Cabrinha 2015 Launch – Kites

Cabrinha 2015 is looking good!

The new 2015 range from Cabrinha is going to be available in the shops next week and we were down in Poole, UK a few days ago to check out the range in the flesh. There are a few new developments and a couple of new kites too, admittedly one of those is a trainer kite, but looked exciting all the same… Here is a run down of the kites with a few images to get you in the mood for the 2015 season!

All the kites have some common features:

Skeletal Frame Technology – Ensures a solid construction of the kite and makes it more durable
2DR – A double ripstop material using nano technology to ensure the best materials and total coatings of the resins are achieved.
Dynamic Arc – Allows the kite to gain power in lighter winds and helps the kite to relaunch when it is on the water!
Sprint Inflation – Just attached the tube from your pump, the valve is already in place to make things easy!
Power Control Settings – Tweak the depower and bar pressure and tune your kite to fly exactly how you want it too!
Modern Craftsmanship – There are just two people in the factory who are qualified to stitch the leading edge seam with over 30 years of sewing experience between them! This ensures the kite will withstand the heaviest of impacts and not blow out.
Owner Manufacturer – Cabrinha own their own factory where they make the kites, this means they can fix issues with production very quickly, last year the warranty rate was the lowest ever.

2DR Ripstop is more durable and more resistant to sun damage…

The Kites:

Switchblade – 10 Years On!

2015 Switchblade

The Switchblade is a 5 strut, hybrid design and is the bread and butter kite in the Cabrinha range. It can do anything from freestyle to waves with freeride and wakestyle in between. It’s the most popular kite in the range and makes up 55% of sales worldwide! It’s rock solid in the air with 5 struts and a huge top end.

For 2015 Cabrinha have refined the bridle which improves stability and agility, kite is also less sensitive to changes of angles of attack, making it easier to fly. There is a new leading edge/strut connection, which enables the bladder to fit better and reduces stress in the bladders increasing durability. Rounded leading edge closures, enables the bladders to fill the wing tips easily and an extra, 2-ply bladder material is used on the ends of the leading edge bladder to help prevent rupturing. A refined panel orientation method has been used featuring their new “absolute mirror” construction to ensure the kite flies straight and true to the design. In this method Cabrinha cut the opposite panels from the same pieces of cloth so the material is more consistent.

The Switchblade offers fast, smooth turns during loops, precise handling, light bar pressure and high performance. Last year the kite went a little too high performance and the designers wanted to get the Switchblade back to it’s roots of being easier to ride, super powerful and predictable with light, easy steering. The kite now climbs back up the window faster, responds immediately to rider input, and is the continued evolution of a hugely popular kite. The profile works through a wide range of angles of attack making it very forgiving. It’s perfect for park and ride, has lots of power, and is very much sheet and go. Great for a little bit of everything, unhooked, waves, great on foil boards, the Switchblade used to be used by a lot of guys for racing but it isn’t registered as a race kite.

The tenth generation of Switchblade!

Radar – New Kite

The new 3-Strut Radar

The Radar is a 3 strut kite aimed at the entry level/intermediate market. Cabrinha wanted to have an affordable kite in their range and as such the Radar is offered at a lower price with a simpler control system to ensure those on a budget can still get on the water. It’s a hybrid kite hybrid that is faster to turn than the Switchblade with less bar pressure. It has a really good bottom end and has a really big sweet spot in the middle of its range, but it hasn’t got the same top end of the Switchblade. There is a big leading edge sweep giving it an almost delta design which offers really easy relaunch, the low aspect ratio makes it easy to fly and very forgiving. The Radar is lightweight and offers a small compact package with good drift and a long depower throw.

Although the Radar is lower in price than the other kites, it is still packed with tech!

Contra – Light Wind Performance and Fun

Lightwind – Ultimate Power!

The Contra is a light wind freeride kite designed to be great for boosting big jumps and the first kite on the water at the beach. It’s a hybrid kite and there is a new size for 2015, a 13m plus the 15 and a 17m from the previous year. For the size of kite the 13m is amazingly powerful, offering the best power to size ratio in the range. The Contra has 3 struts to make it light and powerful, it is definitely not just for racing but designed for fun on a twin tip with lots if high performance for freeriders. Plan form is simple, but for a reason, wide spacing between the struts offers more power, in addition the bigger stiffer struts can make a kite stiff, so by spacing them wide you can still get plenty of twist into the canopy making the Contra very manoeuvrable. Great fun kite in light winds, when everyone else is on the beach you can be on the water ripping…

The new wing tip leading edge design is a feature on all kites and incorporates a tougher bladder end to avoid rupturing.

Chaos – Freestyle Machine

2015 Chaos

The Chaos is a high end C-Style kite with a small bridle it has been designed for the freestyle and wakestyle riders and is a high aspect, fast kite with excellent “slack line” capabilities. This means that when you pop for a trick the kite will fly forwards in the window and offer a period of slack lines allowing you to do your handle passes. It is offered in the “Wildcard” colour way, which includes 15 different options of material colours. The Chaos has a consistent pull for mega loops and is great at climbing back up the window for cushioning your landing. Designed to feel as close as possible to a C kite without losing any depower or wind range. There is a linear twist through the entire kite body when you steer the kite. This linear twist helps to make it rotate quickly through the window. It has a light bar pressure, but is still responsive. The Chaos has been engineered from the ground up for unhooked tricks.

The Chaos is a high aspect C style kite.

Drifter – Surf Kite

The ultimate in wave performance.

The Drifter is a the biggest selling dedicated surf kite in the world, it’s a hybrid kite that is designed to be super fast, exceedingly responsive and of course have good drift for the waves. It has a light bar pressure, and excellent slack line ability, which means it can hang in the window while you ride down the line, even if the lines are slack. It is really fast to climb back up the window when you engage the power again and can be ridded as a turn and ride wave kite and as a park and drift machine. It’s quite simply an awesome kite to ride in the waves and is built to take a beating too!

New leading edge strut connections are a feature on all the kites for 2015.

Velocity – Race Kite

The Velocity is a race registered bow kite, the only bow kite in the range. It has the biggest wind range in the entire Cabrinha range and has maximum depower too. It is super efficient with a very high aspect ratio and a flat arc profile, the profile has been tuned for 2015 to offer the maximum power possible from each size. Originally the kite was evolved last year from the popular Crossbow, this year it has been refined even more to help it win races. It holds the current PKRA Slalom World Title and is used by the Cabrinha race team. It can be flown with the standard freeride bar or the Velocity race bar, which is simpler and more dedicated to racing!

Sizes: 7,9,10,11,13,14,16, 18m

Genesis – Trainer Kite

The Genesis is an inflatable training kite, with no struts! Designed to be indestructible and very easy to relaunch it is intuitive and easy to fly and perfect for people who want to learn to fly a kite.

Available in just one size, 2.0m