Takoon Chrono 2011

As some of you may know the new Takoon chrono 2011 is now available from S2AS. Both me and pete have taken delivery of 15m. So i'm looking forward to getting out on the water with it. Also I have the 10m demo kite at the minute and am sending it on to richard after Ive had a couple more sessions on it. So if anyone else wants a demo give Angelo a call at S2AS.


There is some nice updates on the new 2011 kite and bar. There's a new moulded one pump system, extra reinforcements on the kite, New one-piece bar grip and new cousins SKeletor line set which look top quality.

Heres my thoughts after my first session on the 10:


flew the 10m chrono 2011 today in 18-28knts , 4-6ft swell.

Went out first on my 133 twin tip, and the first thing I noticed was how far forward in the window the kite sits. The kite absolutely flies up-wind more so than the furia LTD which I thought had excellent upwind ability but the chrono is in a different league. When jumping the kite is really floaty which is great if your into your old school riding. The bar pressure is slightly heavier than the furia LTD which is pretty light. I had the turning set on the middle setting and found it nice and responsive .Didn't have chance to check out what it was like un-hooked as I was desperate to get on the surfboard as the waves where sweet. id imagine it wont excel un-hooked as thats not what its designed for and it sits too far forward but ill wait untill ive tried it first as I might be surprised.

I then spent the rest of my session on my burning 6'2" strapless. I was well powered on the 10 by this time and should have probably been on something smaller. The chrono felt fine in the waves turned ok but could have done with it on the faster setting. The thing that supprised me is how responsive the turning is even when the kite is depowered. 

ill write a bit more once I have had a few more sessions on it but up to now its shaping up to be a really nice kite if you want to do a bit of everything from old-shool freestyle to waves.

BKSA Round 4: Ayr

When I arrived at Ayr just before dusk on Thursday, there was a good amount of wind and one kite was out on the water. The wind blew all night long, and we were all looking forward to a good competition the next day.

When Friday came, the wind was still blowing strong and I was eager to get out on the water, so pumped up the 2011 Chrono2 which I had on demo, and was first out on the water. An excellent kite which builds on the success of its predecessor - I'll leave a full review for another time though.
By mid morning the pro's had hit the water and were a real spectacle to watch in the 20-25 knot conditions. The competitions were all wrapped up by early afternoon, leaving plenty of time for free-riding for the rest of the day.

The winds were somewhat lighter on Saturday, so opted to compete with my trusty 15m Chrono, which gave me a real power advantage over the others. I won my heat with a clear margin with a railey to blind, big grabbed frontloop, tantrum, big s-bend and a switch pop to blind which put me straight through to the final against two of the locals.
The final started well, pulled a big railey, a tantrum and a backroll transition, but crashed out on a railey to blind and my kite was unrecoverable. This gave me a 3rd position podium placing, ahead of the current championship leader (Marcus Hawkins) who came 4th, putting me in 3rd place overall. This leaves it all open for the final event in Blackpool in a months time.

Saturday night was party time, and we all hit Cactus Jak's which soon turned into a crazy evening with most of us showing our competitive side on the Bucking Bronco. Nicky Rudd Schooled us all with a 120 second ride and scored a bottle of bubbly for her efforts!
Sunday was more sedate, we were all feeling the effects of the night before, and the wind was pretty light also. The landboarders put on a good show, but there wasn't enough wind for a best trick competition on the water. After the prizegiving ceremony we all packed up and made our way home after a truely epic weekend.

Video is available now here : http://www.vimeo.com/15167854

Jo Wilson coaching session

Last weekend, I happened to spot Jo Wilson on our shores, who was up here to do some coaching of another local rider. I took the opportunity to get a bit of 1 on 1 tuition to spot any mistakes I was making and help with backs to blind.

I was pretty tired and my hands were shredded after 4 days on the water, but got a lot from the session, even though I didn't quite land the elusive Back2Blind.

If you need some motivation to push yourself on the water, check out Jo's website here: http://www.jowilsoncoaching.com/ - I'm sure you'll have a good experience!

A video containing some of my best wipeouts can be found here http://vimeo.com/14974053 (Thanks to Jo for the recording :)