Posts written by mike
Take to The Tees – water festival on Teesside
The North East’s first ever water sports and river festival will be held this summer in Stockton-on-Tees.
Take to the Tees, will give people of all ages and abilities the chance to try the wide range of water sports available on the river, from kayaking to water-skiing. Centred around the Tees Barrage and Stockton riverside from the 22nd to the 23th August, there will also be a weekend of water sports displays, free individual lessons and a chance to enjoy various stalls and entertainment on the riverbanks.
Surfstore will be exhibiting there and at the booking marquee you can reserve free taster sessions of Windsurfing ( held at Bishopton Lake on the Sunday) or SUP tasters held at the barrage on Sunday. Limited places on first come first served basis, so make sure you get there on Saturday to book! Also available from other providers will be waterskiing, jetskiing, waterwalkers, rafting, stalls crafts and refreshments. Just bring your wetsuit if you have one , but for windsurfing and paddleboarding, we will provide them, so no worries.
Hope to see you there.
Prices starting to increase… still some special offers left.. but the next 12 months is looking expensive!
Since September 2008 there has been a huge fall in the value of Sterling on the international markets. While the Dollar and Euro remain strong the British pound’s value has plummeted on the international markets, to the point at which £100 of equipment bought into the country is now costing £145. Most importers hedge currency, buying currency ahead of time to minimise the volatility fluctuations and this helps keep the importers in business with steady trading conditions, ironing out the bumps and keeping retail prices constant. Most importers will only be able to hedge (or book currency) up to 12 months in advance, and now that they have used this all up since September they now have no choice but to pay the higher price.
Nobile enter the Delta market; the new N62.
A bit of a big one this; Nobile’s new Delta oriented kite, the N62. Delta kites are getting very popular, and for the last year Mark has been working on his own Delta project, trying to incorporate as much of the higher end handling characteristics into the easy to use platform of the Delta kite. After a lot of work, here is the result, and it’s squarely aimed at being the best handling Delta kite on the market, as it’s been tested quantitatively against them all right through it’s development.
Here is a rough guide of Delta’s issues and the N62’s answers to sort them out;
- Deltas sitting back in the window makes for less vertical jumps and poorer upwind performance.
*Efficiency has been improved, so upwind and jumping is more like the traditional hybrids.
- Turning although fast is axial, or bowlike, so the kite will turn without developing power, so it’s of no use for freestyle, or any moves where power is needed through the turn (waveriding too!).
*Turning ability has been engineered with more forward speed, so while this is certainly no NHP it is possible to do unhooked moves on whist having the kite turn. The N62 is (as all delta kites are) low aspect, and with correct foiling only in need of three struts which makes for a far lighter, more precise and athletic kite.
- The steering input and bar feedback is vague. Just like the original Bows the front lines are compromised (tow points too close together) and the resultant bar feel is wishy – washy; you can’t really tell what the kite is doing unless you are looking at it!
*Steering input is far more direct with modifications to bridling and kite shape so that the front lines have much more feel. As a result the kite feels far more reactive.
- Some of the best selling Deltas are prone to backstalling; ie, when you sheet them in hard at the back of the window they slow, stall and can even fly backwards.
*The N62 profile has been specifically engineered NOT to backstall. All Nobile kites since their launch have been very resistant to backstalll, and this technology has been further enhanced in the N62.
Tags: Bandit, Delta kite, Dos, Kitesurfing, N62, nobile
New Airush Vapor due in any day.
Airush’s new Vapor is about to land in Surfstore. For those of you who have had little experience of teh Vapor kites, it has been a sensation to the company, building one of the industries best handlin kites, with exceptional range and non aggressive but very capable flying characteristics.
