Hi Everyone, I'm brand new to the board. I'm a recent LEI to Power foil convert and I just picked up a Quadrafoil XXXL Kitesurfer Pro from DaVinch. I'm planning on primarily using the kite on the water and on land with a mountain board, with the possibility of some snow kiting too.

First of all, can anybody explain to me the main differences between the XXXL Kitesurfer and the Competition XXXL?From what I've read everyone tends to love the Competition style much more. Why is this?

Second, I actually live in the same town as powerzone and I've been talking to him about doing a depower mod, FDS mod, and possibly opening up the intakes a bit in an effort to make it fly more like a FS Speed2. Has anybody done something like this to a quadrafoil yet and if you have what would you please share your results?

Speleopower (PKF forum member) flies Quads and can explain the differences. If Powerzone says depower is doable, rest assured he can do it! Good luck and welcome to the madness!:D

Good to see you here nwsurfwakeskate! You should have the kite in about 2 - 3 days.

I'm sure Speleo will give you the scoop on the XXXL.

Welcome to the PKF

Thanks, yeah I'm pretty damn excited to try it out. reverse relaunch is probably the thing I'm the most excited about.

Quote:

Originally posted by nwsurfwakeskate First of all, can anybody explain to me the main differences between the XXXL Kitesurfer and the Competition XXXL?From what I've read everyone tends to love the Competition style much more. Why is this? Second, I actually live in the same town as powerzone and I've been talking to him about doing a depower mod, FDS mod, and possibly opening up the intakes a bit in an effort to make it fly more like a FS Speed2. Has anybody done something like this to a quadrafoil yet and if you have what would you please share your results?

I used to fly nothing, but quadrifoil kites. I had the Q, the C & the X series kites.
That was before I swithched to other brands.
The only Quadrifoil kite I have left now, (which is for sale btw) is the XXL Kitesurfer.
I purchased the kite back in 1999 for kitesurfing, but ended up using mostly on land. (For light- wind buggying and KGB).

First of all they are both Competition X-Series. Main difference is that the Kitesurfer is closed-cell, designed specifically for water, although you can use it on land as well. The other of course is open-cell, with the idea to use it specifically on land, but somehow, quite a few have the guts to use them on water.
I will leave it to someone who had actually flown both kites on water to answer why some prefer the open-cell on water.

The Kitesurfer may take about a minute or two to inflate, but don't understimate the pull it can generate when fully inflated specially the size you have. These kites
have a lot of power.

I have used both handles and bars on my XXL. It's possible to switch from handles to a bar. However the bar set up I used was not UDS, rather a 3-line config., where power lines are attached to each end of the bar and the brake lines are joined in a "Y" attached to the center of the bar. The brake lines are pretty much useless this way, because you can no longer use it for steering. In other words, you're ALMOST flying the kite as a dual line, with the third line for reverse-launching and emergency brake. The other bar I used was the Q-Control Bar.
See link about it:
http://www.madmoosestudio.com/ks4u/products/frameset.htm
Click on Control Bars

Here's me using the kite on an outback board.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r101/elkiter/Elkiter.jpg

Welcome to the PKF Christian... now another way we can keep in touch !

i'm rubbing my hands together in anticipation of modding the XXXL .... got some new ideas i want to try !

john

Hi-Cool you got the XXXL! I hope it works out for you.

The Competition version of the XXXL is open cell versis the Kitesurfer XXXL which is closed cell with a couple velcro vents on the trailing edge. Other than that they are very similar.

I am biased toward open cell foils for 2 main reasons. 1)time to inflate bugs me, 2)time to deflate just bums me out and drives me insane. Neither of which are flight performance based. The XXXL Kitesurfer will take a bit to get inflated and will take a bit to deflate due to the small well sealed vents.

The only flight difference I've noted between the Competition version and the Kitesurfer version (XL and XXL) is the Competition version can be flown in lighter winds than the Kitesurfer versions. I'm sure this is due to the kite being a closed cell foil. Putting more or larger openings will probably lower the low end wind range some. I've always thought the openings in the Kitesurfer where to small.

The reason I prefer open cell foils on the water is when you do put it in the drink you can easily get the water out. This isn't much of a problem if your in flat water but is problematic in shore pound type surf. I had a Kitesurfer kite fill up with water one time and it was tough getting it out of the ocean with shore pound beating it and me up. With an open cell foil if you go down in the surf it's not much of a problem to pull the kite out using the trailing edge. You end up dumping the water out as you pull. Plus no matter what kite you fly if your constantly dumping it in the water you might want to go back to land and spend a bunch of time flying. I tell people if they can't fly upside down, backward with their eyes closed they shouldn't be flying on the water. Gauranteed the first big wipeout you'll be dragged through the water on your back, facing away from the kite and you'll probably have your eyes closed

A depower mod would be fun to try but I don't think it's needed on the kite plus I have found the kite flys better with handles as well. I had a Quadrifoil bar back in 1999-2000 and gave up with it. Maybe a newer style will work better???

I would give the kite a try unmodded before doing anything to it. Also, use thin brake lines and thin main lines. I prefer 300 pound mains and 50-75 pound brakes on my XXXL kites. Thick lines (600 pound mains, 300 pound brakes) make the kite slugish. A set of long Flexifoil handles will work just fine. I'm using shorter Concept Air handles right now.

Good luck and keep us informed.
Scott
p.s. here's a pic of me putting a XXL away. The wind was blocked by a line of trees so I had to land away from the beach and walk in.

mods done...

Zipper on rear skin center

open up intake valves

Depower mod

FDS safety



testing and reports and reviews to come soon

Zipper for faster inflate and deflate.

Intake valves were expanded to improve inflation and gain access to inside skin when repairing.

Very cool Powerzone! Let us know how it goes.

John you did a great job on the kite, I can't wait to see how it looks and feels in the air.

That kite has some neat history behind it. The previous owner passed away before getting to use it.

He'll be watching over you

wow thats too bad, I'm sorry to hear that.

hopefully I can honor him by getting a lot of use out of this kite

you gotta tell the rest of the story DaVinch !..... we're all curious now.

Forgot to post this afew weeks ago...

XXXL is fully modded, and working well.

Hopefully Christian will write a review of it after getting acquainted with it.

here's what we noticed:

inflation is a bit better using the Zipper to pre-inflate. kite still sits about 20feet off the ground while filling, then up to Zenith for the full inflation.

No water testing on it.... but a Flysurfer-Style-Water-Drift-Launch is not reccommended for this kite with its slower inflation. also, it seems to leak out air faster than a same size FS.

Grunt, steering and Turning are like a 10m FS Speed1 kite.

FDS works well and is handy to self-land the beast.

all in all we had fun overhauling the kite and it should continue to be fun for years to come.

Nice work J!

Good deal

The previous owner had purchased an entire quiver of the Kitesurfers. He owned a local shop and he purchased them to use with an early PL buggy/boat. Sounds like he never really got a chance to use them...