Mike B

Ha ha ha, Packing now... Looking forward to a weekend of good banter. Look for big airush tent and lots of shinn flags, you'll find lots of toys to play with underneath. :-)

I'll be there with a mountain of Airush and Shinn demo kit, we've contributed to supporting the event. looking forward to it. All our team will be there, think 6-7 of us in total.. some entered some not.. Forecast looks reasonable.. what more could we want for? lol

directionals it makes an enormous difference, even cant angle and profile, never mind size.. but on twins? assuming that you are not talking about handling, the upwind performance is better without any fins, and the bigger you get the more drag they produce and the slower you go, and less you point upwind. handling is a completely different discussion, and one that's settled according to your riding style..

We tested it with 3 identical tt boards The board that has no fins goes upwind best for every rider On directionals it's a whole different story

It's true that we can all learn, but for now maybe we should just wait, offer our respects and condolences. It's not a silly thing to test your own safety systems every now and then. I'm not proud to say that I've had to call on mine three times in the last year, we all make mistakes. I lost an old friend windsurfing last year and we didn't know the full details until some significant time after. The truth was significantly different to the first hand reports we had, so for now I think we should just offer our support, if it can be of any use..

Kite safety systems have come a long way (as proven by the number we saw pulled in that spike), though the Airush star tent safety systems less so. If your not strong enough to drag that central pole out, then you are in for an interesting time! Was a fun weekend, thanks so much to Mark, Sarah, Richie for all their help, and the army of people helping me get kit down and back from the beach - I never underestimate just how much effort it is to move all that stuff around! Looking forward to the Summer Jam. :-)

Thanks to all who came, good to meet you. Was a great 2 days.. Windy, and I had a cracking hour myself on a 10m last night.

Hi All, Just to let anyone who rides around the south east that we will be at a pretty big demo this weekend at Camber with the entire ranges from Airush and Shinn. Forecast is excellent, tides are best for a morning / early afternoon session, so if you are in the area, get yourself down. As I understand there will be a number of other manufacturers there as well, so it would be a shame to miss it! Mike

Hi All, Mark Shinn is over in the UK for three days next week, and seeing as it's a Bank holiday we're running a demo at the CBK beach at Hayling. It will be a chance to try some of the latest boards, and chat to the designer (who has a fair bit of knowledge under his belt so it's been said). It will also be a chance to try a few boards that have not yet been released.. There are a couple of new designs that Mark will have with him that are due for release in the next few weeks (no one has seen or heard of them yet) so a point of interest if you want a preview of what's coming. The tides are good, but the wind is not forecast to be that strong, yet we all know forecasts can be wrong. Fear not though, for if it is very light I'll have all the Airush light wind kit with me, including Monaro Slalom, Sectors, Lithium zero 18, VXR 18, Slayer, and a good few other toys, so if the wind hits 5 knots, we are in business ;-) Come and join us, have a chat, and a poke around the kit that's pushing the boundaries of the sport and at the very least expand your knowledge, and see if you can indeed get going in 5 knots plus (airush say 6, but in the UK I think we can do 5 - we have better air than they do, ha ha) hopefully see a few of you there...

Sun broke out on the north east coast this morning and this vid makes me want to go to the beach right now! Beautiful...

conditions are good.. just picked up to 17 kts, tide falling - an epic evening session awaits, and tomorrow supposed to be windier with tide low and riding through the morning - come and grab a session on 2014's finest! http://www.kiteboarder.co.uk/kitesurfing/download/file.php?id=1306

Hi All, Tom and myself are calling one of our rolling demo weekends this weekend. It's a decent forecast for Camber, so we are on it! Further location details to follow, but if you are local to this spot keep your eye on the forecast and we will see you there. Tom and I both have a healthy selection of 2014 kit already, so there should be plenty of booty for you to play with. We'll be well tooled with lightwind kit as well should the forecast prove inaccurate. Tides are high mid day so it looks like the best sessions will be morning and late afternoon.. From my side of things, I'll have a lot of this seasons regular kit, Monks, dundee's etc, but also; Speedball, Slayers, Sectors, New 2014 VX (very interesting kite) New 2014 Lithium New 2014 Wave New Apex twin from Airush, New Livewire twin from Airush and the new AFT Team pads Tom will have Ozone, Flysurfer, Brunotti... looks like being a good weekend :-)

Agreed with Dan above, the Livewire is a great freestyle board with plenty of freeride - (same board as alex pastor) and the new Apex - on release on the 15th, is also very light and well balanced underfoor. The airush boards have come on leaps and bounds for 2014...

@ 12 stone 4, I would go either Monk forever if you like to ride hard and fast (nothing else like it for this) @ 132x41 or Dundee - if you like a more involving ride with more reward at medium power levels @ 133x42 or Red if you want something very easy and super smooth with excellent range.. @ 135x41 most people go for the monk, as it's no real compromise for what is the best board on the market to ride at full power. I'd say that the 132 comes with 43mm fins, and I would personally be tempted to ask for 53mm fins so it makes it feel more like your 555 in terms of directional stability.. The new boards have come a long way since Mark was designing the old nobile's...

