Fuel X 2010

[G.R.F]

It slipped quietly onto the market at the tail end of 2000 as a 2001 model year kite and over the next ten years changed the kite world dramatically.

At the time Wipika and Naish dominated the world with their Hi Aspect performers and low aspect entry level products with the complex sizing equations, so the Fuel 120's Rider simplicity title made little inital impact.

A mid aspect kite with the same dodgy mylar leading edge and zip that would occasionally open and explode the bladder that everyone else was using it didn't make much of an impression. Behind the scenes however the boys were working on a segmented leading edge, made from dacron and it was scheduled for release the following spring, however other eyes were following their progress in their home water of Hood River and North using Ken Winner as a 'designer' sprang the Rhino on the world in the autumn of 2001 'claiming' all those innovations.

Not to be unsettled the 2002 and 2003 Fuels built them stronger and better, aligning grains, developing butted joints and in 2004 blew the doors off with One Pump and Splitstrut which set the trends for some time to come.

Changes to the AR followed in the years of 2005 and 2006 culminating in the champagne year of 2007 which saw a young Dutch rider taking the Fuel to heights previously unheard of, doggedly refusing to bow to pressure of the world SLE and Bow kite market, he and Slingshot persevered with the quest for total power and gut wrenching torque in kite loops. 2008 passed with a manufacturing hitch in Sri Lanka but then came the much lusted after Fuel 2009..

So now comes effectively Fuel No 10 and what could they do to improve it further?
Lighter and stronger with some target re arrangement of the build, gone are the 'layers and patches' on the wing tips which hark back to the days of folded wing tips, sand bags and self launches, in comes more kevlar key wear point patches, smaller, lighter. Leech tension and dishing has refined the power spike by containment at the apex, less leech flutter equals less parasitic drag, tighter leech equals more float, no big deal a few more seconds is all, but seconds in contests can mean the difference between first and first loser.

You have only to look at the Fuel in the air, to realise what 10 years continued development and refinement of a unique kite style has achieved.
We were embargo'd at the distributer launch, 'no cameras' but I just happened to have a phone with me and snatched a few shots below..

There are a couple about to do the dealer rounds, but the short answer that every Fuel rider will give you, if you have to ask, is no, you're not ready, the Fuel is the province of the core rider and that would be the Hard Core rider best spend a seasons on a kite like the RPM before even thinking about it.


Fresh new Graphics

Subtle seam tape, kevlar patching and light wing tips

Random close up snatched during a 'phone' call, but shows the centre
strut and re-inforcing.