Background. I was a but disappointed with the override function on the 2009 IDS bars, so I wrote an email to Cabrina to sort out some questions. Here is my email:
cabrinha_bar_2007I´ve been riding Cabrinha kites for a few years. My first kite was 2007 Cabrinha Crossbow 9m, my second was a 2008 Switchblade 12m. Both kites are great and seem to be very sustainable, I used them a lot! The bars have started to become a bit worn out, that’s all.Recently I just bought three 2009 Cabrinha Crossbow in different sizes, partly since I needed new bars. I had a few sessions with them and there is nothing bad with the kites, but there is one very annoying thing with the bars, there are no s toppers! I used to love this feature with my old Cabrinhas, it’s very handy to be able to relax your arms by leaving the bar half way up on the throw and it was a great safety tool as well. If the kite got to much power for me to handle, then the bar simply passed off the stopper and depowered. With these new bars I really miss the stoppers, I almost regret my buy due to the absence of stoppers.

Why did you remove the stoppers? Will they ever come back?
Best regards,
A Cabrinha fan that doesn’t want to change brand

To my surprise did I get a very detailed email back from the Cabrinha support. This is what they wrote:

 

cabrinha2011ids2You may remember the Override 2 (from 2007 and 2008) was not included in the original 2009 shipments, we asked the market at the end of 2008 season if they wanted the OV2 in 2009, the overall feedback was to take it away because most good riders never used it and it could compromise safety in certain situations. Also the bar pressure is significantly lighter these days since there are no more 2:1 pulley bars, so we assumed nobody would really miss it.

We also needed to accommodate the IDS function to create the ability for maximum depower (5 line style depower with only four lines). Our goal is to reduce injury and death. We feel that we are a step closer with the IDS system. A by-product was a thicker depower mainline that would not allow us to use the OV2 sleeve.

Once we delivered the first few thousand IDS kites without OV2, we discovered that certain riders wanted it back. This came as a bit of a surprise since the markets we talked to said the majority of their riders were either riding without ever engaging it and many were taking the sleeve off completely to avoid any finger-skin pinching when sheeting the bar out.

Anyway – after hearing some of the initial requests from a few of our distributors, we then designed the retro fit system that you have now.

This new system does not work in the same way as previous versions. It is based on friction, not a mechanical system. Override IDS is designed to slide up the center line. The problem is most people expected it to disconnect and were confused with the sliding function. We did explain this in the new documentation as well as on our website, but it was not obvious enough. In retrospect, we should have called it OVERSLIDE, marketed it more and it would have been more obvious.

We decided that previous versions could be dangerous as in certain situations. With the 2008 version, you would need to physically push (fairly hard) though the stopper to activate the stage 1 depower. This was particularly true if a rider had the tension ring squeezed to the maximum setting and just let go of the bar. The kite would then not fully depower and the rider (and those around them) could be put in harms way. The Override IDS unit is safer because the rider is always able to safely push though to Stage 1 depower. It is one of the only true “let-go” safety systems currently on the market. This is very important to us since the kite needs to have the ability to depower by simply releasing the bar (in case a rider were to trip up and fall down while going out or coming into the beach). We believe this is the safest option for riders of any ability level.

Off the record: There are a few things you can do to alter the Override sleeve, but we can’t officially announce this. Any modifications will void any warranty as well.

Please note that the following are merely suggestions and while we’ve seen them done with varying degrees of success, we are not endorsing any of them as it can compromise your safety and ability to activate Stage 1 Depower.

We’ve seen riders reversing the Overide sleeve (taking it off and flipping it upside down). They then file down the two “nubs” on the tension ring to allow the ring to sqeeze tighter than designed. This combination seems to produce a higher degree of friction when releasing the bar. We’ve also seen riders using a cable-tie (otherwise know as a nylon zip tie) in place of the tension ring and tighten this up to a maximum. The most recent mod we’ve seen a few riders doing is altering the shape of the sleeve itself. This apparently involves removing the sleeve and putting it into a vice or simply clamping it with pliers. The vice is tightened to the point of closing the gap in the sleeve and then it’s heated gently to soften the plastic. This usually only takes 10 to 20 seconds using a heat gun. The sleeve is allowed to cool in this position. After a few minutes, the sleeve is re-installed and the modified / filed down tension ring is squeezed tight. This combination has been shown to increase the tension on the ring and create additional friction for the bar to rest against the sleeve with little to no movement up the depower tube. Please use extreme caution if trying any of these and be very familiar with your emergency quick releases should anything go wrong.

Hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any additional questions. Lastly, there are no plans currently to return to an actual stopper system as we feel them to be quite dangerous in certain circumstances.

Best Regards,

Cabrinha Support