Colleen Carroll, welcome to the team!
After a long search in the US, we finally found a proper hard riding wakestyle girl – welcome to the team Colleen Carroll! Let’s hear how she feels about her new opportunity!
“I am incredibly happy to be joining the North Kiteboarding International Team! Couldn't be better than to be a part of the industry-leading brand who stands for the highest quality, innovation, and support. I'm so proud to be representing North Kiteboarding by pushing my personal limits in kiting while putting the gear to the test and spreading my stoke for the sport throughout my travels. The new 2013 Vegas and the Gambler board is the perfect combination for me to keep progressing with my wake style kiting. Equipped with the right tools, I've got big plans in the works for 2013! Thank you NKB!"
Born and raised in Washington State I have always had an affinity for the outdoors. Drawn to sports that put a board under my feet and allow me to explore my natural surroundings, my passion for kiteboarding continues to grow with each session. Having kited for about 6 years, only casually at first, I have now let kiteboarding guide my yearly travels entirely. Based out of Hood River, Oregon, I tend to spend most of my time at beaches across North America however, am always eager to venture to new places beyond my current scope in search of flat water, waves, or sliders.”
Vegas Development
By Ralf Grösel
The testing and fine-tuning started with the small sizes, from 6 to 10m. Even with just those sizes we made some major changes, I’d even go so far as to say a small Revolution! The 6, 7, 8 and 9m sizes are the best kite designs I have ever built so far. The very first prototypes for this design were already being tested in South Africa back in 2011!! They had been based on the 2011 model but with a different panel layout and alternative profiles. At the end of the development of the Vegas 2012, I knew this system had been developed to its limits – time for a change. So I started to invent a new Vegas platform parallel to the existing shapes, not wanting to mess anything up, the Vegas is such a great kite, but I was looking for that extra element. As it often happens in life, after many prototypes and designs on the computer, the final piece of the puzzle came from a direction I first didn’t think of, it happened during the final phase of the Neo 2012 development. This means, the Vegas 2013 is based more on the Neo design than on the last Vegas design! It might sound strange and may lead to you thinking the Neo was developed for three struts, which it definitely wasn’t at all. The reason is all the new elementary knowledge about steering-input, the stiffness of structures and new Tip-Layouts of three strut kites! But don’t you worry, the Vegas is still a pure Vegas. Just the new results made me rethink some common physics in kite design and made me able to design the best Vegas ever. I’d even say, the best high depower C-kite ever…
What’s new
CHANGES FROM 2012
-More profile in between centre and quarter strut.
-Bigger profile creating bigger pop.
-Shortened tips.
-No tip battens.
-Open radius, even more Cshape.
-Edges in the tips.
-Closing Trailing Edge diameter for more pop and hangtime.
-Changed front pigtails for more variety between Freestyle and Wakestyle.
What’s the result, how does it fly?
FREESTYLE SETTING
-Harmonic, light and very sensitive, progressive increasing sheeting forces.
-Soft steering forces with the best bar feedback in the North Kiteboarding range.
-Massive depower on a short depower stroke.
-Easy hooked in performance with incredible jumping abilities.
-Fantastic control during kiteloops.
WAKESTYLE SETTING
-Significantly more pop during unhooked moves.
-Much longer power delay moment during unhooked moves (the moment during the move when the kite is nearly pressure less and gives time to complete complex moves).
-Plenty of pop, even during light winds.
-Catches the rider quickly and easily after radical kiteloops.
Designers Tip
-Kites under 10m should always been flown with longest 22m lines.
-Wakestylers should use the inner setting of the bar connection.
-The kite remains much more predictable during the hardest tricks.
-The power delay is recognizable, but not felt as slow, but predictable and constant.
The Vegas never had any performance problems. So what does it take to make it better? It ’s thebalance between the ultimate bar feedback and using that to get the best performance out of the kite. The Vegas 2013 communicates in a very special way with the rider, which has never been there before. Even riders used to other brands recognize in the first few moments the potential and fun the Vegas has to offer. Even without being the best rider on the planet.