I just wondered. Kiting seems to be the only sport where people get emotionally attached to the brand that they ride.

I've have my favourite kite brand tattooed on my back

Bigwavedave said...


Why does everyone post these records and then add the brand of kite?

I think its cool to emphasise that this is just an off-the-shelf kite. Other people have spent millions in R&D to try and break the 50-knot barrier (L'hydroptere and Yellow Pages Endeavour). Here we have a kite suitable for beginners that also performs well at one of the extremes of our sport.

It makes me wonder what kind of improvements could be made with a kite optimised for speed and how much farther the record can be pushed!

westozwind said...

Wow, that's amazing!
Not a WORLD RECORD tho. That's done over 500m and it's an average of 2 runs min.
http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/500-metre-records.html
1 GPS vMax does not a record make.

I'm pretty sure that they do average speeds and not GPS vMax.

At that wind speed, pretty much any kite will do the job.

I think it is impressive by any means.

As far as Cabrinha goes they might need to change there marketing about which kite is their speed kite. Don't they advertise the crossbow as their speed kite?

whatthe said...

Bigwavedave said...


Why does everyone post these records and then add the brand of kite?

I think its cool to emphasise that this is just an off-the-shelf kite. Other people have spent millions in R&D to try and break the 50-knot barrier (L'hydroptere and Yellow Pages Endeavour). Here we have a kite suitable for beginners that also performs well at one of the extremes of our sport.

It makes me wonder what kind of improvements could be made with a kite optimised for speed and how much farther the record can be pushed!

This kite was optimised as a tree hunting kite. As you can see no trees around, hence the speed as it was trying to get out of there.
I have the same kite but mine doesn't seem to go this fast. Must be the colour!
It's super ballsy no matter what kite they're on. Imagine going that fast knowing your running in to a dead end (no pun intended) with no room to edge to a stop.

Yeah but in order to have good upwind performance, the kite needs to have low drag, which makes it aerodynamically efficient and therefore fast.
Of course not fast in the sense of turning speed, that's a totally different thing.

So it is essentially what speed kiters want as well, what they might add though is more responsiveness, like some are using pulley bars.

Huge respect

Bigwavedave said...

^^this man is fast!!^^

Why does everyone post these records and then add the brand of kite?

Is it closet pimping?

The name of the record holder is more important.

When KS won 10 world titles, did anyone post the brand of board he was on?

I just wondered. Kiting seems to be the only sport where people get emotionally attached to the brand that they ride.

Its like Casey Stoner and Ducatti...people do care what equipment they did it on..its branding...all this anti pimp sh^&*t is tiring. Fact is people are attached to brands they wear, drive, eat and drink like whats your fave beer? We all know what brand board KS rides.
Lets get another example whats your footy team if you have one? Someones footy team is a money making brand built off loyal supporters of that brand...what happens on Australia Day does one stand on the porch yelling stop pimping Australia? Cabrinha deserves a plug for currently having the fastest sailing equipment in the world.

fiketto said...

I guess we all do have our favorite. Especially when we start to talk to our kite surfers friends.

What it really matters is a good kiteurfer always will be no matter what kite is riding!

And I guess as people tattoo on them self Harley Davidson logo there will be for sure someone out there with a kite brand tattooed somewhere on his body.

Bigwavedave said...

^^this man is fast!!^^

Why does everyone post these records and then add the brand of kite?

Is it closet pimping?

The name of the record holder is more important.

When KS won 10 world titles, did anyone post the brand of board he was on?

I just wondered. Kiting seems to be the only sport where people get emotionally attached to the brand that they ride.

There is ,I saw it .That is all I am saying .Last time I outed them i named the wrong person by mistake .

where is the place to beat this record in Australia???
How many knots do you need to go 6oknts on average?

PsYLoR said...

I wonder what the difference is between the wind speed and the rider speed is for the top 5 records...

I'd like to give that a go one day, I like to go fast :)

But i reckon it could be quite hard getting the right conditions at the right place in Aus.

yea i was thinking the same. WA or NQ could work.

sir ROWDY said...

Cars are faster.

Not in the Luderitz trench

INTHELOOP said...

where is the place to beat this record in Australia???

The current Australian record holder, Tim Pumpa, practices his speed skills at Parham SA, along with his Barossa mates James & Robert.

I don't think the wind speeds reach 60 kts too often

Some of their GPS results can be seen, along with other world record holder's GPS results, at
www.gps-kitesurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=37541&uid=211

More of the Luderitz speed discussion was at

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/South-Australia/luderitz/

Fossil

When Oz held the record for many years with the "Yellow Pages" rig they ran it at Sandy Point near Waratah Bay in Gippsland, Victoria. Should be easy to find info on it.