Wind Pfff there is wind coming this way

eta for full range with mini 5th bar?

More on the Razor:
Now have 3 or so sessions on this kite…and I am still super stoked.

1. Low End = Ridiculous.  2 of my sessions were in conditions I would not normally have ridden in, with light 14-15 knot winds.  10m got me up and staying upwind.  Power felt very immediate and more grunty than Rise.

2. Upwind = No Probablo.  The kite definitely sits deeper in the window and I was concerned that this would mean less upwind ability.  Staying and going up wind is no problem…I haven’t ridden it back to back with my 10m Rise but if it’s not equal in terms of upwind ability (esp in light winds) then it is close.

3. Turning = Fast and Powerful.  Turning is fast.  Not super fast like cut all your bars down to 30 cm.  But fast.  Faster than the Rise by a just a bit in my opinion - the Rise was a fast turning kite mind you.  What is nice is that the kite really generates a lot of power i the turn, even from deep in the window.  This was noticeably better from the Rise. 

4. Loops = Very Fast and Powerful.  Loops are really nice!  In the air and on the water - they have noticeably more pull than the Rise.  I loved looping the Rise, the 2010 was killer in loops, fast and climbed nicely back to the top of the window to catch you before landing.  You just had to have a fair amount of wind to really get a hard yank out of the Rise.  With the Razor you really get that pull with a lot less wind.  Very Nice.

5. Jumps =  No Downside here.  The Razor jumps really well.  The Rise was a booster - ripped you off water and kept you there.  Haven’t been able to really test the Razor fully lit but I was pleased with the lift and the hang time.  Totally stable in the air.  Think with the right amount of wind you could really score some serious altitude.

6. Relaunch = Ridiculously good.  Crashed it once on purpose and once accidently.  Before I could even hook back in (on the accidental crash) it was at the edge of window and nearly in the air If you struggle to relaunch, this is your kite.

7. Unhooked = Very Stable.  Initially I had some back stall but checked my flying line lengths and the front lines has stretched by almost 6 inches - trimmed the lines to be equal and the kite unhooks with zero back stall.  It also gives predictable power when unhooking.  With a straight SLE when unhooking I felt like I didn’t really know how much power I was going to get - a simple railey could turn into a 20 foot jump.  Not so with the Razor - very consistent power unhooked. 

8. Range = So far so good.  Low end is there, nuff said.  At 195 lb (88 kgs) am planning on a 10 as my big kite.  Rode with gusts up to 20 and never felt like it was out of control.  If you are one of those people who rides a 12m from 12 to 30 knots you will likely notice less range/high end.  However if you ride kites in their sweet spot you and rig down appropriately I think you not even notice a difference in the high end. 

Over all this is killer kite.  Areas I think the areas it has a real advantage over the Rise are low end “grunty-ness”, power throughout the turns/loops and unhooked.  I love both kites and will have both in my quiver for now. 

Feel free to PM me with questions.

And 9. Hi-end = ?? (Razor vs Rise)

Sounds like my 11M RISE will be replaced with a 10M RAZOR !!!

Will have to leave the high end question to others who have been lucky to get more wind than we have had here.

That being said, it will have less high end than the Rise.  And there is not the same amount massive de-power just by sheeting out as there is with the Rise (I got used to this in all of about 5 seconds).  But I think the sweet spot for these kites will be sufficiently broad that if you select the right kite for the conditions you will have no problems whatsoever. 

I almost always rig the smallest kite I can get away with, so take anything I say about high end with grain of salt.

I should also say the transition from Rise to Razor was pretty seamless - it will feel similar enough to be easy and different enough to be pleased.

I totally agree with these observations on the 10m Razor.
The Rise can sort of make you lazy when it comes to controlling the kite with your board,
it depowers so smoothly to whatever you feel like handling.
Flying a kite that forces you to edge hard to depower definately puts more energy into the session,
and having that sort of traction orginate from a rider friendly SLE with less square meters in the sky is an interesting dynamic
that I’ve never quite experienced before…the Razor has got me totally stoked!

OK that’s the Razor, whats new on the Rise 2011 ?

Finally got a chance to ride my new 10m Razor. Love the way i looks and feels.
After reading the reviews and posts, i couldn’t wait to try one.
Been riding Rises for about 3 years now and enjoyed the improvements from
year to year. The Razors is a whole new level in performance!
It’s increased speed and smooth, steady pull makes it super fun in the waves!
I found the increased bar pressure provides more feedback for freestyle moves.
The Razor instantly improved my kiting…Thanks OR!

Jdemarco - 26 October 2010 06:36 PM

The Razor instantly improved my kiting…Thanks OR!

You make us blush!

Ha, I agree though the kite is a beautiful kite. I am very excited to get large amounts of them out to market - people will be shocked.