For the 3rd incarnation Airush have taken thge gloves off. As part of a reviewed range to come in the next 6 months the Vapor has been raised to be as high performance as they can go with a mainstream hybrid and some of the test repors have been very impressive. Here are some of the snippits;
“A brilliant, modern freestyle kite that’s well-built, quick and direct, but the major thing to mention is the kites’ stability. It’s just so well behaved. The low end grunt is fantastic and matched at the other end by it’s top end capacity. Being able to comfortably use a 10 metre, between 15 and 30 knots is a great quality, making it a natural choice for many.”
Go to: http://www.airush.com/pdf/kwmag_airush_vapor3.pdf for the full test
Tags: 2009, Hybrid, Kitesurfing, Vapor III
Kevin Pritchard takes his production Kode to 3rd place at Cabo Verde
It’s no secret that we think a lot of the new Starboard Kode. Starboard have been missing out on the performance crossover market, but this has been thouroughly addressed in ‘09. Mike and John Mc both use this board now and say it’s sensational. The news that Mr Pritchard took a freeride wave board to 3rd place at Sal came as no surprise really.. The time has come where every day freeride wave boards are delivering hardcore performance, yet the same board will also take on your mates at flat water freeride. Well Done Matt!
Here is the full writeup from his interview with Starboard;
Tags: Crossover boards, Matt Pritchard, PWA, Starboard Kode
Kitebar bargains, surfstore has a good clearout!
It been a week of clearing the decks at Surfstore…. we’ve been having a good look at our kitebar stocks and the good news is that there are some bargains to be had! We have found quite a few used bars, from C kite bars to hybrids, in varying conditions, and we’ve set prices from £15 upwards. The most expensive of the bars are coming in at £99 and they are nearly new, so when you consider that the new linesets are now retailing at £120+ from most companies they are excellent value. Details of the used kitebars can be found here
Tags: cheap bars, cheap kite bar, hybrid bar, Kitesurfing, spares, used bar
Starboard reduce prices on selected SUP’s – a good time to buy!
We have just heard from Starboard that they are reducing selected priceson their extremely popular SUP range. In a climate of increasing import prices, this bucks the trend somewhat, so if you are in the market for an SUP this season I would suggest gettinghold of one now as the prices are set to rise steeply when the latest models come out later in the year.
The phenominon of SUP has taken the watersports world by surprise. Easy to pick up there is a lot of deapth to the sport from bigger waves to river cruising. It’s also a fantastic full body workout for all those who value core strengthening, a paddle in hand would please even the most dedicated firtness trainer.
Tags: reduced price, starboard, SUP, Surfing
2009 neilpryde test sails at discounted prices
Surfstore has managed to aquire some of the first reduce price Pryde sails from neil pryde. As such they may well be the first second hand 2009 sails to hit the market in the UK. The sails have come from magazione tests, as such theyhave seen very limited use, over a very short period of time, and in one case it has never even been on the water.
It doesn’t snow every day…….. but today it did!
It’s true, we lead a hard life up here at surfstore… Working every day to make sure you get your orders on time. Toiling hard to make certain we can get through the harsh northern winters, but the truth is that, from a climatic point of view, we don’t get a lot of snow. Certainly it’s chilly, but usually wet, so today we stared at the fresh falls of snow from the office window with surprise. By three we decided something had to be done about the matter!
Pump up that 10m 555 that’s on the second hand for sale list (nice kite actually) get the demo nobile snowkiteboard, and get a few runs in. The lower end of the lake had frozen, and although it looked tempting to do some runs across the ice, caution seemed like a better idea, even if we had managed to get a barrel of brandy around Fly, the Surfstore pooch’s neck!
Tags: nobile, snow kiteboarding, surfstore
Nobile 555 and 666 on clearance
With The new kite prices only a few months away it’s a good time to start thinking about next year. While the latest releases will be the latest technology they will also be more expensive due to the currency exchange. With that in mind we have managed to aquire some kite from Nobile that make an attractive alternative, and could well end up being around half the price of the new models.
Tags: discount, Kitesurfing, nobile 555, nobile 666, special offer
