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THE AIRUSH FACTOR
Now we hope we could never be called
biased, but we do know that Airush put
a helluva lot of work into developing
the world of light wind riding. Although
set up now in the windy city of Cape
Town, their financial centre is Thailand
and all of the design team have spent a
lot of time over there... where the wind
is very light.
We've had conversations with MD and
board designer Clinton Filen about how so
much of the world regularly gets 8 knots of
wind. Not 10 – 12... but eight. And steady.
Well, Airush really believe that there is a lot of
credible fun to be had in those conditions and
new markets will open up.
In the past they've been credited with
playing the biggest hand in the widebody
development – wide, floaty freeride boards,
such as the Sectors, that plane in very light
winds but are also easy to use. There's
none of that gnarly aggression that you get
from raceboards that try to throw you off
every five minutes.
They have taken that a step further this
year and combined that building experience
with their knowledge of surfboards as well as
a little extra pinch of excitement in the Slayer,
a flat water freestyle machine.
All this is nicely finished off with the
addition of the Lithium Zero strut kite. Airush
were the first to push the development of a
one strut kite... with the One... and found
definite benefits in the ease of use in light
winds as well as the grunty creation of power
that that particularly, beefy shape of foil and
leading edge produced, even if it hasn't been
the perfect taste for everyone... but whatever
the case, we're always very intrigued as to
what's coming next from the Airush lab.
LITHIUM ZERO 18M
If someone said to you last year that you'd be
riding around on a big kite with no struts
you'd have said, 'No way Jose!'.
At just 3.4 kilos the 18m Zero is
comparable in weight to a regular ten metre
kite. Any unnecessary material and drag has
been reduced and the Zero boasts a crazy
power-to-weight ratio.
The idea behind the Zero is that it
doesn't luff up. If you've done much kite
flying in light winds you'll know that you
often end up engaged in a delicate dance
trying to get some tension in the lines and
stop the kite flying over your head or over
sheeting and dropping back.
The Zero never overflies because if it
gets too far forward in the window it starts
to flutter and drop back, holding a nice
stable, relaxed position in the window.
And it works incredibly well. Combine that
with the big Sector and all you need is for
someone on the beach to have had a few too
many baked beans at lunch and you're
powered. And we don't just mean moving
slowly; you're moving quickly and making
rapid progress upwind. In over eight knots
it's time to put the Zero away if you're using
it with the big Sector. You're done. Literally.
You can get away with a bit more on a twintip, but in 4 – 7 knots on a surfboard and
trying some strapless tricks you're literally
living the dream with the kite just sitting there
in complete obedience.
It sounds bizarre talking about these wind
speeds and being powered, but in over eight
knots we were struggling and wanted to
lengthen the back lines by four inches or so
to regain that dynamic, controlled body
position and further destroy the morality of
the windsurfers using their nine metre rigs
on SUP boards.
The Zero makes sense aerodynamically –
and even flutters less than lots of kites with
struts. Plus there's nothing about the kite that
makes you think it won't last. It's well made
and as it's a light wind kite will never get
battered by strong winds. The steering is
nothing like a 16 metre of old, it's smooth,
light and feels just right.
This isn't a kite for everyone because you
do have to be of a certain level of experience.
Inexperienced riders will stick it in the water
at some point. The unique wing-tips found on
the Zero allow more of the canopy tips to be
shown to the wind, assisting in the light wind
relaunching, plus the high sweep of the
canopy reduces the contact of leading edge
to the water. Remember you'll be launching
in very light winds though, so there's always
going to be a bit of an experienced knack to
it. However, if you do get it on its back, with
lots of canopy and no struts it tends to turn
into a little fish farm. The good news is the
leading edge will form a boat and you can
float your way home.
This and the Sector in six knots are a
match made in heaven and we heard
ourselves telling people that we couldn't
believe that we were actually going really fast
in six knots. They must have thought we were
talking cobblers.
SIZE: 18m
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