Unpacking the 2008 Cabrinha Switchblade 3
We’ve just uploaded a new photo gallery that meticulously documents the 2008 Cabrinha Switchblade 3. The Switchblade is Cabrinha’s go-to kite for wakestyle riding, with a smooth powerband and a pulley-less bar system that eliminates all but the slightest trace of bar pressure. The Switchblade offers all the safety and depower you would expect from a bow kite, with the familiar feel of a classic kite.
Even if you’re not a wakestyle rider, you still might want to consider the Switchblade. We here at Big Winds feel that Cabrinha pushes the whole “handle passes and rail slides” thing a bit too hard, as there are many experienced kiters who don’t want to pull wakestyle tricks, but would probably love the Switchblade anyway. The kite has very light bar pressure, and thus you get very little tactile feedback for where your kite is at in the window. This is dangerous for beginners, but advanced kiters have already developed that sense of knowing where their kite is located, even without feedback.
Thus freed from bar pressure and any physical effort thereof, the Switchblade offers an incredibly free and open ride when you’re hooked in. At times you hardly notice the kite at all, which lets you focus your attention on other things. If you’re Cabrinha, those “other things” are wakestyle tricks. If you’re Dane, one of our shop riders, those “other things” are carving, carving and carving.
Dane comes from a snowboarding background, and when kiteboarding he loves to slash in just about any conditions, from flatwater to chop to swell. He does his fair share of jumping, but he really gets his thrills from carving back and forth, going heelside to toeside and back again, and pushing the limits of his edge control. Dane could care less about wakestyle tricks, but he’s riding the Switchblade anyway, because he loves how it opens up his riding and lets him focus on carving.
