What makes JN Kites different?

At a demo event recently, someone asked me ‘What makes your kites different to all the other brands?”

With the bewildering array of equipment available to the kite surf consumer at the moment, I thought this was a very valid question and I was surprised at the quantity of technical sales talk I came out with, so I thought I could include this in a series of blogs post to show it’s not just the big brands that are at the forefront when it comes to innovation. Any images of alternative brands I use are for illustrative purposes, and not aimed as criticism.

JN kites are designed principally by Micheal Nesler, who is from a successful aeronautical/paragliding design background, and also designed some key kites for big brands in the early days of kitesurfing. His concentration on aerodynamics and efficiency, coupled with some elegant and unique production methods give quantifiable performance advantages to all three kites in our range.

1. Perfectly curved leading edge segments

Fundamentals of aerodynamics state that smaller smoother surfaces improve performance. Compare a brick to a football, or a Landrover to a sports car.

If your kites’ leading edge is heavily segmented with harsh elbow joints, at each segment you have a vortex, and more drag slowing your kite down. Also at each point you have doubled up material and stitching, adding overall weight to the wing. This technique also adds stiffness to the airframe, as it distributes the load on the leading edge more evenly, rather than deforming at one point.

The reasons some other manufacturers use this less elegant method, is because straight lines are easier to model with CAD / aerodynamics software and get the approximate characteristics of the kite. It’s also much easier manufacturing wise, as calculating a 2D shape, which when inflated turns into a perfect 3D curved tube requires a lot of clever maths. All these elements equate to cost/time saving but sacrifice performance. 

We have had the leading smooth leading edge design in the Wild thing and Prima Donna Range since the PD2 and WT2 in 2007/2008. The lack of drag/turbulence and extra stiffness and lower weight of the leading edge improves:

1. The forward flying speed of the kite (and therefore board speed)

2. Stability of the wing shape at it's top wind range

3. More power generation at lower wind speeds on apparent wind

4. Better upwind flying angle

5. More dramatic generation of lift from sheeting and redirection

Int'gypt - Soma Bay the easy way

As autumn kicks in, and the days get shorter I have finally found time to do some bloggery and other general web mischief. Back in July, we decided to head off for a quick trip to Egypt with some pre production kit from JN.

We managed to find a mega cheap all inclusive deal with Thompson, which isn't very usual for us as we normally wing it completely. £531 bought us flights, food and hotel and transfers. It all seemed to good to be true. To be fair it was excellent value for money. There was slight wrangling with big luggage at check in, but nothing major (ambiguous luggage policy grey area type stuff) Other than an extra bag bought here and ten quid for an Egyptian visa, we didn't spend another penny for twelve days. Cool.

My new BFF

We stayed at the Palm Royale (formerly the Intercontinental) at Soma Bay, which is about an hour south of Hurghada. It's a big, lush and completely preposterous hotel covered in gold with a reception like a mock stately home. The scale of it is ridiculous. It's certainly not aimed at kite tourists, more sun and pool lurkers, lardy Russians etc.

Tweaking some pigtails

It was a good opportunity to get some promotional photos sorted and get a feel for the new equipment. In summary, the PD has more power per size, and new Dacron means the wingtips are stiffer giving an even more positive feel on the bar. The WT4 12m was used a lot, and we are glad it was held back for more R&D, as it's morphed into a great biggest kite for anyone up to 80kgs. Full of low end and accessible power, and snappy turning. I spent most time on this kite. The wind conditions allowed me to test everything from 6 to 14m. Sarah spent the week getting all her usual tricks dialled in boots. With her snowboard background it makes a lot of sense, and the crossover was easy.

Sylvester camera whorin'

Our travelling buddies for this trip were our good friends and neighbours Phil and Harry (11), and we were coaching/teaching Harry. The flat water paid dividends and Harry progressed to doing jumps, toeside and by the end of the week. Kids learn alarmingly fast!

Hazza (future talent alert) on the 6m PD5

It was a great trip, simple eat/sleep/kite routine with a strange lack interaction with Egyptian culture, which isn't our usual travel style. We might as well have been on the moon, just with loads of flat turquoise water and endless food.