The Kiteboarder.com Reviews OR’s 2008 Rise Venturi
Posted by johnz on February 8th 2008
The Kiteboarder.com Reviews the 2008 Rise Venturi!
The Journals - Ocean Rodeo's Weekly Report
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The Kiteboarder.com Reviews the 2008 Rise Venturi!
SBC Kiteboard Magazine Reviews OR’s ‘08 Rise!
Posted by johnz on February 6th 2008
SBC Kiteboard Magazine's 2008 Ocean Rodeo Rise Review
Words by Shane Thompson, SBC Media (read the online review here)
The clever Venturi technology is yet another innovation from Ocean Rodeo that sets this company apart from the competition.
Size Tested: 8 m2, 10 m2, 12 m2
Style: Four-line SLE / Dealers: 120 / Warranty: 1 year / Price: $1,249; $1,359; $1,439 / What’s New: Venturi panel lets wind through the canopy to stop stalling and back flying
The Rise is Ocean Rodeo’s SLE kite that offers well-rounded, freestyle-oriented performance over its flatter-shaped freeride kite, the One. Easy relaunch and easy flying make the Rise ideal for intermediates and beginners.
Bar setup and safety system The four-line bar sets up in a 1:1 configuration with no pulleys. The soft EVA grip is contoured and colour coded with a stainless-steel and widened centre hole. Pre-stretched and wound, colour-coded and kook-proof flying lines come standard. The safety leash attaches to a below-the-bar integrated chicken and trim line. This trim and chicken line run through the clam cleat and up to a roller pulley at the frontline V. A non-mechanical stopper-ball system can be positioned to prevent the bar from traveling the super-long length of the trim line. The quick-release trim loop is easy to engage and can be reloaded on the water.
Key kite features The Rise is packed with OR’s robust build features and industry-leading design technology. Features include single-point inflation system, shorter convertible bridle system for tunable performance, Dacron 3-D framing for durability, and the Venturi system for a more forgiving and efficient kite.
On-water performance Ocean Rodeo has designed a kite geared toward the freestyle rider, but its tunable performance caters to a range of skill levels and conditions. With two front attachments and two rear on the wingtips, you can access different levels of bar pressure and steering speed. The more sensitive the steering, however, the more likely to cause oversheeting, back flying and stalling. Fortunately, OR designers have come up with a solution to mitigate this common SLE phenomenon. The Venturi panel, made of breathable mesh material, is located toward the canopy’s trailing edge. Air flows through this narrow pane, which reduces turbulence in gusts and hinders back flying by reconnecting the air flow through the kite. Regardless of what features improve this problem, the kite’s performance impresses us. There is fantastic low-end power, good, direct feel and awesome range. Our favourite of the three sizes is the 10 m2, which has as much low end as our old 14 m2 C kites. The 10 m2 has one of the broadest wind ranges on test and the biggest sweet spot for boosting massive air, with plenty of pop and smooth steering for unhooked riding. Beginners will appreciate the easy relaunch. The kite can also be tuned to have more stability and less-sensitive turning, more suited to beginners.
Reality check The Rise doesn’t fly backward when oversheeted, but in the most sensitive steering mode, it still stalls and requires trim-line tuning when doing powered unhooked manoeuvres.
Bottom line The Rise is suitable for almost any rider because of its great tunability features. It has loads of usable depower and safety for the beginner and tons of performance to satisfy any new-school rider. The clever Venturi technology is yet another innovation from Ocean Rodeo that sets this company apart from the competition.
‘08 Mako Carve Board Series from Ocean Rodeo
Posted by johnz on February 5th 2008
Ocean Rodeo's 2008 Mako Carve Series
Ocean Rodeo is proud to introduce the 2008 Mako Carve kiteboard series. Built with Ocean Rodeo's legendary attention to detail the 2008 Mako series is designed for durability, control and Carve!
The 2008 Mako line up is Ocean Rodeo's deepest line of heavy concave carving boards ever. Featuring 4 shapes with upto 18mm of concave the 2008 line up of Mako boards smooths choppy waters, carves up wind with ease and bites into every turn you make.
The 2008 Mako has bite!
Visit OceanRodeo.com to learn more!
available in sizes: 134x35 Freestyle, 150x34 Freeride, 150x40 Freeride Wide and 170x42 Surf Directional
Cozumel bliss
Posted by EvanStolze on February 4th 2008
A few days in now and things could not be better. It's hot, windy and the water is the clearest that I have seen anywhere.....great food, great people and the accommodation is fantastic. The Mako Wide is proving to be the board to ride and it is hard to get a hold of.....it smokes all the specialty light wind boards but still carves, jumps, and holds an edge when you are lit up - the Crew here calls it the Cadillac because it eats chop...In my opinion this is THE board for 2008!
The Rise 14m's have seen the most action - also the kite of choice...
Cheers,
Evan
Yucatan 2008!
Posted by EvanStolze on February 1st 2008
Hi All,
After a somewhat sketchy aborted take-off in Mexico City (leaving most of the passengers screaming and wondering what was going on) I made it to Cancun from La Paz. We spent the night in Playa del Carmen and then decided to vamanos asap...on to the ferry to Cozumel and to a great session on the West coast. Half a day after using every resource we could find to lug 200lbs of gear around we finally made it to the rental car office! The rest of the kiters with Aircompany arrive on the weekend so I'll add some more photos in a few days.
Cheers,
Evan
The 2008 diablo review
Posted by jeremie tronet on January 28th 2008
Hey,
I am still in Martinique where the shooting video and photos are doing really good. The wind finally came back giving us the time to do what we wanted. With Linn we are now planing on leaving the island for an incredible cruising in the grenadine islands for 10 days ! We should be going the 9 th of February.
