For all you SlingHeads ****2010 OcTane******

[kitenaked]

Should have some good Sherman love this weekend. Saturday late....Sunday looks to be Kick ASS if Ikite is at all close.......Bunnies & Gypsies!

Ed, can I ride your new kite? Need to see what's up with the new O'Tane....... :)

[Greg]

Naked women, naked man-
Where did you get that nice suntan...

Chris-
when are we gonna spread some love on that kicker?
Limmi'

[wjb]

Shy, you gonna be down with a demo before the end of the season?

[OliverG]

Yet to be confirmed, but he might just be. If not, you can demo my kites at either Sherman, or Dillon or Bodega soon if we get good NW flow, which we often should in the fall. If you're at SI and I'm not, you should be able to try Ed & Deb's Octanes.

Ollie

[Little Brian]

The kites look alright. What I really like are those sliders in the background of the video. They look really nice. :)

[Yoda]

What a treat!!! I got to break in my new Octane 7m today up at Hood River. It was nuken and very punchy wind. When I first went out on the kite it was all over the place and kinda unstable... maybe I didn't inflate it enough. Since I had come from a REV 7m, I expected it to fly nearly like it out of the bag. For the most part it got better once I got an hour of riding on it... I think it need a little brake-in period to set the lines and briddles.

It eventually became smoother and more stable, but that could have also been due the the wind dropping off in the afternoon while becoming more constant. However I wasn't quite sure if it was todays Gorge conditions or just me getting used to the kite, but man it was definately a lot more work to fly the Octane verses my old REV. I'm hoping the wind will be less punchy tomorrow and Tues, so I can get a better feel for this kite.

In the afternoon I was able to stick some nice backrolls and big jumps and the kite felt great... but that was still in between the big gusts. I have to say I love the new control bar!!! The trim was way easier to operate verses the REV's and the center mounted punch-out is awesome.

I'm kinda wondering if maybe if I had it rigged on the wrong knots. Does anyone have any feeback on which knots make the kite do what? I set the front and back lines even on the second knots and I had the kite trimmed in about half way.

[windhorny]

flying ANY kite in punchy winds, especialy for the first time, is going to give false impressions.

[OliverG]

Today the central east bay delivered the goods and we got out for a nice afternoon session for a couple hours. We were the first to arrive and rig up, with a couple showing up later.

First sessions out on the Octanes, I was on the 11m, Yoko on the 9m. First impressions of the kite are that it is very refined and well-built. Lots of little functional additions to the kite construction and bar and lines. The kite flies smooth, responsive and generates nice even power, bar pressure is just right. Turning smooth and fast, but always predictable, never quirky or jerky. Nice airtime during freestyle, kite has nice pop to it.

Much more feedback to come, just getting the feel for it today and I was out on the 11m, really looking forward to flying the 9m and 7m lit to gather some all around impressions of these kites. Yay!

[windhorny]

You are the best person to ask....

the rev obviously had some nice power in the loops.

The Octane is suposed to replace the Rev, but it is advertised as having "consequence free kiteloops."

I'm curious, how would you rate it in comparison to the rev for kite loops?

[OliverG]

You are the best person to ask....

the rev obviously had some nice power in the loops.

The Octane is suposed to replace the Rev, but it is advertised as having "consequence free kiteloops."

I'm curious, how would you rate it in comparison to the rev for kite loops?

Rev 1 and Rev 2 came out and both deliver good power in the loops but still turn fast and complete the loop (if you commit, as you need to with all loops) as expected. I was riding the 11m today and threw a few loops and I wouldn't say the Octanes deliver consequence-free loops. I don't think any kite would be that much fun if that was the case; what's cool about powered kite loops are the force and action sent to the rider and how they handle it, how it looks and what they do to make it interesting. A spinning kite with little impact on the rider would have little effect as far as freestyle goes.

I was only medium-powered and it was an 11m, so it was close to what I'd feel on the Rev2 11m. It made nice power in the loops, and on the front-roll loops, was a bit loftier with perhaps more hangtime allowing for more time for a smooth landing. I've had only this one 11m session, so I'm hesitant to say, but my initial impression is the speed and power of the loops is similar to Rev2's, but with more loft and hangtime. I've already said too much, I really want to fly the 7m and 9m LIT, and try them with the stock 23m lines on the new bar and my 20m bar. Hopefully I can do that here locally before Hatteras in October...