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This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com here to talk about the Manera Magma 5.4.3 wetsuit. I'm going to review the warmth of the wetsuit, the fit, the conditions I was out in, and my first impressions of it.FITI'd say the fit of this wetsuit does run a bit on the small side. I'm about 190lbs and 6'3"; I wore the XL and it was a perfect fit for me. Typically I'm an LT or even an MT depending of the brand of wetsuit, so it can vary quite a bit, but the XL definitely was the right fit for me on …

Aaron has caught up with Daniel Ware from Cabrinha at the King of the Great Lakes Test Fest to chat about some new harness offerings from Dakine. Aaron: Daniel, what have you got for us, buddy? What are we talking about? Daniel: I've got a new product from Dakine that we're really excited about. This is the all-new Connect bar. This is a brand new spreader bar system from Dakine for 2023. It's a fully modular system. The kite bar has a fully molded hook with no welds, so it's super str …

What's new in the Slingshot foil line for 2024? Pat's with Fred Hope at King of the Great Lakes Test Fest to find out! Pat: What do we got, Fred? Fred: We've got two new front wings and two new stabilizers for 2024. One of the front wings is the G 1007, which is our light wind high-performance front wing. It's 1,700 square cm, so if you're coming from the E Series and you want something that gets you out in light wind like we have today where you'd want a downwind SUP board with a huge …

Pat is at King of the Great Lakes with Fred Hope from Slingshot, checking out the new bars for 2024. Fred: Thanks for having me! This year we brought out a whole new bar, and we changed from the white lines to the new SK99 lines. They're a little thinner and a bit stronger. You can really notice it in the air because they have a lot less drag through the air and you don't have that wobbling from side to side feeling like you have with the square lines. These are perfectly round, so it r …

Pat is at King of the Great Lakes with Fred Hope from Slingshot. They're checking out the new 2024 Ghost V3. Fred: The Ghost is our one-strut kite for the new year. You tried it today, right? Pat: Yeah, I got out and had a nice foil session on it today. It's a pretty grunty kite, actually, with good sheet-and-go power. It's really quite fast-turning, and the relaunch on the thing was amazing. I was in really crappy, gusty offshore wind, and the kite just wouldn't stay on the water. Eve …

MACkite's Pat Taylor is at KoGL with Fred Hope of Slingshot, checking out the new 2024 Slingshot foiling lineup. Fred: We've got the brand new UFO for this year. This is my baby: the no-strut kite. It's the weirdest-looking kite on the beach because it just sits flat against the ground, but it's the best-looking kite in the air because of how different it looks when you're flying. There's no skeleton to the frame other than the leading edge, so it makes it really light and responsive be …

Tucker meets up with Billy from Manera and F-One at KoGL to chat about the new 9m Strike CWC. Wait... a 9m wing? Why not! Tucker: This is the behemoth, the big lady, of the range. Billy: Yes, we have here the 9m CWC. Tucker: 9 meters of goodness... that is a lot of wing! Billy: We've brought it to the right place to test the low end, and we've actually been quite successful here. Tucker: It's pretty sick. It doesn't look like a 9m. Billy: It definitely has the low end power, bu …

Longer Front Handle Design The 2024 Duotone Unit Wing has a new, unique design feature. It still has the rigid handles, but now the front handle is a lot longer than the back handle. Although you don't necessarily need all the real estate in the middle, it allows you to fly one-handed, almost like it's a boom. In fact, there is only a very small gap between the front and back handles. Duotone has positioned the front handle in just the right spot to really choke up on it and get a bit of …

Cabrinha Fusion X-Series | The All-RounderThe X-Series MkII hydrofoil offers enhanced maneuverability with refined profiles, a moderate aspect ratio, and a redesigned wingtip shape, making it suitable for various board sports. While maintaining its forgiving low-end performance, the all-around lean profile now provides an extended speed range. The new tip design allows for freeing the tips during turns without worrying about cavitation, a result of research conducted at the SINTEF facility. A …

Welcome back to MACkiteboarding Foil Fridays with Tucker. Today I'm going to talk about two exciting new stabilizers for the Slingshot Phantasm carbon foil system. The Jet and the V are smaller stabilizers for the lineup.They've had the 400 as a standard stabilizer for quite a long time. It's a bit larger and more stable to provide ease-of-use. At the other end of the spectrum is the 325, which is small and has winglets to help with tracking ability at high speeds. In the middle has been a …

Cabrinha's Daniel Ware chats with Aaron from MACkite at King of the Great Lakes Test Fest. Together, they tackle the most common questions about the Fusion Foil System. Daniel: Thanks for having me, Aaron. Aaron: Yeah dude, welcome. It's always good to see you. Daniel: It's flat and straight offshore, but we had some fun winging yesterday and got some pumping around behind skis today. Aaron: You milked every little bit out of that. It's nice to be able to show people what is possib …

Cole, an expert wake foiler with mastery in dock starting, recently took on the challenge of teaching Pat the art of dock starting on a hydrofoil. Although Pat had a diverse background in foiling, the dock start technique was new territory for him. Can Cole successfully coach Pat into adding dock starting to his bag of foil tricks? Cole: We're on the water today, and we're going to see if Pat can do a dock start on a foil. Pat: It's my first time trying to dock start, so let's see how it goes. …

Pat is with Kevin Wade at King of the Great Lakes Test Fest, checking out the new 2024 GT1+ Wing from Eleveight. What does the "Plus" mean, and is it right for you? Kevin: We have the Plus Series now, including the RS+ kite and the Process and Master C+ twintips. We're building out a comprehensive upper echelon line to highlight which products have a little bit of extra special sauce and higher quality materials. If you're looking for the top of the top in terms of performance, the Plus …

Pat from MACkite catches up with Kevin Wade at the King of the Great Lakes Test Fest to chat about the new 2024 V7 RS kite from Eleveight Kites. Kevin: It's so good to be here. It's always a good time. It almost looks like the Caribbean out there with the water color. It kind of tricks you into thinking it's tropical, but it's a little colder. It's great weather and I'm stoked to be here and tell you about the lineup. Pat: So you've got the new RS for this year- the V7, right? Kevin: …

Pat Taylor from MACkite is with Nick Baines of Reedin at the 2023 King of the Great Lakes Test Fest checking out the new Space Agency. What is it? Who's it for?Nick: We're really excited to launch this board this year. In the past, we've only had two twintips: the Kev Pro and the Super E. The Kev Pro is for those guys that like to ride fast and boost huge, and then the Super E is for your more beginner/intermediate rider. It has a softer ride and cruises through chop easily.But now we hav …