Duotone Diversity Magazine No.02 2020

ENTRY-LEVEL / RECREATIONAL / PRICE POINT Spirit Freeride Are you looking for an easy entry into kite foiling, giving you a chance to try out this kind of kiting to see if you enjoy it? In this case, the Spirit Freeride 700 is the perfect foil for you. Our entry-level Freeride foil is manufactured from the same Carbon 30 material that has been tried and tested in our Twintip fins, which ensures an attractive price and bombproof durability. The geometrical design is ideal for achieving early lift and stability. That’s why it is also used by kite centers in their foil courses. Once you’ve decided that the foil craze is your thing, you can simply upgrade the Spirit Freeride 700 wings for any of the other wings in our foil range, which means you can adapt your foil for speed or surf depending on your style. BY ANTONIO DESTINO Foils have completely changed kitesports – and they are more versatile than ever. There are foils specifically for waveriding, for speed junkies and for cruising. But what do you need to consider when selecting the right foil? Duotone’s Development Manager has some recommendations. SURF Spirit Surf Kite foiling in waves is a huge trend on Maui and is gaining popularity in Europe too. To surf waves with the foil, you need a wing with enough low-end power to slow down enough to match the speed of the wave. Larger wings sometimes generate too much lift, causing you to easily over- foil, so we designed our Spirit Surf wing to have the ideal balance between lift, maneuverability and stability. It generates lift quickly, has greater stability than the carve wing, doesn’t accelerate too powerfully and is still very easy to maneuver for its size and gives you plenty of time to switch your feet during transitions. You can use it to simply ride a smaller kite in flat water, use it for kite foiling in waves or even as a cross-over for surf foiling without a kite. HOWDO I FIND THE RIGHT FOIL FOR ME? STEP 1 CHOOSE YOUR STYLE PERFORMANCE Spirit GT This is our high-aspect wing with a thinner profile and less drag for higher speeds. It lifts slightly later, which gives it a better top-end and plenty of speed and becomes more stable and predictable the faster you go. It’s perfect for free-racers who want to test their limits and aren’t afraid of speeds of up to 30 knots. HIGH PERFORMANCE Daytona Competitive riders and experienced foil riders seeking the ultimate kick at speeds of 40 knots will find the Daytona is a high performance foil with exceptional stability that can rival other manufacturers’ racing foils. Extensive testing has proven the Daytona to be exceptionally stable and secure at high speeds with a mast profile that does not generate turbulence even at top speeds or at high angle of attack. FREERIDE Spirit Carve The most versatile wing in the range, with everything you could want from a freeride foil. It’s incredibly intuitive to ride, exceptionally stable, very easy to control and has decent top-end speed. In a nutshell: this is our bestselling crossover wing, which appeals to most customers because it covers the widest range of use. If ‘one for all’ is what you’re after, this is the ideal choice. Skilled kiters can also use it to learn how to kite foil. We put a lot of time into testing before settling on this wing geometry with its exceptional functionality. STEP2 WHAT IS YOUR WEIGHT? For 2020, within each range – Freeride, Surf or Performance – we offer different wing sizes (the number always indicates the size of the front wing). This is new. It’s the only way to guarantee that different weight categories will get identical handling characteristics. Lightweight riders cannot attain top speeds with a large wing because they need to exert lots of forward pressure to counteract the lift. Heavier riders need greater lift and automatically exert greater force on the wing. STEP3 SWAP YOUR FRONT WING DEPENDING ON THE CONDITIONS Foils in flat water spots will function differently than foils in choppy /wavy conditions. Calm waters with winds of 15–20 knots for speed rides in flat water call for the Spirit GT wing. Small waves for easy maneuvering in choppy /wavy conditions are better tackled with the Spirit Surf wing. The design of our foil platform is identical – mast, fuselage and back wing. This means that all our foils can be adapted for different applications by simply changing the front wings. Swapping the front wing within a range makes no sense as the rider’s weight should determine the size of the wing here. But if you use the Spirit GT wing for speed at your local lake for example, it’s easy to swap this for a Spirit Surf to handle wavier conditions on holiday. duotonesports.com/kiteboarding/foils/ Photos Toby Bromwich, Robin Christol T E C H N O L O G Y 88 89 T E C H N O L O G Y K I T E F O I L I N G