Power Kite Forum

USA kite distributors + LEI's?

power - 17-1-2010 at 04:33 PM

Just curious why almost all of the online kite shops that I know of (angus, kent, dino, corey, don, mike, ricardo, shaun, post more if I missed any) don't carry LEI's. I know angus carries the hadlow pro and ricardo carries an LEI, but that's it. I know almost all shops carry FB and maybe some stunt kites and many carry arcs as well, but no LEIs. I noticed powerkiteshop.co.uk has tons of them, is it just a cultural thing, like a lot of guys in the UK fly LEI's? It seems to be the same with FS, no one stocks those either. At least I can understand why with FS, they're pretty expensive only a small handful of guys fly them, but LEI's seem to be very common, at least for the water, yet no one has them.

DAKITEZ - 17-1-2010 at 04:45 PM

I can't speak for the others but the reason i do not carry them is I do not ride the water (yet). I try to offer the best advice and knowledge i can on the items I sell, since i do not use these on a regular basis I can't keep up on all their constant changes. Thus I would not be that knowledgeable on the kites I am selling and thats not how I like to operate. There are plenty of places out there where people are selling things that have no idea about the product (not just kites). They are just trying to make a buck. That is not how I roll.

Things may change as I get on the water :puzzled::puzzled: That will remain to be seen.

acampbell - 17-1-2010 at 04:59 PM

I will chime in for myself. I am in fact a dealer for Best and have the credentials to pick up any line I want. Part of the reason I have not listed the LEI's is that I do not ride on the water (yet) and that is only because of a personal health issue that I am working out a way around for. I like to sell what I know and because of this other issue I have not been on LEI's much.

I will likely add more tubies to the site soon. Maybe even run a few in the bug for yuks. (Tres Scandal!!). I feel that have learned enough over the years from the guys on the beach flying LEI's that I feel comfortable answering certain basic questions, and I know that I can hand off detailed questions to the local PASA instructor, since we have always tried to help each other out.

Question is, can i fit a pump in the kitemobile?

Edit: Dino and I were typing at the same time. Good on you, bro. Talk the talk and walk the walk (or something like that)

BigMikesKites - 17-1-2010 at 06:20 PM

I've got a customer here that has a few Best kites. I do not fly them myself as I'm still land based. I use my customer for information regarding some of these kites and he is starting to lean towards the Synergy/Charger type of kite himself. He got into the Best because they were fairly cheap to obtain originally, but I've seen him blow out 3 bladders in abut 7 sessions that he brought those kites to some of my demos, so I am not yet impressed enough to carry the line of kites.

I just got a landboard, so once I learn how to get around on that, I will transfer to the water. I have a competent teacher in him and am looking forward to it. But I will probably still stick with the twinskin / neo kites. Ozone and Flexifoil both have LEI's and I do sell those brands. Nobody has asked for any of them, but I have sold Neo's and Synergy's.

You tend to fly what you are exposed to. If I had a better experience seeing his Best kites not burst bladders, then I would tend to be more interested in carrying that line. Also, if I were closer to a beach, I would be more interested in carrying that line. I'm pretty landlocked, though there is somewhat of a contingent of flyers on the lakes here in Dallas.

My advantage is he has some Best LEI's that I can try, and there are a couple guys here with Synergy's. I can pick up a Charger and then be able to make some pretty good decisions on which to fly.

power - 17-1-2010 at 06:37 PM

Now I see. I didn't realize you all were land only, if I was land only I probably wouldn't be flying them either. I always hear guys saying that LEI's are a pain because the bladders always blow. I have an 05 best nemesis and I bought it used, I've probably had about 15 sessions with it, I've never pounded it full speed into the ground, but it crashes on its LE all the time and I've never had a problem. Not to say it can't happen, but it seems to me that you would have to have a faulty bladder or just streamline it into the ground at full speed to have one blow. Plus, I'm flying on land. I can't imagine it happening on water but I know it does. End of hijack, back to the discussion.

manitoulinkiter1 - 17-1-2010 at 06:38 PM

Hey man

There are a lot of shops in the US (and Canada) that carry and sell inflatable kites.
This site has a core group that lean toward FB and foil kites, so you don't see a lot of advertising for inflatables here.
Nothing wrong with that as there are other sites that lean heavily toward inflatables.

John

DAKITEZ - 17-1-2010 at 06:56 PM

yeah its just manitoulinkiter1 said. There are plenty of shops selling inflatables and most likely if you asked those shops about a fixed bridle or twinskin they might look at you like your crazy because they have never heard of it before.

Kinda like if you want to buy a suzuki motorcycle you don't go to the honda dealer :lol:

ripsessionkites - 18-1-2010 at 02:24 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DAKITEZ

Things may change as I get on the water :puzzled::puzzled: That will remain to be seen.


before or after i buy you a pink bikini? hehehe.

im back and fourth on LEIs. When we started back in 99' we stayed land only ... as the times changed we added water stuff. we do both, but spend most of my time on land.
the LEI market is so big and its all brand perferred, so stocking a brand that people will not buy is HUGE money loss. I see most people buy based on the hugest advertising they see in a magazine or the newest gear tagged buy some great kitesurfer. hence why we carry Waiman, and Royal. i try to differ from other local shops, so we're not making a price war. there is a market for everyone, its just how you run YOUR business to make it successful.

we dont do sportkites / singles / windtoys ... we are "traction" kite store, not your local toy store. yes, i use to fly sport kites since i was 12.

jellis - 18-1-2010 at 01:59 PM

Don't sell them, don't like them.

