exactly what fills their needs in a professional and supportive manner regardless of brand, and then my sponsored riders hat, where I am definately biased towards Airush equipment. I dont wear both hats at the same time!

Before I signed on with Airush as a rider, they asked me to ride their kites for a week to see if I liked them before we talked any sort of deals as I was already sponsored by Wipika, Stonker and DaKine. They didn't want me to ride if I didn't love their gear and I didn't want to ride their gear unless it was superior to what I was riding. In the end we were both happy and I still am.

So thats my story, probably more than you bargained for huh Surgeon? I just wanted you to know the full story so you know where I am coming from. This is why you will notice sometimes I sign my full name and company at the bottom of posts and sometimes not, that way you know which hat I am wearing at the time.

Good winds

Shepo,

Like you, i have not had the privilidge of flying one.

I don't have much experience at all with arcs.

Hopefully i'll be able to fly a few different kites during that weekend you have planned coming up. (If the wind is good)

I'm just looking into all avenue of kites to see where it's happening.

When i took the frenzy out the other day it was so "direct". When a gust came through it was awesome.

but i'm definitely open to try new things.

cheers
James

Hey Kitehard thanks for the clarification cya good winds.