THE BIG PICTURE

HOW HAS THE CARVE SURF / STRAPLESS FREESTYLE KITE AND ITS PERFORMANCE EVOLVED THIS YEAR? I BELIEVE YOU’RE USING SOME NEW LIGHTWEIGHT CANOPY MATERIAL.

For 2021, the Carve has a fresh evolved design with a more playful feel, primarily due to construction and bridle changes. It has a much wider wind range, better depower in strong winds, more power control when riding waves, and a noticeably better high end. We wanted to maintain the surf tough construction but keep the weight down, so we’ve replaced the Dacron panels with a new 75g heavy-duty canopy reinforcement material. This reinforcement helps to protect the lighter inner main canopy body, while allowing the kite to be more responsive in the steering and depower, with a much smoother and cleaner entry. The new lighter material in the profile transition panels along the front of the kite is softer and a little more forgiving than the heavy-duty Dacron, so when you pump up the leading edge, the tension from the elongation doesn’t migrate into the canopy.

For 2021 we’ve made changes to the dynamics and biasing of the bridling, and added new low-drag, no-pulley bridle lines. The kite maintains good power delivery and you can still ride it a size smaller, but we’ve traded a little off the bottom end