Forums > Kitesurfing Gear Reviews

13m Duotone Juice - my initial opinions

Reply
Created by Puetz > 9 months ago, 16 Jul 2020
Puetz
NT, 2172 posts
16 Jul 2020 1:12PM
Thumbs Up

Hey guys,

I've had a chance to ride the newest version Duotone Juice,,,, a 13m 2020 Juice!

Rider Weight: 120 kg
Experience: kiting since 2003
Style: old man cruiser / foiling
Board used: Duotone Carve 950 foil - 4'10" Pace
Bar/Lines: Click bar with 24m lines
Conditions: 5 - 8 knots day one,,,,,,,, 12 - 17 knots day two.

Short review:

My opinion so far is,,,,, it does as advertised.

Hangs in the sky amazingly well. Super stable with brilliant bar feel and can generate plenty of power when worked. Absolutely perfect for foiling. Can go upwind like a race kite without the complexities of a race kite.

Longer review:

Wind at near zero I thought I'd just pump it up to have a look at it. Its got new looking bridle lines that are thinner than other Duotone kites. The connections of the bridles on the kites is a light webbing instead of the traditional line sewn in. The kite looks similar to last years but when put next to one, it is definitely different. The tip panels look sharper and its still high aspect so looks pretty racey. Anyway, I was curious if the thing would even fly on the beach in what felt like maybe 4 - 5 knots so I put it up and interestingly up she went with ease.

The thing just kinda hung in the air, reminded me of a foil kite. Pulled the bar in and no backing down, in fact it flew forward and yep, just hung there. Ok then, sine it a bit and see what its got. Hmmmm, it feels like its got some power as it shoots back and forth,,,,, do I dare,,,, do I have a crack on the water?? I bet my mates wanted to see me swim so off I went, Grabbed the foil and wadded out. Walking out, it still just hung in the sky without any attention needed, so far so good I thought.

It took a bit of encouragement and after a few attempts I got up and running. In fact not just going but flying. Got to 18 to 19 knots in seconds. I swear it felt like no wind and surely the experiment was doomed but sure enough, I was flying. I'd say it was no more than 5 - 7 knots and I seriously can not think of any other kite in all my years that could have gotten going in this light wind,,,, not the kites I've come across.

I was cruising along at 17 to 19 knots of board speed without any effort at all. I put a bit more pressure on the foil, leaned into it a bit and I got to cruise at a healthy 20 - 21.5 knots. Not bad considering it was only maybe 7 or 8 knots max thanks to apparent wind. Dunno the actual wind strength, and maybe I was a bit starey eyed but what I do know is, no other kites I've ridden, in all the years could have done what this thing was doing,,,, and I have owned 19m Edge and 18m Dyno's. Sure it might not also have the same static raw horse power of the fore mentioned kites but it was going earlier than those kites for sure.

The biggest thing that amazed me was that the kite did not back down with the bar fully pulled in, whether it was flying through the window or even when I was stopped dead while putting the board on my feed, crazy but it just hangs in the sky. I set the kite up on the hardest steering pressure setting and yet the bar pressure was still light with turning speed very linear. Amazingly stable.

As a test, I completely push the bar out from a completely in position to completely out while flying along and yes, the kite will fall but it dumped all power and was easily recovered.

I put the kite in the water (on purpose) to test how it relaunched and although it didn't have enough wind to do it in 4 line mode ie pull one steering line only but it didn't want to do much but I cheated and pulled the 5th line to let it roll over onto its back and ding ding it was flying again in no time. It was pretty much no wind after all. The Juices tips didn't seem to stick to the water like other kites do. In more wind I'm pretty sure I could do the standard 4 line technique but I'm too lazy seeing as the 5th line makes it super easy.

Next day we had heaps more wind. I think it was about 12 to 17 or so knots. In this wind I would have usually used my 9m Neo (with the foil) but I thought, what the hell, why not see the theoretical foiling top end of this kite. Wow, what kite. As expected plenty of power on tap. Very agile and reactive. Super stable and flys upwind. Sure it had mobs of power but if you want to tap it off, you can. Steering remained light and super linear, in that, with bar in or out or anything in between, it was even and steady. The bar pressure didn't get heavier as the wind increased which a lot of other branded kites seem to do,,,, it was nice and linear.

