Wednesday, March 31, 2010

More from Facebook

From FACEBOOK> David posted something on your Wall:

"Dang! I loves my Renegade 11! Thanks dimitri for a great kite. Two days ago we had gusty wind and huge waves. And any one who has seen how the sets come in rio de janeiro can tell you one after another. Some jerk put his kite in between my lines!!! And my baby fell into the waves. Once up again i was so tiered and p.off that I dropped the kite when the wave hit me hard and on the third try the same thing. Now this is where all of my buddies say your kite will tear in the waves. and my friends BEST 2009 just ripped open. But min was like brand spanking new and asking for more. One thing this newbie can tell you is this kite can take wave pounding like no other kite." David posted something on your Wall and wrote:

Sunday, March 28, 2010

From Facebook

From Marshall Pugh on FACEBOOK.
Hey dimitri, thanks for the hop on the screamer 10 today at jockey's. that kite feels pretty dam good. put me in for a couple.
From: FLYSURF.COM (French web site)
Author: deltaC4.9
Ma session en 9 renegade ! Malheureusement je suis arrivé trop tard le vent est tombé il restais quoi allé un petit 12 noeuds et c'est la que la 9 m'a surprise bon il y'a 50kg en dessous ! Un très bon fond de puissance et super super super stable en nav' je n'ais pas déhook' (il faut que je règle les avant ..) mais je pense que en déhook' sa va vraiment etre un + cette stabilité se que je veux c'est que l'aile va très bien pardonner les erreurs en barre .. Par contre dans les saut je n'ais pas encore trouvé le petit truc qui fait que je suis monté et pourtant je senté que j'avais de la puissance pour envoyer .. Sa va venir ! sinon j'ais backé un peu l'aile pour tester le redécolage et bien qu'il y avait 12 noeuds sa redécollait tout seule vraiment un plus pour le déhook' (je fais souvent tomber l'aile) .. Le petit bordé choqué est vraiment un confort ! Sinon en kiteloop sa tourne tout seule ! même dans 12 noeuds les loop passaient tout seule (une fois l'aile engagé le loop est rapide et donc ne t'arrache pas comme une me*** .. voila j'attend des vrai bonne session pour en dire plus mais c'est se que j'en ais pensé (pour la 6 a mon avis si elle suit sa grande soeur --> machine à kiteloop très table et pour une petite bache sa va être niquel en déhooké pour le vent fort

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Dimitri
I only could ride the 10m - it's just great!!! Such a stability at this
power,.. Wow!! And a big, big lift!! Immediately I felt comfortable with
this kite.
I first had the safety that was activated by itself, but afterwards I
found that it wasn't pushed all the way to the end. I didn't have any
problems later on.
Regards
Ogi

Friday, March 26, 2010

From California

Hey Dimitri,
I normally don't do this but I just got into kiteboarding and picked up a nano 9m that I have absolutely fell in love with. I have tried other brands and can honestly say that I am going to demo Epic kites for sure. You have created a great kite in the Nano and I can only imagine how great the Renegade and eventually the Screamer are going to be.
Well done and being a complete newbie it is quite evident how nice these kites really are. I have a buddy that flies the Thruster and feels that it is the best kite that he has owned and is looking to buy a Screamer.
James Robinson

Monday, March 22, 2010

More

Hi Dimitri, Helen,

Just got the Renegade 9. Black white and red accents. What a beauty! Can't wait to ride it. Winds light though.

Went out on Screamer 14 yesterday...maybe 12-15 knots. Kited alone for an hour an a half...in the deep blue.
Humpbacks couple of hundreds yards out further. Nice even wind conditions. Threw some airs, not too big cause it was light. Took off the extensions, but after the session replaced them, 20 meter maybe too short for big kite and light winds.

Winds lightened up further, switched to strapless surfboard... wind stopped for a moment while I was way out. Kite fell out of the sky, and I thought oops, on no. Wind picked up again but very light in the 10 to 12 knot range. Pulled on the steering line and the kite relaunched. I was ready for a long swim...simply amazing!

PS. selling my 2010, 11 Ovando, and will UPGRADE to a 10 special edition screamer and 11 renegade.


Aloha,

."Sandwich island Kiter".

Monday, March 15, 2010

From Europe

So today i went into the freezing water. I have to say when your looking at the water and somewhere on an sandbank a bit further away lays about half a meter of ice (just some spots) it doesn’t help with enthousiasm to go in that water. But well we did it anyways. Because I wanted to finally give those screamers a go.
Only problem was the wind.. it wasn’t really there. The first session was kinda weak. Nobody good get upwind but some managed to stay at a certain height. But me and a friend are between 30 and 50 kilo’s heavier then most of them. So we got the 14 and 12 screamer. The wind was just not enough to really go with it. I was riding the 12m.
And DAMNN what a nice kite. It felt so familiar right away. Loads and loads faster then my old 13m waroo, and more power and loads more speed. Eventhough I couldn’t keep height I went fast. My friend on the 14, had about the same problem. So after a while we stopped for a while. We where kinda disappointed so we checked the internet about what wind we actually had. About 12 knots with some gusts from 15. And on that point even less. About an hour later we tried again because slowely the wind was picking up. Maybe 13 knots, but we gave it a go but not too much.
Then a guy I know wanted to test the 14m since he’s also 30 kilos less. And suddenly the wind also started picking up. So he even could get upwind a bit after a while.