Here is my review of the new 08 Diablo kite from Ocean Rodeo... enjoy....
The Diablo from Ocean Rodeo is one of the latest real C- kites on the market. The level of the kiters is improving more and more, some people want to get back on a real C kite to be able to perform more technical tricks like handle pass and other wakestyle tricks.
The 08 diablo is definitely the kite you need for huge kiteloops, it is easy to pop very high and do big jumps. It is a C kite with a lot of depower and super easy to relaunch.
-The build quality is bombproof like always. The kites are reinforced both on leading and trailing edge. All the seems are double stitched. It has a single inflation system for lazy kiters.
The venturi system is in place, stopping the kite from back stalling and making it possible to unhook without trimming the kite.
The 8m: -The 8m has improved a lot from last years kite (which was already a great kite!). The shape of the kite is a bit different from last year. The kite looks like it has a lower aspect ratio than the 07 kite.
-The kite has an amazing pop! This is the biggest improvement from last years kite.
It feels great for kiteloops, turning fast. It seems like the venturi system is making it come back up to zenith faster after the loop. T he kite is very easy to relaunch, with the 5th line attachment.
The 10m:
The kite has a perfect bar pressure, enough to feel the kite, but not too much to pass the bar. It is a little bit faster than the 07, but not too fast.
The vents works great, the kite can be oversheeted without flying backwards.
The low end of the 10 is much better than the 07 diablo. Yesterday I was on the 10 while my friend was trying the 14, and we both had enough power!
The kite is very stable and feels very nice when I unhook. The pop is even better than last year. This kite is perfect for wakestyle, when unhooked the pop makes it easy to pass the bar. It also has a good hangtime. Relaunching this kite is very easy.
Conclusion: This kite is INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!
The 14m: Big kites are usually slow and has a lot of bare pressure. But not this one!! It is the best 14m kite I ever tried ...
it felt like the 12m diablo 07 ! It turns very fast, has a lot of depower but in the same time a great low end. The bar pressure is very light, making it easy to do wakestyle tricks. I can perform all my handle pass trick really easily. The kite is stable and very easy to relaunch. It is also very good for kiteloops.
I am also impressed with the hang time-it is incredible! When you are tired of wakestyle this is a flying machine.
Linn Svendsen on the Diablo
Conclusion: The new venturi system introduced on tube kites by Ocean Rodeo is a really nice improvement for the performance of the kite.
Ocean Rodeo keep producing C kites and for a good reason .... Most of the people who improved with their SLE or Flat kite often want to try some new advanced tricks ...
The C kite are definitely easier kites to unhook and do wakestyle tricks . On most of the flat kites, ( which are really good kites) when you unhook you never loose the power of the kite .... while you are in the air the kite will pull a lot making the bar more difficult to pass in a handle pass for example.
On a C kite like the diablo, you pop and get a neutral power moment giving you the opportunity to realize your more difficult wakestyle tricks without any problems. The 08 diablo gained a lot on lift and pop ....
If I can give you one advice ... try it and you will make your own opinion about this amazing C freestyle kite!
Check out my personal website www.jeremietronet.com for more information.
See ya around
jeremie tronet
2008 Kite XPO Takes Flight!
Posted by johnz on January 26th 2008
Wow.
The 2008 Kite XPO kicked things off big time yesterday. With over 150 riders in the annual La Ventana Classic Island Crossing the water and beach was chaotic to say the least!
Ocean Rodeo was well represented both in the race and on the beach with 2 competitors on OR gear coming in the top 10. Sean Farley won the kiteboarder's Men's division and our Island's own Marie Leclerc won the Women's division.
Demos continue for the next 3 days. With all the brands and riders down here we expect it to be insane. We have rounded up roughly 15 riders to do a big 4 mile down winder to the demo event this morning...a perfect way to get some personal time on the water before the day's events as well as to have some help getting the gear all set up and to show up in style with all of our kites coming into the event at once!
Here are some more photos from the day....
John and Evan in La Ventana.
2008 La Ventana Kite XPO
Posted by johnz on January 24th 2008
3 straight days of solid wind has allowed for some excellent demo days thus far on our trip to La Ventana. Officially the event does not start until tomorrow so these last 3 days have been gravey. With Alaska Air sending in flights every second day there was a noticable jump in people on the beach today. Just nuts. I'd have to guess that there were over 100 kites on the water between Kirks and Baja Joes with about 30 to 40 windsurfers thrown in too.
Managed to get a lot of riders on the 08 Rise, not a negative comment yet! The 2008 Rise is a very impressive kite, we can not wait to get people to try it fresh after demo'ing other company's gear.
The island crossing is now going to be run on Saturday with a bouy race on Sunday as well as the "expression session". Official demos start tomorrow in front of Baja Joes. We will blog it all, so stay tuned!
John and Evan - La Ventana Mexico
First O8 Diablo Picture in action
Posted by jeremie tronet on January 8th 2008
Hello,
I wanted to let you know about my personal website. I had some trouble the last week. I was changing host. Now www.jeremietronet.com is online again.
The New 08 10m Diablo C kite in action in Martinique
My new sponsor Zeal optics
Caribbean ...
Hookipa, Maui Sessions
Posted by johnz on January 7th 2008
OR team rider Richard Tamplin working his new Mako Surf during a late December session at Hookipa, Maui. Richard's also been using the Mako Surf as a tow-in surf board. Pics coming soon. Pics by Jon Malberg.
