- Dorffats

www.adventurekiteboarding.com

A new FL 17m found its way to me this week.
Here are a few shots of it.
Construction is super tight and clean through out.
The profile seems much more compact and medium aspect.
Struts are small diameter and the LE is beautifully curved and shaped and coned at the ends.
The bag matches the rest of the Blade line up, and is very functional.

All I need now is wind!

Kite looks great! BUT, I am diasppointed that they got rid of the white butt/hips outline on the canopy of the original. That always provided additional motivation to get to the kite when self rescuing as the wind disappeared.

I ride a sector v1.5 52 and a FL v1 around Seattle, if anyone can go I can go, in super light winds I got a ton of lonely sessions last summer. I love light wind kiting in the summers when there are barely any ripples on the water. And the FL + a small freerace board combo is fantastic.

Look forward to trying the v2 kite and see how the bar pressure is vs the v1, given that it is a lower aspect kite I expect it to be less.....

V

Having one of these in your quiver will assure you a session every time there is wind.
If this kite flies like the new triggers, (it sure looks similar) I won't be missing the v1 at all.

Very nice looking kite!

I realize opinions vary greatly, but if you like the design pattern on this kite what would you call an ugly kite?

Granted it's not as ugly as the 2012 RRD which looks like a Chupa Chup lollipop, but I wouldn't qualify this as 'nice-looking' either; the 'old' blades looked much nicer I think.

The v2 is lower aspect than the v1? So how's the upwind compared to the v1?

whats the bar pressure like at 18 knots wind, and how is the kite behaving when depowered at top of its range ? does it maintain steering control ? is canopy solid and no jellyfishing or wing tip pulsing ?

the bar pressure, comparing with the V1 is much lighter, even in strong winds (15/20 knots), when the kite is in the top of its range the kites stays very stable and you can ride without any problem and maintain the stering control without any problem. about the canopy it stays solid when you are using his power, but when you completly release the bar, as the kite use so much depower, the wing tip starts to pulsing a little bit, but nothing special.

the kite have a much better upwind performance compared to the V1 and a lower bar pressure.

my only advice for this kite is to use almost everytime in the configuration in the stering lines for less power, or the kite will have more bar pressure. only in light winds ( 7/10 knots ) use the kite in the shorter configuration in the stering lines.

Why don´t you get a test ride? just call "Borste" down in Lomma, he is the Blade importer in Sweden.

I have the FL V1 and the bar pressure is a lot higher (like 2-3 times) then the Switch Element. I dont know if its the bar itself though because the grip is a bit slippery (very much so compared to the Switch bar!) and I´m planning to ad hockey grip tape on mine when the season beginns, just for testing.

/Urban.