Then I got on my 12m, and damnnnn what was it nice. So fast and much power. Couldn’t queit find the sweetspot for jumping since it’s a little different then my waroo. The kite feels so good, stable and fast. It even felt good enough to try a backroll kiteloop, and I haven’t done that one too much and after a couple months of winterbreak I didn’t even think of it.. but at some point I wanted to give it a try.. WELL… lets just say that 12m does something while looping… the loop pulled me up a bit with loads of power resulting in a nice head first landing in the freezing water. I overturned to much and ended up way higher then I expected it too. It was really impressive to feel the sudden power in the loop.
Since the wind wasn’t really strong yet, me and that other guy changed kites, me on the 14 and he on the 12. I believe he liked it. The 14m had so much power, loads more then I expected. From the speed its similar to my waroo 13m but a bit smoother and much much more power. Maybe even a bit too much power when the wind picked up a bit. I even needed to depower (maybe because of the fact it was my first time in 4 or 5 months kiting again) but I reckon it was inbetween 17 and 19 knots tops.. but it had too much power for me at that point. So I got the 12m on again. And its simply a different kite. Its so much faster and feels lighter. Was really a lot of fun to ride.

The bar was great, I usually cramp up my hands in the first session with gloves on. But the bar felt really good. Nice grip and easy too use. One of the first videos of you dimitri was with you playing and fooling around with the bar, power/depower, stopperball, QR and that kind of stuff. I thought it was going that easy because you are that good… WELL.. I did all those things without any effort. Playing with the stopperball. I even could ride the 12m full on the stopperball with my hands behind my head.. NEVER could do that with my old kites. That’s how stable it is.
Also tried to release the kites a couple of times. I didn’t know what to expect since I read a bad review on the blade 09 QR, but it shows the 2010 improvements work really good. Didn’t cost much effort to release it, the leash and mini fith did there work just fine. And it was so easy to put back together. Specially compared to those pins on my previous kites.
The straps work really good, not too far away from me, and I like the elastic band that keeps the power strap on a steady place.

The barpressure, call me a sissy but the 14m had a lot of barpressure in those winds. Not that insane much as the first bandit had. But it was still a lot. Also at some point the kite even had a lot of power with the bar against the strap. Didn’t like that feel to much. But again maybe it had more to do with me not kiting several months. The barpressure on the 12 was waay nicer, cant call it a light barpressure but it sure wasn’t too much either.

Relaunch was easy worked a lot better then my waroo, it was really just waiting with one line in my hand and it launched again.

So screamers. Are obviously fast, have much more power then other kites I know. Very smooth steering. I found them very quick responding. An other guy said it had a bit of response delay which could be since he rides deltas. I didn’t notice any delay myself. Hangtime is sweet, the kites put me down very softly. And when you loop them be prepared to go hard.
In other words.. CANT WAIT FOR MY NEXT EPIC RIDE.


J. Tump


Friday, March 12, 2010

From Hatteras

Name: duckman

Finally got a chance to ride the Screamer 12 on Saturday at KP,Hatteras in solid 20 to 25+ winds and cold low 40's. I usually dont ride flat water but the sun was out, the kite was rigged and the beer was free so I gave it a rip. As soon as I put up the kite I turned to Enzo and said "This kite wants to jump". I was very impressed. Sitting in the trucks the wind had lulled so I passed on the Renegade 9, thinking it might be small. The Screamer 12 however was ready to rip. I was impressed as much with its height and length of jumps as I was with how stable it was when you where up in the air. It was the opposite of "twitchy" kites that overreact to every pull on the bar. It turned when I wanted it to and waited when I didn't want it to turn. Looping was solid but not jerky and the depower was more than enough to compensate for bail outs. Kite relaunch was easy. Cant go wrong with it as an all around kite. Handled gusts into the high 20's smoothly and with no great bar pressure . Really smooth power delivery when the kite is put downwind and you are behind it. As to waves, I think this pull might rip you a bit off the faces and I definitely prefer my Renegade 11 for waves, but for the occassional wave rider/mostly flat water kiter you could definitely make it work. As I was riding the Screamer 12 I was thinking of Dimitri's riding style and realized "This kite is the kite Dimitri would build to ride"

Sunday, March 7, 2010

bomb proof!!!!

Hello Dimitri,

BOMBER!!!! Epic kites are definitely bomb proof. We finally got a nice
windy day today here in SF. I started out on the 10 LE Screamer. Sick
kite, crazy stable and dependable. I was way out on the outside when I
got drilled by a solid 8-10 foot wave. I came up from the first
pounding just in time to see the kite hit the water and get slammed by
the wave. It dragged me for a bit and then I came up and started to
relaunch. Just before it launched, it gets hit by another solid 6-8
footer and I get dragged again. This repeats another 3 or 4 times
before I release the chicken loop. It was kind of gnarly out there
today. After releasing, I let it pull me in by the leash until the
waves let up a bit. I finally got my hands back on the bar and
relaunched unhooked. I'm then dragging in holding the open chicken
loop until I hit the beach and put it on its edge to re-latch the
chicken loop and relaunch before heading out for more. It was probably
blowing 17-28 out there and I was definitely over powered on the 10. I
went in and had some lunch and then went back out on the 6m Renegade
as the wind had filled in and was a solid 24-35 or so. I was super lit
on the 6 and caught some bombs. Double overhead on a few and intense,
grinding waves. VERY impressed with how the kites fly and perform but
even more impressed by the bomb proof construction. Put to the test
today for sure!! I'm stoked to be part of the team and flying Epic.
Thanks Dimitri.

Mike Kramer

Monday, March 1, 2010

An Email from Sorensen

I have pictures from Mexico I wanted to post but my memory card is not working! Hopefully I will be able to get them off of it. I have been getting a lot of people to try out these Screamers I bought and everyone loves them!
It's crazy to think that was only 5 months ago and now the Epic kites are out there and people are raving about them! Great work!
See you in April, it will be Epic!

L. Sorensen