gods will...
same reason it fills with water and cant be re launched easily-some things were never meant to fly, mattresses included.

at a guess, the design allows far better placement of the kite's center of gravity

It's a twin skin-no turbulance behind the front bladder

Perhaps because it's got a proper bridle and isn't a glorified sled kite?

I'm always amazed at the number of kitersurfers who have never mucked around with a small kite before. Try building one, changing bridle lengths, adding another string so you can turn it into a stunt kite, changing aspect ratios, dihedral angle, skin stiffness, tail length, the list goes on.

Auto-zenith is crucial for a one-line kite, and you don't even need a tail to make it do it. The critical bits I've found are:
1) Make it symmetrical.
2) Get the C.G. right.
3) Make it perfectly symmetrical.
4) Fine tune the bridle, and I do mean Fiiiiiiiinnnnneeeee tune it.
5) Make it so damn symmetrical that you can't tell one side from the other!

I'd be willing to bet that if more people did this, then they would discover lots of things they didn't know before about kites (eg. what makes it luff). And then move those design principles to their kitesurfing kite. It's not rocket science!

Auto-zenith is not auto-pilot.
You need to be manually flying a kitesurfing kite at all times.
I see sleeping-baggers (mainly newbies) shame-walking up the beach,
no hands on the bar and grinning like loons.
The bar usually hangs somewhere on their shoulder blades,
out-of-reach and out-of-sight.

What is that sh!t ?
Some kind of stupid statement maybe ?
"I fly doonas and I'm a kOOk"
lol.

quote:

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Originally posted by tobes

quote:

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Originally posted by nebbian

Perhaps because it's got a proper bridle and isn't a glorified sled kite?

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It doesn't have a bridle, and it is a glorified sled kite.

But I think the rest of what you said is pretty spot on.

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Well I'll be..

OK fair enough, I thought it was that other brand of mattress with bridle lines all over the place (Is that a flysurfer?)

Ignore all late-night ramblings from non-kiters

Interesting explanation Steve. I'd love to see some tech diagrams that show exactly how this works.....exactly which forces are at work on different parts of the kite etc. Do you know if these kites were ever computer modeled etc?

I wonder if Peter would be forthcoming if I was to send them an email?

quote:

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[i]Originally posted by gruezi

The "auto zenith" can make the whole kite experience quite enjoyable.

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lol.
Yeah,
Park the mattress at 12.00 o'clock and take a little nap between sessions.
haha
Or maybe smoke a cigarette and drink a beverage.
You can do it.
I've seen newbies do it.

Park the sleeping-bag at the zenith and check your cellphone.
Make a few calls.
Check the weather on the net.
Forget about the kite. Don't worry.

Jesus,

the whole foil v SLE debate is getting so tedious & boring it's no longer funny. It's about as interesting as listening to some bogan revhead try & explain why a Holden makes for a better car than a Ford or vice versa.

Yes, I'll put my hand up to flying Venoms. So F@#KEN what? I kite, you kite, we all kite. Waveslave likes his inflatable, I like the Venoms. Each to his/her own.

There are benefits & issues to each style of kite. We all make choices about what colour jocks to wear each day, what we want for dinner, as well as the style of kite we choose to fly.

Get over it & move on.

for me its a holden and therefore a LEI. i'd explain the science but its to complicated. :)

quote:

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[i]Originally posted by tobes

like a tail on a one liner, the back of the kite creates drag that keeps the front pointed into the wind.

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Correct tobes...
Drag makes a kite auto-zenith.
The trailing edge drags its fat-arse thru the sky.
Pushing air and slowing you down.
That's the big party trick.

Like a foam mattress strapped to roof-racks on a car in motion....
The front edge strains to break free and fly to heaven.
Auto-zenith is all about anti-luffing.
With the introduction of bow kites, luffing has taken a back seat.
Inversions are now the new evil.

quote:

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Originally posted by Juddy

Jesus,

the whole foil v SLE debate is getting so tedious & boring it's no longer funny. It's about as interesting as listening to some bogan revhead try & explain why a Holden makes for a better car than a Ford or vice versa.

Yes, I'll put my hand up to flying Venoms. So F@#KEN what? I kite, you kite, we all kite. Waveslave likes his inflatable, I like the Venoms. Each to his/her own.

There are benefits & issues to each style of kite. We all make choices about what colour jocks to wear each day, what we want for dinner, as well as the style of kite we choose to fly.

Get over it & move on.

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move on to what?

quote:

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Originally posted by kitecrazzzy

id be pissed off if my kite was always going above my head with out my input. are they likely to luff like a C?

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No, not at all. In fact, in order to see just how 'luff resistant' the demo one I had was, I parked it above my head and ran forwards as fast as I could. It just sat there, cruising backwards.

If I ended up in a situation where the lines went slack (and where my LEI kites would have fallen out of the sky), the kite just flattened out and floated back in the window until the line tension came back on. Then it resumed its shape and continued as normal. Very impressive.

The auto-zenith thing was weird to begin with, but I got used to it very quickly.

quote:

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Originally posted by waveslave
When you ditch a slack-lined inflato into the cruel sea,
she floats like a big, bloated corpse.
hahaha

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Until the next "solid wave" eats it and tears it in half.

Have you had a go on a mattress 'slave?
Got an open mind on the subject? It would seem not.

They have a couple of irritating habits, they bow-tie and invert for example.
But they are stable, luff resistant, auto zenith, cheap to repair and eat gusts.

Not my favourites, but a bloody clever design and great kites.

quote:

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Originally posted by waveslave


Unframed without the rigidity of struts, cam-battens and a hard leading-edge, PL kites really are just soft and fluffy doonas when the lines go limp-dick slack.
A sack of sh1t.

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What's with all the angst?

If they suck so much for wave riding, you might want to let Aaron Jarman know. Although, considering he managed to win the 2007 National Wave Championships on one, I think he's probably likely to take your opinion with a grain of salt.....