Rider - Advanced
Weight - 90kg
Kite - 8m & 10m Dice
Wind - 16-25+ knots
Just spent a couple of weeks on the new Dice from Duotone and was pleasantly surprised
that there were no major surprises if you know what I mean.ie- no major deviation from what was already a fantastic
kite out of the bag in my opinion.(Came of rebels to dices the minute they went pullyless)
Talking about bags ,lets get the elephant out of the room early,DIABOLICAL.
They must have grabbed an undergrad uni student in origami and set him a challange! Seriously, kite dept needs to talk to bag dept,enough said,back to the kite.
The tweeks are definitely noticeable with the power being very linear through all powered moves.Carving downloop transition for instance, to the point where the pull of the kite almost disappears until you start to really edge upwind again.....just super smooth and controlled.
The loops are a little tighter(i had it on the medium setting), and next to zero flutter even when initiated aggressively.This was much more
noticeable on the 10m(the new bridle set-up may have something to do with that,but im no kite designer).
The boost and hang time was just AWESOME.What started out as a 18-20kt day(so I pumped up a 10), quickly built to 25kt.Now 25kt for me is 8m weather all day long,but already being on the 10m,well ,lets give it a crack!!
Lined up a little kicker,pulled the trigger and was effortlessly lifted to the third floor....and stayed there....and stayed there...and stayed there! The hangtime was fantastic.(granted it is 25kt on a 10m).At this point my immediate thought was HOW GOOD WOULD THE 8 BE !!!!!
After a few more boosts I noticed how controlled the downloop felt when landing, and how your arm doesn't get ripped off if your timing
is just off a little.Pretty impressive for a 10m in that kind of wind I thought.The bar pressure and feedback felt good and you never really needed to watch the kite to know where it was at all.Just no surprises when you weren't expecting them.Had a lot of fun just riding around super powered up just carving of anything in sight.....but couldn't wait to get to the beach and pump up the 8 though !!!!
The 8m for me in 25kt+ is just Christmas everyday! Just love that size kite and was frothing just pumping it up !!!
Straight out the bag,pumped,lines on and on the water faster than a Lewy Hamilton pitstop.
I found the new 8m dice to be AN ABSOLUTE PERFORMANCE MACHINE.Straight out the back,full power and pulled the trigger!!!
Unlike the 10 that gracefully lifted me of the carpet,the 8m tears you off the water vertically to the nose bleeds...JUST AWESOME !! And
with the feedback to the bar just so reassuring that you know you'll land safely.Like the 10, I found the 8 to be super stable and responsive
through loops,downloops,(even drifts quite well in the waves , a little down the line loop every now and again) but definitely do-able.
The 2021 8m felt quicker through the window than last years(and last years was pretty good) which translated to me as a more flowing feeling from trick to trick if you know what i mean.You can spend a good couple of hours on this kite and not feel like you've been competing in the roman greco at the olympics...
Just a huge fan of the Dice. Im glad they didn't stray to far away from the essence of what is in the Dices DNA.
Are the 2021 changes groundbreaking to 2020 ?
Do the changes justify an upgrade? ABSOLUTELY !!
