Eleveight Kiteboarding jumped on the kiteboarding scene just under 2 years ago, and amazed the kiting community with their top quality and high-end product offering within a very short space of time. Board and Kite Africa (BKA) jumped on for the ride and has been part of their international network since the start, and now going into the third product cycle – 2020. The Eleveight crew brings over 15 years of experience into the brand, and their inspiration is what drives them:
“Inspired by the roots…We have a strong passion for water sports. An urge to be out there. This manifests in the brand we created. Our main drive comes from our history and passion. At Eleveight we are all avid kiteboarders and water sportsman, inspired by kiteboarding, surfing, skateboarding, wakeboarding, snowboarding and windsurfing.
Eleveight’s technical product design is based on the principles of performance, quality, functionality and innovation. Our interest is in high end performing products. The simple strategy to achieve these goals is the aim to create things as perfect as they can be.
Eleveight puts 100% focus on product performance. We love the sport and great product design makes all the difference.”
BKA Team leader and shop manager Lanral Ruddock headed over to Tarifa (Spain), the wind-sports capital of Europe, to attend the 3rd annual Eleveight Dealer meeting 27 to 29 May 2019, where the latest 2020 products were unveiled. Dealer meetings are a great opportunity to test new products, network and share ideas with other global dealers/distributors and collect some demo samples to share with our kiting community back home in Cape Town.
Dealer meeting schedules usually consist of several presentations to introduce the new or updated products, and various discussions on marketing and sales. The most exciting part, of course, is to test all the gear on the beach – this is where the real fun and stoke happens! With the shade of a huge spider tent, the Eleveight Team presented all the new kite, twintip and surf models for dealers to grab and test.
The Eleveight product range offers gear to cover all skill levels and disciplines. In addition to updated version 3.0 models of the RS (All-Round), FS (Freestyle/free-ride Series), WS (Wave Series) and PS (Progression Series) kites, the OS (One-strut Series) has been added to the line-up as a light-wind foil-specific kite. To complement this, a new Hydrofoil HCS (Hydrofoil Carbon Series) and Foil Board (Carvair) was also introduced, so Eleveight has the relatively young light-wind foil market now covered.
A great new feature added to all the 2020 kite models is a front-bridle setting to change the turning characteristics of the kite from pivot to wingtip turning. This will allow you to customise the kite’s performance to your individual riding style and discipline.
The wingtip bridle attachment has 3 knots to change between standard (default) turning, pivot turning and wing-tip turning. You simply loosen the knot and tighten onto the new knot for your preferred setting.
Eleveight also offer a really complete twintip and surf line-up. Updated models of the Process (Free-ride), Master (freestyle) and Ignition (School) were presented, along with the new Commander (wakestyle) and Master C+ (carbon freestyle).
The surf section was also expanded with production epoxy versions of the current surf shapes – great news for locations like Cape Town where durability is a priority in our harsh conditions.
Eleveight uses the highest quality materials in the production of their gear, and one of the best production facilities in the world in Sri Lanka (also a producer for several other top kite brands). For example, TeijenTM Techno Force X4 ripstop nylon is used in all the kite models (except PS), the highest quality and strongest ripstop you can currently use in a kite.
The small Eleveight team are a group of passionate individuals who believe in bringing high quality and high performance kite products to the market. They follow a business model of organic growth and sustainability, and endeavour to offer kite gear for the intrepid waterman. Board and Kite Africa is proud to be an Eleveight partner and distributor for the Southern African region, and we envisage a long partnership into the future.
Watch their official 2020 Eleveight release video:
Board and Kite Africa will be running a pre-order special on all Eleveight 2020 products. Go to our online shop now to get your order in!