Today we chat with surfboard designer SKY SOLBACH about the Duotone MONO. In the light wind division, Duotone offers the Juice D/LAB, the Juice and the Mono. Sky has been an integral part of the design and test team behind the Mono for years now. Join us and find out a little bit more about where this kite sits in the range.
What's really cool about the Mono and what I really enjoy, is where it sits in the wind window, its low aspect, it's a short and fat kite. It sits a little bit deeper in the window than the Neo and always has this really constant pull from the kite, whether you're riding on a foil in light winds or even wave riding in light wind, it's this little grunt ball kite that sits a little bit deeper in the window. Also, it has really good de-power, you would think that a kite that sits deeper in the window would just be grunty and not be able to de-power, but it actually has a lot of de-power which is great for an entry level rider. It's a great light wind kite, I think people who want to have a kite to foil in light wind and ride waves in light wind the Mono is really good for that.
It naturally doesn't perform as well on the top end like when you start getting really overpowered, because it doesn't have tip struts, it's not going to feel as clean and as smooth as a Neo which has tip struts. The Neo has been designed to have a lot of rigidity and feel really solid and strong when the Mono is definitely geared towards lighter wind riding. But for foiling and light wind cruising it's a really, really fun kite to ride. I think for the rider who's just looking for sort of a simplistic, powerful kite that you can ride in really small sizes, like a seven-meter Mono has a ton of power, it probably has as much power as maybe an eight-meter Neo. So there are definitely some benefits to that for light wind kiting, you can use a smaller kite for the same winds and it's just a really fun all around kite.
But for lighter weight riders and kids or even heavier riders riding in lighter winds, removing those tip struts is removing weight out of the kite, so you have a lighter weight kite that'll fly in lighter wind than a three strut will. So that's the benefit to just having a single centre strut. Also if you look at the bridal of the Mono, it's a little bit different from that of a Neo. To be able to support the structure it has an extra bridal leg where the tip struts traditionally would be on a three strut kite. So with this, we have been able to support the leading edge as it doesn't have the support of the additional struts. It still does have quite good structure, but it just doesn't quite have that same level of rigidity when you get really overpowered as the Neo.
