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2019 Duotone 15 Blueberry Juice

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Created by eddiemorgs > 9 months ago, 31 Mar 2019
eddiemorgs
QLD, 390 posts
31 Mar 2019 11:19AM
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86 kgs , kiting 10 years , experienced kiter , windsurfing for eons etc , prefer surfboard ( nugget and wam ) and waves , foiling on Jshapes cruzer and freestyle foils. No jumping to speak of.
Use 12, 9 and 7 Neos . Just sold V5 Zephyr.
I use a 5 line click bar on 24m lines
Kiting in generally light tropical winds in Darwin .

I prefer a kite I can switch on and off , drift off the kite and ride the board , not ultra powered up all the time.
Neos in Darwin are a good fit for me , low end and drift plus swap between boards to suit.

But the light wind end plus the foil scenario was a problem . Zephyr too heavy and cumbersome . 12 metre Neo also a bit heavy in light air and often not quite enough grunt to start on the foil.

I read the blurbs about the new Juice which might have filled the gap. Kind of surprised the Juice came up as their preferred foiling kite , not the Mono.
Our local mob at Fun Supplies got one in the other day and offered it for demo.

Initially ... don't know the lingo but ... built very well from lighter materials , leading edge heavier and robust , canopy very light , reinforcing at trailing edge very good. Reminds us of the early Dynos.
Fittings all high quality.
When you roll it out what strikes you first how wide and narrow the thing is. It's a very different looking kite.
Is it going to turn ?
The recommended pressure is 7 psi.
Only 3 settings at the wing tip , none on the bridle or pigtails.

I have had 3 sessions now. Ranging from 8 to 14 ish kts.
First impression , linear power , mod to light bar pressure , bottom end not huge , needs some apparent wind but once going it is super stable , easy power , no stalling , and very predictable.
Upwind is average
Big wind range ...Just plug in and go.

This kite is great for foiling! Light bar pressure , very even progression in power , dumping power is very easy and doesn't load up much going upwind. Downwind super easy.
No flutter when depowered , no downwards drift when going downwind it just hangs , smooth increase in power when pulling bar in.
Did some big fast downwind runs on freestyle foil , super stable , fast and hardly had to think about it. Puetz said it looked like it had drifted back so far in the widow that I was towing it.
Turns very quickly for a big kite , very happy with that.
And it covers our issue of skinny wind , the initial problem of getting up on the foil and then wanting the kite to back off on power. It does this in spades.

Downloops stays powered up , no backing down although if I entered the downloop in light wind with not enough line tension it did stall a couple on times.... but a big reef on lines and it recovered .... my bad , but a sign to me of a well designed kite.

Had a go on the nugget in small waves in about 11 to 14kts. Had a ball , for a 15 ...fast and responsive , drifted better that the specs suggest , I think.

We had a beach session on the 3 settings.
Soft , very responsive , not so solid downloops but good enough. Will drift well. Should be great in more wind.
Medium , best of both worlds for me in light wind.
Heavy , most connected , steady power , solid loops . Usually I don't like this setting.

Relaunch , its width will not allow it to relaunch as well as a Neo , had to use 5th to roll it on its back and relaunch that way.
Very light wind though , maybe 8-10 kts. Once standing on its wing tip it was not an issue. Can't complain.

I was concerned that this kite would be too big for what I want .... but now I think it will be fine.
It doesn't develop the bottom end as a Neo would ... but that is what I want for foiling ( or riding nugget ) as well as a kite which can get me up in light wind. I thought perhaps the 13 might have been a better fit but I have the 12 Neo ...
but because this kite has such an enormous wind range and is so light weight , it fits the bill for me.

In all , I am very pleased with the 15 Blueberry juice. Duotone have had a good think about it put together a really good package which suits me and I think I will use it a lot.
Great for light wind , great for foiling , good turning , good drift , easy power., I suspect its an able booster , solid loops. A mate did some boosts and loops on it ... seemed to go well.
I would love to have a shot on the smaller ones.

Cheers.

eppo
WA, 9372 posts
31 Mar 2019 4:48PM
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Great review Eddie. So has the big fella taken the foil plunge yet .... surely...

eddiemorgs
QLD, 390 posts
31 Mar 2019 7:32PM
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eppo said..
Great review Eddie. So has the big fella taken the foil plunge yet .... surely...


Thanks mate. It's the first kite for a while which I want to get back on and get to know it better.

Bomber just loves his north strawberry juice 17 ! Can't shut him up
Thought I had better see what the fuss was about.

No foils on the horizon for him yet .... he's digging in a bit , sucking the last breathe out of his sector.

But I reckon he will suddenly turn up with one and be raving like us soon.

Cheers.

eppo
WA, 9372 posts
31 Mar 2019 8:19PM
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Man he loves his long distance cranking runs and recording them. he is / was always on or ahead of the curve. I'm shocked he hasn't got on with it yet.

tell him eppo said "get your finger out your ass bomber"... Darwin has to be synonomous with foils. How could you NOT have one.

shi thouse
WA, 1129 posts
31 Mar 2019 8:45PM
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eppo said..
Man he loves his long distance cranking runs and recording them. he is / was always on or ahead of the curve. I'm shocked he hasn't got on with it yet.

tell him eppo said "get your finger out your ass bomber"... Darwin has to be synonomous with foils. How could you NOT have one.