Here is a picture to wet your appetite, New kite uses Technoforce D2 cloth (tested at 20% stronger by independents) together with the aramid load frame. Tom, your new kite awaits, you never did use the aramid versions. It's a lot tighter and more direct.. http://ktwodistribution.com/Ktwo/misc/razor.jpg

Here is a picture to wet your appetite, New kite uses Technoforce D2 cloth (tested at 20% stronger by independents) together with the aramid load frame. Tom, http://www.airush.com/2013/kites/2014-razor-team/ awaits, you never did use the aramid versions. It's a lot tighter and more direct.. http://ktwodistribution.com/Ktwo/misc/razor.jpg

In actual fact the width of the board makes up for the true size of the board, or if you wanted to be more exact - a 1cm increase in width makes 10x the difference when compared to increasing the length 1cm.. So a 134x42 Monk is significantly larger than the 138x41 comparative board. The length of a board does relatively little to the size of it. Boards of equivalent size can range from 120-150 but by adjusting the width between 44 and 39 effectively offsets any changes to the usable size and weight carrying ability compared to the length. The length is there to change the rail length and stance, both of which are centred on style of riding not size.. So when you buy a board only look at the width, don't worry about the length, it's there for feel not for weight carrying capacity. at 70kg, if you ride really hard and fast all the time then you could argue that 128x39 would be a good size, or if you are a bit clumsy and progress is steady but not fast, then 132x41. That said I think the most suitable size for you is 130x40. Why? - In this size the monk is a real sweet spot - for your weight it gives you excellent low end and top end control that would be more than you would realistically ever need - very good upwind ability still, and very good lightwind ability.. Lastly - look at you current board width and compare that to the monk. Forget about the length.... :-)

Hi All, !DEMO WEEKENDS!... we have a new format for 2013.. This year a few of us industry bods have been chatting about the lack of demo weekends last year, and feel that you are all very hard done to! So this year we'd though we would come and say hello to you, without you having to travel to us, or to some other 3rd party event where it's crowded and life is a bit hectic to concentrate on your riding..... What would be even better is if we turned up to your local spot, van full of toys, on a really good weekend, when it was warm, windy and you were already planning on going there anyway... Plus it would be even better for you to try kit in your home conditions! So, Tom and Myself have decided to try and do one date every month, where we will drive to a number of the more popular beaches, come shake your hand, enjoy a good couple of days on the water, and let you try all the latest and greatest stuff. Between the two of us, we will have a full quiver of; - Ozone - Airush - Brunotti - Shinn - Flysurfer - Juice which should keep you busy for the afternoon ;-) The key thing that differs this year is that we pick set dates, but not set locations. On the wednesday evening before the event, we will have a good look at the forecast and decide where we are going to go... So Far we are looking at; Camber sands - Kent Kernow Event - (Marazion or Bluff) - Cornwall Hunstanton - east coast We wanted to keep it big enough that it would be worth while, yet small enough that it would be more of an informal event, so not attracting a mountain of red tape. All we ask is that you have your own 3rd party insurance (we will ask you at the time) and look forward to sharing a good couple of days on the water. Between Tom and I we are covered for a big windrange. From Sectors, race kites (18-13m), Flysurfers, through to the wave kit we can cover kit from 5kts to 50, so even if it is hardly blowing, you should come and have a crack at the latest kit. We are planning a demo event every month, within reason, and have this weekend - 20/21st April as our first. The next will be May 18/19th It's also been rumoured that our illustrious leader here, Tony, will be coming too, if the paint on his new creation is dry, and his mechanical prowess is what we all believe it to be ;-) (he's building a classic VW camper) So, for now, I'll update this thread with news closer to the time, we look forward to meeting you all, and lets hope we all get a good weekend this weekend coming... Roll up your kitesurfing sleeves everyone... the season has started! :-)

Impressive review, and equally impressive banter. Gentlemen, you know how to behave yourselves on this forum, a credit to the more subtle art of baiting.. :-)

Current news is that we have 3 test boards at the Hayling NWF, and the rest of the stock will ship on monday, arriving in the UK on thrs, so they will be in the shops for the weekend.. First 10 boards out of the warehouse on back order get a free t shirt, so if you have on on order tell your shop what size shirt you are! The board looks lovely in the flesh.. my fav is the white deck / blue hull version... very classy. new footpacks will be in for next weekend, we only have the standard ones here.. and we have wind forecast for the sun afternoon at hayling! happy days :-)

V3 Lucie, I'm sure.. All toy boy's (girls version of the monk) came with the new!

I think I can see where your rididng style is going; most people have the opposite problem... good on you.

If you want riding.. get one... take one. They can save a trip.. but if you REALLY not that bothered about lightwinds and are not going to say "I should have bought that skim" to yourself every time the wind is sub 10kts then you should be ok, but if not... then definitely get one! Shinn is the easiest to ride, nobile probably the most skatey/earliest to go, and the north the biggest.. skim.. aka.. lightwind insurance!

Indeed.. They are due to land in a few days, looking forward to trying the 40 wide version. Completely different rockerline on these.. probably the easiest of all the shinns, should be very good in rough seas...

A prototype graphic that was burning a hole on the designers desktop... Shinn Cafe's Photos - Wall Photos | Facebook what do you think...? I like it, but am aware that probably most influential British leader in history is somewhat of a sensitive institution!