Whitey,
I'd love to give it a go on a foil to check it out. I do know that at the beginning of last year's world cup that a few guys tried to give it a go in the very light stuff, but it didn't work out. I'd suggest if they can be competitive that Damo might be able to make it work. As racing has fast become the largest competitive aspect in the sport world-wide, we are keeping our eyes open to tools that work. I believe that DR. Lightwind here in Miami has a new Speed, I'll see if i can take his out.
Damo and I are heading to Puerta Vallarta on the first of March for the start of the world cup in course racing. I'm sure that we will see the best stuff there. While i still personally think that LEI's may in fact like racing on old wooden booms when compared to products in the future, I'm still kind of hung up on the objective part. If you through 20K-30K to racers at world cup events, if RAM's worked, they would use them. Several WC events were run in winds that fell to less than 6-7 knots. I believe the Gebi can speak the the factual basis of this. Bruno won every race and there were RAM's on the water. If we thought that there was a silver bullet out there, we would take the tool and use it.
I don't think that the needs for course racing are much different, they just take the subjective nature of testing out. Which is better up wind? Which is better on a reach? Which is better down wind? These are things that we test all of the time and it's easy to do. This isn't like freestyle where riders prefer one kite over another based on feel alone, these things are measured in angles, numbers, turning speed, etc.
I will agree on the point that a good RAM should fly before any LEI. I think that the weight alone is a big factor here. On our new boards, if a kite can fly then you can use it to go up wind.
Back to the very first post. I don't know who is leading the way. Back when we had the Contra 14 I think Cabrinha was clearly the front runner when compared against the SS Machine and a few other kites that were marketed for the low end. Now, i know that Cab is a top player in low wind and that there are only 2-3 other kites on the market that are in the same arena. I guess it comes back to trying them for yourself. It sounds like there are plenty of RAMs in your area and I know that getting a ride on a Cab isn't too hard. I'd be interested in hearing the outcome.
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