I did a bit of swell riding, pretending as if I was riding waves (ie wiggling back'n'forth pretending like I'm riding up and down a wave) and I could steer it one handed easily with no lag in its reaction to my input. Yeah, of course its not wave kite level but it was much more agile than I expected. Definitely a fun kite.

Upwind was brilliant and I could easily wind the foil to decent speeds. Got many runs around the 23 to 25 knot with a top speeds of 26.5 knots. Kite doesn't surge or fall back like other inflatable race kites so controlling the foil at top speeds was easy. I can imagine if I had my faster wing on I'd be able to squeeze a few more knots in top speed.

I did a few runs as far as I dared going as far downwind as I could just to see how the Juice would drift and it just hung there only falling when I purposefully flew it behind me. In normal riding around it never once felt like it wanted to back down and I'm not saying its wave kite level but damn this thing just wanted to keep flying. I felt like I didn't have to keep paying attention to it as I went downwind with fear its gunna fall or back down. Either way, I just didn't have to constantly worry about it and just ride.

I can't tell you how it rides with twin tips so I'll let my son and mates do some tests and see what they reckon.

So far so good.

Conclusion:

Kite does exactly as advertised. I like it.

Highly recommended for heavy guys too.

Cheers for now,

Robbie




kitemanjohn
QLD, 11 posts
19 Oct 2020 1:30PM
Thumbs Up

Hey Robbie

Great review...just what I needed to confirm my thoughts that it would suit my need for a very light (tropical) wind foil kite that could relaunch in less than ideal conditions. My 8 & 10 Neos (2019) are great but sometimes reluctant to relaunch in those extended lulls.
Consequently got an 11 as recommended for my mass and as a light wind foil kite and medium wind (say up to 18 tropical knots) freeride kite, it has not disappointed with water relaunching in unbelievably light winds and extended float time in jumps.

Highly recommended.... is my favourite foiling kite now

except that........ I have to advise that I have only had one successful self launch (traditional self launch) out of 4. The other 3 attempts ended up with the bridle catching around the tip resulting in the never ending kite loop-spiral. Releasing the safety had little effect. Maybe launching to port side may have a better safety result for flag-out but haven't got the desire to attempt any more unassisted launches. OK my launch technique is not infallible but I can't recall any such tip-catching with any of my Rebels, Neos or Evos (albeit acknowledging that they have the anti snag bungee thingies)

So question... is anyone else having similar problem and/or should I just continue to avoid self launching?? Thanks

KPSS Used
NSW, 372 posts
Site Sponsor
19 Oct 2020 5:28PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
kitemanjohn said..
Hey Robbie

Great review...just what I needed to confirm my thoughts that it would suit my need for a very light (tropical) wind foil kite that could relaunch in less than ideal conditions. My 8 & 10 Neos (2019) are great but sometimes reluctant to relaunch in those extended lulls.
Consequently got an 11 as recommended for my mass and as a light wind foil kite and medium wind (say up to 18 tropical knots) freeride kite, it has not disappointed with water relaunching in unbelievably light winds and extended float time in jumps.

Highly recommended.... is my favourite foiling kite now

except that........ I have to advise that I have only had one successful self launch (traditional self launch) out of 4. The other 3 attempts ended up with the bridle catching around the tip resulting in the never ending kite loop-spiral. Releasing the safety had little effect. Maybe launching to port side may have a better safety result for flag-out but haven't got the desire to attempt any more unassisted launches. OK my launch technique is not infallible but I can't recall any such tip-catching with any of my Rebels, Neos or Evos (albeit acknowledging that they have the anti snag bungee thingies)

So question... is anyone else having similar problem and/or should I just continue to avoid self launching?? Thanks


Hopefully the designer listens and shortens up the bridle so that it cannot catch on the tip like that.

