It's back to school for the IKA, so they've released their equipment lists for kiters all over the world to buy in preparation for the 2013 season. 

With several big names failing to show up on the list, and a stack of small names appearing, it's set to be a massive year in kite racing. Have you ever heard of a Sailfish? Not the kind you find at the local co-op, the thoroughbred race board that's amongst such heavy artillery like the Mikes Lab "Lab70" and NJS "CF6" that have also appeared on the list. 

These small companies are all over both the kite and board equipment lists, so if it's easy enough for a smalltime company to get their act together and make a race board, then where are half of the big names? IKA mentioned Crazyfly as one of the companies who couldn't get their paperwork finished in time to be included. Also missing from the list of kites is Naish! Surely 2013 would be the year for Naish to release a race kite, but obviously not... 

So what's new? What's exciting? There's a stack of awesome additions to the list that are sure to get racers hearts pounding, and their wallets sweating. The biggest of them all, is Cabrinha's re-entry into the race scene, with the new VMG race board and Velocity kites. After bowing out of the racing in 2013, Cabrinha have launched right back in for 2014 (yes, it's the first week in January, and they've released a 2014 model kite). The dimensions of their board look very similar to the top performing companies, plus the kite seems to be competitive in weight with a pretty standard sizing plan as well. 

There's a new Dyno from North, which although no great surprise, is appreciated none-the-less. The Dyno was the second most used kite in 2012 for course racing, and with some impressive results, racers are sure to be flocking back to the green machines again this year. There's a new race board from them too, with more volume than last year, they seem to be following the trend that everyone else is going down. 

Ozone have kept pretty quiet, only releasing the Edge in two new sizes. Hinting at a release later in the year to co-incide with their new bar, the Ozone Edge is still going to be very hard to beat as a race kite, and the new 10m and 19m sizes are just what's needed for the average quiver of kites. Breaking the 5 year heritage of the Edge, the even sizing of the 10m ruffled a few feathers, with some even wondering whether this could be the new direction for Ozone, offering almost every single size like North do with the Rebel. 

On the board front, there's new offerings from Mikes Lab, Temavento and NJS. The CF6 boards are due into the country this week and are rumoured to be incredibly fast, and cheap. So it's a huge relief that they've been grated IKA status. It's a similar situation for all new company ASV, which are also making waves after a few riders performing well on the gear at the Sail Melbourne event in December. There's no word on fins yet, the IKA doesn't govern what goes under your board, so stay tuned to see what comes out of the fin companies for this season, that could get exciting!!!!!! 

Will this be the year you make the plunge and get into kite racing? Check out all the gear here on the IKA website. 

#News #Kitesurfing #CrazyFly #Naish #Cabrinha #North #Ozone