Hi guys... great thread!
Yeah the wheel is buckled but not too bad, I only noticed it on the next session when I fixed the cam in the same place. Stupidly I was watching the guys putting up the dune protection fencing and didn't see the driftwood, I was looking to see where they were putting it, a fellow buggier almost lost his foot earlier this year when his foil unexpectedly powered up and dragged him into the fence! Not an exageration when I say he almost lost his foot, it was a mess.
The discs are pretty good but the beach has to be rock solid and mirror flat to really benefit from the reduced rolling resistance. Greastone isn't the best beach for them. I don't know what your beaches are like there, I was in NZ recently and the ones I see were good to buggy on but not rock hard, maybe thats to do with the 1.5m tidal range compared to our 6-7m... I don't know, maybe it was just the beaches I was at.
I'm obviously pro-inflable-in-a-buggy, I still have a bag full of race kites and that's where they stay, in the bag.
I started flying inflatables at the beginning of last year with big 13m and 16m Bularoos. Definately built for using on land but after a while I found the size and weight was holding me back. Still quite a LEI novice I moved on to Waroos, 5m, 7m, 9m and 11m. Nice and easy to fly and took some abuse for a cheap kite. I had to fly all of them on the fastest settings, especially the 2010's, but not slow kites through the air though, infact I had just short of 58mph (93kmh) from the 7m, still my PB. I'm now half way to changing over to F-one Bandits. Very powerful quick kites. I have a 7m and 9m so far, in the vid I'm flying the 7m for the first time, I have no doubt that will be the kite that cracks 60mph (100kph) for me.
IMO LEIs are the way to go on land. At the moment LEI development seems aim more in the direction of all-round lifty, waveriding whatever kites and worrying about things like re-launch. I think there's a growing gap in the market for a properly developed high aspect speed kite, and when it is built there will be some serious buggy speeds. Whether it's commercially viable or not at the moment I'd still like to see it happen... what do you think?
Wish I had seen this thread when I first started flying inflatables, keep it giong