In the meantime, are you rigging downwind? And then walking across to the launch position and then pulling on the lines?

kitemanjohn
QLD, 11 posts
19 Oct 2020 9:37PM
Thumbs Up

yep Steve, think I've done the right approach but 3 out of 4 failures dampens the confidence a wee dram.
Thanks anyway

Puetz
NT, 2172 posts
6 Nov 2020 8:38AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
kitemanjohn said..
Hey Robbie

Great review...just what I needed to confirm my thoughts that it would suit my need for a very light (tropical) wind foil kite that could relaunch in less than ideal conditions. My 8 & 10 Neos (2019) are great but sometimes reluctant to relaunch in those extended lulls.
Consequently got an 11 as recommended for my mass and as a light wind foil kite and medium wind (say up to 18 tropical knots) freeride kite, it has not disappointed with water relaunching in unbelievably light winds and extended float time in jumps.

Highly recommended.... is my favourite foiling kite now

except that........ I have to advise that I have only had one successful self launch (traditional self launch) out of 4. The other 3 attempts ended up with the bridle catching around the tip resulting in the never ending kite loop-spiral. Releasing the safety had little effect. Maybe launching to port side may have a better safety result for flag-out but haven't got the desire to attempt any more unassisted launches. OK my launch technique is not infallible but I can't recall any such tip-catching with any of my Rebels, Neos or Evos (albeit acknowledging that they have the anti snag bungee thingies)

So question... is anyone else having similar problem and/or should I just continue to avoid self launching?? Thanks


... hey John, awesome kite indeed.

Yep, I've had tip wrap thing happen when self launching too and it was fault finding the same problem a year earlier with Eddie and his Zephyr that reminded me what was happening. What we found happening to the Zephyr seemed to be happening to the Juice so what we worked out as a fix then applied to the Juice.

I've noticed that the bridle and front line can catch because that line hasn't had a chance to tighten enough as the kite slightly slides and prematurely rolls over. If you keep tension on that particular line and therefore the bridle, it doesn't catch. The slight sliding downwind a touch seems to contribute to the catching. Exactly the same thing happened with Eddie's Zephyr.

I found seeing that its light winds anyway that if you need to walk upwind a touch more than you instinctively would do before walking backwards, and get the kite to spin on the spot a bit more, rather than slide, this will get more line/bridle tension on the offending line/bridle and 'miss' the tip as it rolls over. The telltale is the kite doesn't slide as much, the canopy fills more allowing it to catch more air and rolls over rather than the slide to roll over too soon technique. Obviously this is a light wind technique and clearly if you putting up the Juice, its light wind session anyway so its pretty safe.

Anyway, seems to work for us so might work for you too.

Cheers,

Robbie

KPSS Used
NSW, 372 posts
Site Sponsor
10 Nov 2020 1:07PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
kitemanjohn said..
yep Steve, think I've done the right approach but 3 out of 4 failures dampens the confidence a wee dram.
Thanks anyway


I saw a 2017 Neo do this on the weekend, the bridle is just long enough to catch on the tip IF the rider is sloppy with their launch technique and the kite was underinflated, otherwise its pretty rare these days as most brands have made their bridles as short as possible.

Watch this video and note how I recommend clearing the lines from the back of the kite, and then rotating the kite by pulling on the front lines until the wind catches the downwind tip and the kite starts to lift. I think good technique will prevent tip wraps, and good technique also means pump the kite up firm. If kites are underinflated that are much easier to tip wrap.



And how to rig for safer and faster set up.

eppo
WA, 9372 posts
10 Nov 2020 11:18AM
Thumbs Up

Nice vids. Do exactly the same. Especially setting up from side on, attach front lines first etc.

also creates much more space on a lot of beaches for multiple kites to be setup and launched safely.

30 Aug 2021 7:14PM
Thumbs Up

I ride the juice a fair bit , sadly means i get out in a lot of light wind days when im not teaching . And i self launch a fair bit ,and yes ive had the bridal catch now and again but mainly on drift launches , I do tend to use both back line on light days on the beach, so my kite doesn't rub on the sand, still a down wind launch, just put a bit of tension on your steering lines ,like a reverse launch as you walk around up wind .Now you need to know how to do this and you need to practice on light days because it can go wrong if your not careful . But once you get the hang of it , no more Seaweed in your lines, no more shell cuts on your LE and canopy . and no more bridal catches. Again i say just be careful when practicing and allow plenty of room
Hope this helps
George



Subscribe
Reply

Forums > Kitesurfing Gear Reviews


"13m Duotone Juice - my initial opinions" started by Puetz