Foils...keep your toes out of the water and away from the crocs!

eppo
WA, 9372 posts
1 Apr 2019 6:47AM
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Select to expand quote
shi thouse said..

eppo said..
Man he loves his long distance cranking runs and recording them. he is / was always on or ahead of the curve. I'm shocked he hasn't got on with it yet.

tell him eppo said "get your finger out your ass bomber"... Darwin has to be synonomous with foils. How could you NOT have one.



Foils...keep your toes out of the water and away from the crocs!




Plus .. eventually Robbie could throw back a few chook eggs whilst doing his long runs... even sit down for a spell and have his normal Darwin daily quota!!

carbine
WA, 1440 posts
1 Apr 2019 8:13AM
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eddiemorgs said..

I have had 3 sessions now. Ranging from 8 to 14 ish kts.
First impression , linear power , mod to light bar pressure , bottom end not huge , needs some apparent wind but once going it is super stable , easy power , no stalling , and very predictable.
Upwind is average
Big wind range ...Just plug in and go.



Upwind is average. That is my experience with the big kites from North/duotone. Grunty trucks that love heading downwind. Which is not really what you want.

Would love to hear someone who has flown the airush ultra as well and would compare because i have no idea why you would drop 2k plus on an average big LEI.

BrisKites
QLD, 1286 posts
1 Apr 2019 1:51PM
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carbine said..

eddiemorgs said..

I have had 3 sessions now. Ranging from 8 to 14 ish kts.
First impression , linear power , mod to light bar pressure , bottom end not huge , needs some apparent wind but once going it is super stable , easy power , no stalling , and very predictable.
Upwind is average
Big wind range ...Just plug in and go.




Upwind is average. That is my experience with the big kites from North/duotone. Grunty trucks that love heading downwind. Which is not really what you want.

Would love to hear someone who has flown the airush ultra as well and would compare because i have no idea why you would drop 2k plus on an average big LEI.


Maybe try it before making conclusions. It actually goes upwind well.Comparisons to single strut kites aren't really worth while as it's specifically designed to have the characteristics of a three strut kite. Not to mention if you made an equal size single strut kite it would pull you downwind even more. This is one of the main reasons some brands have refrained from making single strut kites bigger than 12m.

eddiemorgs
QLD, 390 posts
1 Apr 2019 5:47PM
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Select to expand quote
BrisKites said..

carbine said..


eddiemorgs said..

I have had 3 sessions now. Ranging from 8 to 14 ish kts.
First impression , linear power , mod to light bar pressure , bottom end not huge , needs some apparent wind but once going it is super stable , easy power , no stalling , and very predictable.
Upwind is average
Big wind range ...Just plug in and go.





Upwind is average. That is my experience with the big kites from North/duotone. Grunty trucks that love heading downwind. Which is not really what you want.

Would love to hear someone who has flown the airush ultra as well and would compare because i have no idea why you would drop 2k plus on an average big LEI.



Maybe try it before making conclusions. It actually goes upwind well.Comparisons to single strut kites aren't really worth while as it's specifically designed to have the characteristics of a three strut kite. Not to mention if you made an equal size single strut kite it would pull you downwind even more. This is one of the main reasons some brands have refrained from making single strut kites bigger than 12m.


I reckon I should qualify "average " before this becomes a thread about this kite having poor upwind performance. .

I meant average in the true sense of the word ., not the negative Ozzie sense.
" Its upwind performance is about average . " Compared to my experience.

Can't agree that North/Duotone kites drag you downwind , never had any issues., to the contrary in some models.
But they do tend to have a good bottom end ... which is why we like them up here.
This kite does not feel like a grunty truck , that's why I like it . It's way more refined than that.

It goes upwind well with a good balance between where it sits in the window , it's upwind ability and all round performance and suits me fine. .

Hope that clears it up.

Cheers.

eddiemorgs
QLD, 390 posts
1 Jul 2019 1:49PM
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Bit more on this kite.

I prefer to be using small kites like the next guy and realise that big kites and foiling is not fashionable etc , but in our skinny winds we need the bottom end to get up and going at all , hence the 15m
i also prefer inflatable kites for safety.

Having used it the last the last few days on my jshapes cruzer foil in about 7-10kts lazing around in a few nice little waves .....I couldn't be more impressed with this kite.
Hell I have had some fun.
As a guide , 12 Neo we would not have worked at all well in this wind (that's what I have )

The 15 Juice flies in bugger all wind , reacts well when a quick loop is needed to keep it off the water , very hard to back it down, it did this weird thing mid window , just hanging off the front lines and back lines completely slack. I was a bit mystified why it didn't fall out of the sky after recovering it.
We had to do a fairly hot launch it at the start but after that very few problems until the wind dropped below 6 or so knots and glassed off.
I dropped it in the water, it had to be put on its back , then peeled off the water no probs. Reacts very well to being pumped through centre lines to aid launching as well.

This kite has confused my preconceptions a lot ... cause I just love using it on the foil in light wind.
I was expecting it be a bit of a stopgap for the foil and use it on nugget in light wind and waves up here as well etc , but it offers much more than that.
Looks like kite design is making real headway.

Cheers.



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"2019 Duotone 15 Blueberry Juice" started by eddiemorgs