To answer Brent’s question, we will have full availability of all sizes and both bar styles by the beginning of the 2nd week of November, around the 8th.

If I could shamelessly ask those of you who have tried the kite - please, take it to the forums and help raise awareness of this kite to the rest of the (currently) non OR world! - your help in hyping the 2011 gear on your local forums as well as KiteForum will be most appreciated!

John Z

Feels good to have this kite back after a couple of weeks of missing it.
I really like the Rises, but a quiver of razors gets more tempting all the time after reading something like this.

(Review by TUNA)
After spending a weekend with Craigs 10 Razor I got a few session on it. As claimed above the kite does have better low end than the Rise, and meter for meter delivers more power. However, I like to ride short lines. My go to bar has 19m 800# lines and this greatly reduced the low end (will for any kite). Later in a seesion I got to experience the hig end range and it seemed to be appropraite for the size. Also, I will add that the kites turning response did not decrease at the same rate as you depower the kite (meaning the kite still turns well when depowered).

This 10m Razor turns FAST, and nearly as fast as my 8m Rise.

When I missed the timming on redirecting the kite after boosting and the lines went slack, the Razon drifted back into the window very nicely. This is a great feature when riding in the waves.

The Razor does not have a center strut, and I like it. I bet this contributes to the kite turning faster. Also without a center strut the kite is a lot lees likely to drag on the ground while you are carrying it in hand upside down (these little things make a difference, nice). Also this kite pack up quickly and I feel this is due to the 4 strut configuration.

Now lets talk about backstall… In my flights I noticed less tendenancy to back stall (than my Rises), but I would not say the problem has been eliminated. Another kite I recenttly tried out absolutly would not backstall, however I felt that kite did not provide the power it should for its size. I feel a kite needs to be able to be backstalled somehow. Otherwise I think your are missing out on a little bit of power. I didn’t test the unhooking ability of this kite enough, so I don’t want to go into any more disscussion on this aspect.

The kite has a little more bar pressure than the rise which I liked, but not so much that I felt the need to ever use the stopper ball. The feel of the kite lets you know exactly where it is in the window.

The bag is great and very easy to pack the kite into. It has a very nice seperate zipper for the bar to go into (I don’t know why this isn’t more common with other kites’ bags). My older Rises had a place to attach you pump to the bag, the Razor’s bag did not… no big deal though.

There is more I could tell you about the kite, but I’m going to wrap up my ramblings. The 2011 10m Razon is an excellent kite and I would trade in all my Rises for it for sure (but I just don’t have the $$$). I think the most appropraite category for this kite would be “Freeride”, but I’d bet this kite wold be great for racing. If you are a beginner go for the Rise, if you want to ride purely wakestyle go for the Diablo (I have yet to test this kite model). I think with the creation of the Razor, Ocean Rodeo will be selling more of these than the Rise as it seems to suit a larger group of riders.

If you want to know more about any aspects of the kite and my experience/feelings on them, ask away.

One last thing, the new (I think it came out last year, new to me) control bar is super confortable, and works very well. Best bar that i have used. A++ on that one OR.

very nice!
T U N A

Tuna flying 19m lines in puget sound     (photo by Krash)

I’m hoping to get a session with the kite before its passed out to the next testosterone kite junky.
The next rider to demo the kite has been bugging me for weeks now.
He absolutely needs to demo the kite on November 8th,
which, if I remember right…thats the day he’s going to Maui for a week!
Awwwwww Man!

Craig, you’re a beauty. Where was this first posted?

Crew - please help hype the 2011 line up. Without a doubt this year’s 2011 line up of gear is the nicest collection of equipment we have ever had on offer.

2011 Rise kites - massive wind range, huge hang time
2011 Razor kites - insane boost, grunt and low end - incredible turning speed and direct pull
2011 Mako boards - smooth operator, deepest concave on the market - now with a wood core!
2011 JT Pro - 2/3 the thickness of the 2010 Zen the JT pro offers insane load and pop while handling the chop beautifully with its wood core flex. our best freestyle board yet and less expensive than last year’s Zen!
2011 5’11” Surf Series - Designed with input taken from over a year and a half of custom board builds for our Crew this board is a dream in the waves.

And that’s just the 2011 gear, we still offer the Predator Surf, the Pyro Pro (now in black and blue colour options), a ton of accessories and the Session Harness system!

John Z

Thanks for the encouragement John!
Its easy to get excited about what you guys have come up with for 2011 for sure….no hype needed!
Like the man sez “the only solution is wind”

The TUNA review was posted on PSKite, a local forum here in Seattle.
here is a link-

http://pskite.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6154

This guy is natural, he’s only been kiting for 3 years and he is already trying to killl himself with gnarley surf and mega-loop sessions.
Now get out and ride dude!

Plenty hype will follow the roll out of the complete package.

I’m ready to talk up a storm!!
Need a kite first.