Jon

US distributor for Libre, JoJo, and Sysnic products.

pigryder - 18-1-2010 at 02:27 PM

Quote:
Kinda like if you want to buy a suzuki motorcycle you don't go to the honda dealer :lol:




I like that Dino :smug:

Knolee - 18-1-2010 at 02:56 PM

Jellis, what are your issues with them? Do you strictly fly FB's?

syuzhak - 18-1-2010 at 03:14 PM

You listed the shops on PKF.

There are other shops.... :singing:

power - 18-1-2010 at 03:35 PM

I know there are other shops, but it seems like none of the american online distributors carry them.

awindofchange - 18-1-2010 at 03:44 PM

Kent here from A Wind Of Change. We actually "carry" some brands of LEI's: Caution, Naish, Cabrhina, & Ozone. We also have deals worked out with Ocean Rodeo, Slingshot, F-One and Air Rush as well as a couple others. Even though we have access to these brands we rarely have stock, usually one or maybe two kites of different models but only in the most popular sizes.

Why don't we advertise these kites and brands? Well, we are located in Las Vegas - middle of the Mojave desert. Even though we do have two lakes here (both man made) and there is a very small group of kite boarders that use those lakes, kite surfing is definitely NOT one of the main avenues of our business. We do have one of the best kite buggying areas in the world with many different dry lake beds to ride on within a 50 mile radius of Vegas - so that is where our main focus of our business is at - as well as what products/kites we fully stock and advertise. We do our best to only advertise the products that we have in stock so we can supply the best possible customer support with minimal delivery time. Almost every item we have listed on our website can be shipped the day it is ordered.

Although you cold use an LEI kite in the desert if you wanted to, the fact is that they don't hold up or perform nearly as good as the ram-air foils do - not to mention that you could almost get an entire quiver of fixed bridle kites for the cost of one LEI. The surface on the dry lake beds here just rips the LEI's to shreds in no time. We do advertise the Peter Lynn kites on our site and as you can see from numerous posts on this forum, the Peter Lynn not only work well on water but can work exceptionally well on land and are awesome buggy engines that hold up well in our environment.

Even though we do carry or have access to all of the brands listed above, we rarely stock any of them on a full time basis. We will bring in a couple of the most popular models and sizes in the spring months as we gear up for our (very limited) kite surfing season - but the numbers we move through our store here in the desert is nothing compared to a shop located on the coast or in an area that has a much better kite surfing local.

I was at one time a certified kite instructor and do kitesurf from time to time but my main passion in kiting is land based. Because we only have limited stock on our kite surfing kites (except for the Peter Lynn brand) we have chosen to not advertise those brands and LEI kites in general on our site. We feel that someone would be able to have a much larger selection and much better service purchasing LEI kites through a shop that mainly specializes on those brands and will be able to give proper support for when the bladders leak or get damaged or need repair or replacement parts.

The main focus of our store is just not geared towards the LEI type of kites. Nothing wrong with them, LEI's work great for what they are designed for - just not what the mainstream of our customers are looking for. If our store was located somewhere on the coast then our focus in products (and our customer base) would be very different than it is here in the desert.

syuzhak - 18-1-2010 at 05:02 PM

How about :

Live2kite.com
Kiteridersllc.com
realkiteboarding.com
flysurfer-usa.com
oceanextremesports.com

and More...

These are just the ones i've bought from.

power - 18-1-2010 at 05:14 PM

Guess you're right. If you type power kite into google, its much more common to find the sites that I listed aboce, maybe that's why I hadn't seen some of those other stores that you mentioned up until now.

thelaserman - 21-1-2010 at 07:03 PM

I am a kite instructor for boardsportsschool.com in sfbay we are a full retail shop and while our website is not setup for online orders we do take ordrs via email or phone. And can't ship withn the states. We carry north naish ozone and f-one but can order from any of the others
I have ridden almost every big name brands 2010 kites I you have any questions or want advise le me know

Maven454 - 22-1-2010 at 04:19 AM

Kitty Hawk Kites

PHREERIDER - 22-1-2010 at 06:07 AM

your are missing the marketing part .

lei's have had great marketing.

surf, cool sexy


you're kinda in the techno/geek section here, where good design dominates.

tridude - 22-1-2010 at 07:41 AM

Hi, Im Tridude and I am a "geek"..................oh well................:D:D

BeamerBob - 22-1-2010 at 08:00 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by thelaserman
I am a kite instructor for boardsportsschool.com in sfbay we are a full retail shop and while our website is not setup for online orders we do take ordrs via email or phone. And can't ship withn the states. We carry north naish ozone and f-one but can order from any of the others
I have ridden almost every big name brands 2010 kites I you have any questions or want advise le me know


Why can't you ship in the states? That must be a typo. Even I can ship in the states.:yes:

rocfighter - 22-1-2010 at 08:17 AM

Looks like a typo

thelaserman - 25-1-2010 at 09:15 AM

Sorry I was posting from my iPhone. Must have miss typed