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CrazyFly 2012

A family owned company based out of Slovakia, Crazyfly has been producing full carbon boards for the past 10 years. Based on their years of experience and testing, they firmly believe that if you want the highest performance board, carbon is irreplaceable. The company added kites to its products in 2010. Tech rep Brent Reagan from PKS Distribution answered our questions about Crazyfly’s 2012 line up.

Crazyfly made only kiteboards for 10 solid years before bringing in kites to its product line. What was the catalyst that made the company decide to get into kite design in 2010?

Crazyfly brought out their first LEI kite in 2010, but stepped it up in 2011 with three models. They got into kite design and wanted to make a line of kites around 2008 when their board lineup was drastically expanded after collaborating with Jeff Howard, the owner of North America’s Crazyfly distribution and a long-time kite product designer. With the recession starting at that time it wasn’t a good time to bring a new kite on the market anyway, so they spent the next couple of years on R&D. The bottom line is they are a family-owned company that only builds kiteboarding equipment and it was inevitable for them to make kites. Now in their third year of kites, all the finer details and kinks of the early models have been ironed out. I guess if there was a single catalyst for timing it would have been the economy stabilizing a bit, but it’s been in their minds for some time.

Photo courtesy CrazyFly

Please describe the target rider for each of your 2012 kites.

The MooWii is a super stable low-aspect 3-strut 4-line bow kite with great low end grunt that is targeted to beginners for its ease of control and big range and also to schools for its stability, predictability, user-friendliness, firmer bar pressure, and slower turning speeds.

The Sculp is a medium-aspect 3-strut 4-line flat delta hybrid that combines the flatter nose of a bow kite with sharp delta tips for ridiculously easy relaunch, smooth turning and power, long lofty jumps, and great stability in a kite with great wind range and depower. The Sculp is a beginner friendly kite, but more geared toward intermediate riders and even advanced freeriders with its big jumping and good unhooked capabilities.

The Slash is a high-aspect 5-5trut 5-line depowerable C-kite hybrid with a smooth steep C-shaped curve in the LE and a lack of bridling. The Slash goes into hybrid classification with its delta-shaped tips, tons of depower, and standard 5-line setup. For intermediate to advanced riders, it is a freestyle-targeted (though works for wakestyle and advanced freeride too) faster, more-powered-turning kite with great unhooked riding, yet relaunches easily and excels in high-powered conditions.

What are the biggest changes that previous riders will notice?

Want More? Get the rest plus info on 2012 gear from 18 more brands in the TKB 2012 Buyer’s Guide.

Choose your version of the 2012 Buyer’s Guide below. You can get a .pdf file for you to view on the device of your choice or you can also download the Buyer’s Guide directly to your mobile device through The Kiteboarder App.