Anything that operates at the top of its game takes time to develop. Duotone’s Dice has been a global success since day one, bridging the gap between the Vegas and the Evo. The sport has evolved and now, the extreme, Red Bull King of the Air competition in Cape Town, South Africa, is the only crown the world’s best are chasing.
Every athlete has a career trajectory that requires navigating several barriers and facilitators of performance, so too does designing a kite fit for the job. The concept of the Dice has always been for more experienced multi-disciplinary riders, edging towards the extreme.
However, already in 2019, riders like Lasse Walker and Aaron Hadlow couldn’t find exactly what they needed for mega loops and consistency when riding in 40knts plus, which kicked off the process to completely redesign the Dice.
The 2020 Dice made huge steps and became Duotone’s extreme focused kite with a commercial following and put to the extreme and in the hands of experienced riders and World Champions, the improvements were massive.
There’s no such thing as minor design changes when working on such a high-performance kite, so the 2021 Dice remains and Ralf Grösel is here to tells us all about his boundary breaking design.
The 2021 Dice competes on the elite stage in both the freestyle world tour and the King of the Air. Duotone’s redesign in 2020 reimagined the Dice as the legitimate example of extreme versatility. Such progress has had an incredible impact on the 2021 Duotone product portfolio, with clear separation between the models.
The Evo; all-round high performance, and the Vegas; younger generation pushing a niche discipline of the sport, and the Dice; agile, reactive, huge jumps, powerful loops, unhooked riding.
Can you breakdown the purpose of the main modules that make the final product?
The reduction in weight improves flying characteristics. The bridle reconfiguration and pully-less design offers precise feedback.
New materials play a huge part for 2021. Lighter in weight, its construction and processing, provides the ability for a much more solid frame construction. The combination of the two makes the Dice more responsive, super stable in gusty or high wind conditions and consistency through the wind range.