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2013 Blade Fat Lady

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fdvj
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby fdvj » Wed Jul 24, 2013 7:37 am

:D I discovered that I can do unhooked bankrolls into f-16 on this kite the other day, which felt great. Such a good kite for getting new moves without getting spanked. I tried it the next day on a 11m which was much harder and with way more painful crashes.

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joe weiss
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby joe weiss » Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:56 am

If they will manage to improve the FL again for 2014 ... :roll:
Blade is doing an amazing job with developing the kite range year after year. They have been around for quite a while now and that says a lot.

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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby sijandy » Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:02 am

Was at the beach the other day pumping and getting ready to go out on my 10m when i discovered a leak, as I sat around being pissed off i thought it felt like it had dropped a bit and so thought i'd give the fat lady a go. Was well powered and absolutely blasting upwind compared to everyone else but never felt out of control, unhooking no problem. When i got home and checked the local wind report it was averaging 25mph for the time i was out, very impressive kite!!! The others at the beach couldn't believe i was on a 17m. Yet to try the low end - 70kg with a 140 twin tip, what do you reckon - 10knots?

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rodeoclown
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby rodeoclown » Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:00 pm

My 12m's inflate nipple tore and leaked on a road trip recently and I was forced to go from my 9m to the Fat Lady. Both these kites have an overlap in the high teens and I never missed a session. Blade makes a super clean super light super tough kite thats like a formula one gust eater. Everyone I've turned on to em is chronic lee stoked. Best road trip kite ever!

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URSS
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby URSS » Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:12 am

This is my setup to travel light : 17m Fat Lady + my 9m. And I don't miss my 12m!

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rodeoclown
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby rodeoclown » Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:53 pm

Sweet!
Ya its amazing, the range of wind the Fat Lady brings to the party.
The trigger blows my mind every time too.
When I got the replacement part from KPS,
I soaked and peeled the 12m's damaged inflate nipple off and stuck a new one on..
Thats was a lot easier than I thought it would be 8)

It ain't over till the Fat Lady sings :wink:

nicor
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby nicor » Thu Aug 08, 2013 7:32 pm

Just received my new 2013 fat lady and thought I’d post my thoughts.

I’m 180 pounds, strong skills - but not freestyler, and like most people don’t like big kites. Was last using a delta style kite as my low end machine, but it was just terrible at sub 12 knots with (even with a surfboard), it just wanted to pull me down wind and no power in the turn.

OK, first I gotta say the fat lady is huge. When I unrolled it in my basement it was covering all my furniture (ha), it’s probably 17m, but looks bigger. