The Real Game Changer

With the industry going into a marketing overdrive this season there have been some big claims, and some massive developments going on. We chat to the designers making the magic happen and ask some of the most common questions that our readers asked on social media too.

Game Changer noun
1. Sports. An athlete, play, etc., that suddenly changes the outcome of a game or contest.
2. A person or thing that dramatically changes the course, strategy, character, etc., of something:

"Social media has been a real game-changer in the company’s marketing efforts."

Sabfoil | View in Mag

Airwave Kiteboarding | View in Mag

Unless you've been living under a rock the last couple of months, you will be acutely aware of the latest innovations from some of the biggest brands in the kite industry. Social media went into overdrive when Cabrinha launched Fireball, only to be closely followed by North and their Click Bar with both brands touting the Game Changer phrase along with their new products.

Kitesurfers are a funny bunch, and launching new products, no matter what they are, will get the full scrutiny of keyboard warriors long before they get used in real life. Some of the comments around these new launches were bordering on the vitriolic! Personally, I'm all for innovation and moving our sport forwards. Take a look at the naysayers that said suspension was cheating in the sport of mountain biking. How wrong were they?

The acid test of any of these developments is how long the product lasts within the sport. Does anyone remember the Naish UDS bar for instance? Many of us still ride the Delta Shape pioneered by F-One however, and of course, bridled kites first championed by Takoon and Cabrinha in 2005 have defined kite development. Time will be the ultimate judge on these innovations and developments.

In light of all this advancement within our sport, we decided to sit down with some of the creators and developers behind the scenes and find out a little more about the products. We also asked the questions you asked on social media and ultimately the aim of this piece is to let you decide which product you think is the real game changer for our sport at this time.

In terms of the focus of the article, every brand, every year has new technological developments, be that kite materials that brands like Core are spearheading or the plethora of new kites coming from companies such as F-One. However, to avoid just interviewing 30 odd designers about new products we chose just six brands to shine a spotlight on.

Nobile Kiteboarding | View in Mag

Core Kiteboarding | View in Mag

The first two choices were obvious, North and Cabrinha were the inspiration behind this article, and we owe the articles title to their marketing departments. Philipp Becker fielded the questions for North, while Pete Cabrinha took some time out to speak to us as well. I also chose to include Naish and chat to Damien Girardin about their Quad-Tex canopy material. A new material that makes a kite last far longer could be a real game changer for many of you, saving you money and allowing you to keep your kites for more seasons for instance.

Also, we spoke to JozefBukovcak from CrazyFly; you might not know this, but they have just built the world's first kite factory in Europe. That's the first time serial production for kitesurfing, in large numbers, has happened outside of Asia.

Could moving manufacturing closer to home be a real game changer for the industry, will other companies follow suit? Lastly, we spoke to Ocean Rodeo, the second brand to bring a rear line trim system bar to market. Richard Myerscough and the team have had their bar in development for five years, yet on social media were accused of copying North as their product was released afterwards, despite both systems looking entirely different!

Over the next 40 or so pages, you can read their responses and decide for yourself whether a new way of connecting to your kite, improved materials, rear line trim bars, or bringing manufacturing back home is the real game changer.

In reality, they could all be elements that change our sport forever, as we said at the beginning, time will tell how well these innovations get adopted. From a personal perspective, I think that moving our sport forwards is fantastic. We've reached almost "peak development" regarding kite and board shapes. However, how we connect and control our kites through our bars is a virtually unchanged format. Equally, the materials used can always be improved so we get more value for money and more performance out of our gear.

FacePlant | View in Mag

Core Kiteboarding | View in Mag

Of course, there will be the naysayers fearing change and shouting abuse on social media down the beach. If we all had that attitude though we'd still be riding Wipikia Free Airs on two-line bars, and what a terrible state of affairs that would be! Bring on the future!