Landboarding

Ok gents heres a mini review. I happened to fly all these kites back to back the other day in 8-10 knots.

I was flying in a sand dune bowl which had about 10m elevation to climb. It required looping the kites to get up the hill and then zooming down the hill to gain apparent wind speed to jump.

Before i start i realize the 13m scorp was underpowered but these are the kites i rode and the impressions i had.

1 = best, 4 = worst

Launch
manta 1, pulse 2, zephur3, scorp 4,

land
manta 1, scorp2, pulse 3, zep 4

power
manta 1, zep 2, pulse 3, scorp4

turning speed
zep 1, scorp2, pulse 3, manta 4

biggest jumps

manta 1, zep 2, pulse 3, scorp 4

loop power

manta 1, pulse 2, zep3, scorp.

Bar out stability

scorp 1 pulse/manta 2nd equall, zep 4

The scorp was a pain in the arse to launch in the light wind in a slight wind shadow. it took 2 of us a couple of goes. once in the air it was sweet and had that familure arc feel. The scorp was underpowered but still managed to loop up the hill. i could ride around the bowl but not really jump.

The pulse felt nice to fly but very boring. It was a reasonable amount less powerfull than the 15m manta. It did everything well, build quality was excelent. just not very exciting.

Zephur was easiest to get around the bowl as the fast speed of the kite comined with the power. It had that familue lei fell about it. I could cut a high line down hill/upwind by letting the bar out with greater depower than the others. but let go of the bar with the kite parked and she's falling out of the sky in second. I reverse launched the zep and that worked sweet.

The manta is my kite and i'm very familure with it. So potentially this is an unfair test. Its slow as a train but all that is forgiven when it pulls you up the hill like a train. The manta build the most power with apparent wind and i was able to lay to decent sized jumps in the marginal wind rather than silly little ones.

For this reason the manta wins the dune bowl test. followed by the zep. easiest to get around the bowl but missing the glorious glide of the manta, Pusle 3rd OK at most things but not impressive at anything, Scorp is last mainly because of the pain in the arse launch process is a deal breaker for me. it was 5 years ago and it still is now. If the scorp had the launchability of the pulse it would have come third.

Had to chuckle when I saw the 13m Scorpion and 8-10 knots, I new straight away the launch was going to be painful, as it is in the those conditions with my Venom II 13m^2. I could imagine the Scorpion would be even more painful than the Venom, I tried the Scorpion once in light winds and hated it. Would have been interesting to hear your comments if the Speed III's would have entered the mix.

i would have loved the speed 3 to demo. but the local importer sold his only demo speed. bugger. he sent up the pulse as a demo but it really didn't tell me anything. So now i wait for until i can demo the speed. still keen. but i have decided that i wont buy one without demoing first.

Oh well better luck next time. Can't rush things like this, especially the sort of money one forks out for them. I was lucky enough to demo the Speed II 10m^2 from our local shop and Joel was kind enough to let me try his 12 and 19m^2 Speed III's, no looking back after that. Yes your're right really need to demo them for your self, like George he prefers his matrix versus the speed.

Indeed. it was good to compare the 17 zep againts the 15 manta as thats the most ecconomical viable option for a ligght wind water beast. S/h zephurs go for around $1000. but i decided i didn't want an inflatable for land use. to much of a pain in the arse pumping and launching/landing.

Well you know what kites are missing from the demo list that do both land and water, you now have a good excuse to make a visit to Aussie, here at Altona you can try out both of them