Hurricane Sandy formed and is moving over Jamaica and Cuba. Good luck to everyone who will be impacted by this storm.
Feeder bands are sweeping over Florida and the Bahamas to the north. There is a good wind gradient in my area of southeast Florida bringing NE to ENE winds on the order of 18 to 25 kts. averaging around 20 kts. There have been squalls but fortunately not in my area while I was out.
Here is the new kite with a lot of changes, improvements and nice graphics too. The shape of the kite has been altered moving further away from a "C shape" with a shallow wing section. They say the bar pressure is less with this kite, I will see for myself very soon. They have a large diameter inflator on the kite now making inflation at lot faster. The control bar is even less cluttered and more clean than the bar of 2012. They are using a different type of line this year, fairly stiff and well coated. The IDS is easier to rearm now as well. There are other changes checkout the Cabrinha website for more details at http://www.cabrinhakites.com/bow/switchblade.html
Heading out. The kite DOES have a much lighter bar pressure than the 2012 Switchblade. There is no doubt as I was on last year's model the day before but that isn't all. Still healing torn wrist tendons and legments after four years, this is a very welcome development for me.
The kite fly's fast for its size, like a substantially smaller kite and turns even easier than last year's model. It really boosts too! Nice easy high jumps with good float. It takes less strength, responds faster and better. For a first session with a new kite things came together amazingly well.
I also found the kite depowered easier with less delay too sheeting in and out. The trim adjustments have easier to grab knobs than the balls of previous years.
This was an amazing session, when everything comes together just so. It was far easier to fly and the jumps were a good deal higher with longer hang time than the night before and all with a light bar pressure.
Great times on and over the water! In just 24 hours in similar conditions, things become substantially easier and better.
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I had two sessions so far on my wife's SB8m 2013 in 25-30 knots. The bar pressure is effectively much lighter and this is great news also from me who kite a lot on Kites with feather light bar pressure! I found that this is still a great all around kite but for an 8m I thought it would been faster. Two hands on the bar, some agressive steering it will react fast and turn fast but with one hand it is much more difficult to do the same, there is a slight delay because you can't move the bar that much. Some other kites respond better and faster to smaller input, I see that as a negative point for wave riding. Other than that, everything is all better, jump really well, great hangtime. Easy to relaunch, good kite for 90% of riders I guess. Oh and the quality of their lines this year is amazing, I love them. Much faster to setup the kite, no tangle. That is a great upgrade I think.
But don't take me wrong, the SB is a great kite, not my best but close enough to say I am very happy when I use my wife's SB8m.