Bulldog wrote:My Rallies attracted some attention in Maui, several N---h (local brand) kiters approached me with questions about them when I was able to get out and ride while they were stuck on the beach.
One had told me it wasn't windy enough to launch, another had said he could barely stay upwind on his 14M Park. I was on my 10. :P )
Didn't see any Switch kites in MauiI .
Hey cool! The same thing happened to me here when I was out on my charger! There are a ton of Slingshot guys here and they all were asking me about Naish when I came in and was the only one who was able to ride the lightwind. Slingshot kites must be more powerful than Naish in Hawai'i and in South Florida it must be vice versa
Tomer I think the fact that Switch does not wholesale drives the price down (because the consumer is paying wholesale price or better)--with that you obviously would have no dealer support being an owner of the kite. They might also not perform well because they don't have patented technologies like Sigma, Split-Strut Construction, or the performance of a C-Kite with the depower level of an SLE.
Kirk I am very interested in the Switch bar as well--I like having independently accessible leader lines for low-wind relaunch and for self-lands (we've discussed that before). Not to mention being able to afford 2 bars per season (at their killer 250 buck pricepoint) and refreshing my bar mid-season would be great as far as safety goes. As long as their gear has on par reliability it will allow frequent riders to keep their stuff fresh (because you can buy 2 vs. 1). I rode 4-5 days / week March - October last year and I can put mileage on gear fast. If I can get twice the gear for the same pricepoint that is a game changer from a safety perspective for the kite industry. The only thing their model is missing in my opinion is a gear recycle program (to encourage people to continually be on fresh gear and turning in their old). If they had that in place they would entirely transform the safety of the kite industry
Rob has a killer set of Switch Combats--any input Rob?
