Browsing articles from "April, 2011"
Apr
21

News from Cabrinha

By piggelill  //  News  //  Comments Off on News from Cabrinha
I´ve been wondering if Cabrinha really makes the best kites on the market, so I simply asked Cabrinha of their opinion about which brand they think make the best kites, Cabrinha or some other brand. I got this honest answer.

cabrinha imageThank you for your interest in Cabrinha kites.
Your concerns are all valid, but there’s is no easy answer to you questions. First off, there is no such thing as the most superior kite on the market. This is the same as trying to pick the best car or truck out there. The answer will vary based on what is important to each rider and what there personal preferences are.
We can tell you that all Cabrinha kites feature one of the only true let go safety system available. There is no stopper ball that can prevent the kite from depowering when releasing the bar. This is very important both when teaching as well as everyday riding should circumstances occur that are beyond the riders control. Yet our new Recoil system gives you a place to unspin your bar and always keep the trim adjusters within reach. All 2011 models also feature the use of exclusive canopy materials and construction methods that not only increase durability over time, but offer significant performance benefits as well. These new materials also have proven to show less elongation and stretch over multiple seasons. The Cabrinha control system is one of the cleanest and most clutter free bars out right now and works for all riders of all ability levels.
Aside from that, it really comes down o personal preference. We strongly encourage you to get out there and see about trying both the new 2011 Switchblade as well as the new 2011 Nomad. These are likely to be the two models that you’d be interested in coming off of older kites. The only way to know for sure is to test them out and decide for yourself.

I thank Cabrinha for this answer and look forward to try their new 2011 models.
Apr
12

Cabrinha Crossbow IDS – 13m Review

By piggelill  //  Crossbow  //  2 Comments

So I ended up buying the three kites I were talking about in the previous post. I got a good price for them, payed only $1500 for all three including 3 bars, pumps, bags, everything.

So far I had two sessions with my 13m. My first reaction with this kite was the fact that the stopper was missing on the bar, where the hell is the fucking stopper was my first thought and I was a bit annoyed that it was gone. And it annoyed me in the water as well. I’m used to keeping the bar close to my body and I use the stopper to place the bar halfway up in the depower throw, which allows you to rest a bit since it won’t be necessary to keep your arms tightened all the time.

This was apperantly not possible with the new bar. The mechanical stopper is exchanged to a stopper which uses friction to stay in place, but the friction is not enough to allow you to rest halfway up. It’s just a question of time before you push the bar more than halfway up which pushes the stopper further away from you. Occasionally you’ll have to depower by pulling the red strap which then be located at the very top of the throw, hardly within reach! Luckiliy I have monkeyarms, so I can manage to grasp the depower/power straps, but I still found it very annoying. Later I found a great article, Override vs Overslide, which explains why Cabrinha removed the stopper and also how to modify the bar if you’re not happy with it.

crossbow_2009Other than that the kite was great. Pretty quick turnings for being such a large kite and the pull upwards when you jump are great! Also, the IDS works flawlessly. I failed once and didn’t know what was up or down. The IDS was released and the kite was fully depowered.

The day came when I had my second session and this time I didn’t bother so much about the absence of a stopper. I think I had a little less power in the kite this time, so I didn’t had to extend my arms so much to depower the kite. I actually started to appreciate the kite much more after the second session.

My conclusion is that the new 2009 IDS bar is quite good after all. The bar pressure is lighter, so you don’t have to push so hard all the time. However, if there is lots of wind and you suspect that you’ll be overpowered and if you have two bars, one old override bar and one 2009 IDS bar, then I think that the new bar might not be the best option. If you ride with the bar close to halfway on the throw, then a stopper is great, since you can rest some of the time, this is not possible with the IDS bar.

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