John Heineken, Course Racing
The 2010 Kiteboard Course Racing World Championships are now over. The competition was great, with nearly 40 riders on the starting line in Corpus Christi, Texas. RRD had a strong presence with myself, Abel Lago, Shawn Richman, and Sandy Parker all participating. A total of 10 races were run in all types of conditions. Corpus gave us one day of its typical windy conditions, with sustained 25 kts gusting into the 30s. Because the bay is so shallow the chop was very steep and close together testing everyone’s ability to stay on their boards downwind.
The Addictions proved once again to be great kites in these conditions–I had speed on nearly everyone upwind and down. The rest of the races were held in lighter wind, and the fleet was a little more mixed up. Racing proved challenging in a tactical way, providing everyone with an opportunity to use their strengths.
I finished the regatta 4th overall, my second top 5 finish in the last two Course Racing World Championships! Thanks to RRD for all the support!
FINAL RESULTS
Top 10 men:
- Adam Koch (Ozone/USA)
- Damien LeRoy (Cabrinha/USA)
- Bruno Sroka (Cabrinha/FRA)
- Johnny Heineken (RRD/USA)
- Sky Solbach (North/USA)
- Sean Farley (North/USA)
- Jesse Richman (Cabrinha/USA)
- Kent Marinkovic (Cabrinha/USA)
- Abel Lago (RRD/USA).
- Chip Wasson (Ozone/USA)
The Religion… first review
The new RRD religions arrived at SOS in Fremantle Western Australia, 2 weeks ago, unfortunately just as our summer thermal breeze season here nears an end, but northern hemispere forum readers may be curious to know what they are like before their season begins, as it has been hard to find an online review.
To give you my perspective I am dedicated surfboard riding wavekiter and i generally prefer strapped and hooked in with down the line off the lip aerials manoeuvres what floats my boat.
There was a lot of hype about a ‘dedicated wave kite’ at least 6m ago, but when the kite failed to materialise people were starting to wonder was it all just ‘piss and wind’, but then those of us lucky enough to get a quiver rom the fisrt batch to arrive in Australia 2 weeks ago have been well impressed, and I do not apologise for pimping such a great wavekite as it may just be the advance that a lot of dedicated surfboard riders have been waiting for.
How does it fly?
This is not touted as ‘do it all’ kite, but as a dedicated wave kite and it’s all about the turn……… incredibly quick and smooth with no stall, no jerk, and quicker around the corner than a type 9, which is saying something. It is absolutely the fastest turning kite I or I expect anyone else will have ever used, and it may take a bit of getting used to if you have been riding slow kites til now. The 11.5 turns nearly as quick as the 9m type 9 and faster than most 7m kites. This opens the door on performance riding in 12-15 kts. When you’re on the 7m its so quick you forget just what you can achieve to start with. A section looms downwind and where previously you would have been waiting for the kite to come around you have already snapped around and bashed the lip on the religion.
The struts and LE are big and solid [it takes a lot of pumping but is one pump as with all RRDs] and the whole thing feel absolutely rock solid in the air. It has been reinforced to take a hammering if you drop it, with big Dacron cross reinforcments on the canopy. Consequently, combined with it’s bold square low aspect shape this kite is going to really stand out from every other kite at your local.
If you do more park and ride style, It drifts back beautifully as you ride downwind, but is always just sitting there waiting for bar input. The power level as it is thrown across the window is constant and smooth and easily killed with depower, keeping the rider in control, but by the same token it would not satisfy someone wanting massive boosts. Upwind is much improved on the type 9 and is on par with the Obsession and most modern kites. The bar pressure is really light coming off the type 9 and I expect those who have suffered elbow tendonitis will welcome this, but for me it takes a little adjusting not to be able to crank down on the bar for balance or any extra squirt of power.
The RELIGIONS are not grunty size for size and alot of the quoted area is in those big foward sitting square tips for turning speed. I would suggest one compares the religion more with a C kite [and to look at they are really a low aspect bridled C] than a bow, on a size to wind range comparison, so the 11.5 would have equivalent wind range to most 10s in a more bow shape.
Finally the long awaited Wave Master has arrived in the UK, arguably one of the best Wave kites on the current market.
Order now from your local RRD dealer..
For more info call : 01903 503 664
rrd website
With the summer season rapidly upon is we the guys thought it best to put together a new site that could be updated by all our riders and also have the facility to have our readers & customers make there points, you can now comment on our blog posts, gallery pics and riders blogs.
Thanks to Distinktive Design for putting it together
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