The 2024 Duotone Line-up

Are you in the market for new equipment? Do we have some goodies for you! First, yes I am totally bias towards Duotone and ION equipment. If you want a more balanced point of view, I am sure you can find it on YouTube or any other forum that discuss kites. Having said this as a disclaimer, I can now tell you about my recent conversation with my friend Jamie about the 2024 10m NEO SLS. Jamie is an old time surfer, has been surfing all his live, switched to kitesurfing sometimes in 2008 or so. His home base is San Juanico, and yes, he knows how to ride a wave.

In his comments to me, he told me all that, in his opinion, is wrong for his type of surfing with the 2023 NEO SLS. I have a 2023 NEO SLS, and I have no idea what he is taking about. He agrees that the 2023 NEO SLS is powerful, but he thinks that the power kicks in at the wrong places in the wind window, at least for his liking. For example, when he talks about a full power bottom turn, not a drifting bottom turn, he wants the kite to stay low, almost at the water level in front of the wave, before pulling very hard on the bar while keeping the kite low as he guides the kite back at the wave. The kite then climbs up the face of the wave on its way to 12 o’clock. The 2023 kite did not want to stay low and immediately wanted to find its way to the 11 or 1 o’clock position. Listening to him I thought to myself, you got to be kidding me. Keep the kite low, at water level while the wave is about to grab it and chew it up like a dog toy. I am glad that my 2023 kite has the tendency to go automatically to the 11 or 1 o’clock position while I am trying to figure out how to ride the the wave, keeping line tension and staying on the board while this thing is about to break an chew me up. You can see, there is obviously a difference between Jamies skill level and mine.

That is just one of the examples he talks about in his comments to me. In his opinion, he had to constantly man-handle the 2023 kite. However… and here I am quoting what he told me: “My first day to on the 2024, I sight with relief that the designers not only fixed those negative aspects of the 2023 (not negative for me) but designed to be their best 10m ever.” Jamie likes to fly the 2024 NEO SLS with a narrow bar and 20m lines, which allows him to maneuver and loop the kite with less efforts.

There you have it, if you are into surfing, the 2024 NEO SLS 10m is your kite. Want to try a Duotone Kite? Come and meet us at the lake. I am sure we will have all the kites ready for you to check out.

Looking forward to see you at the lake,

Best,

JC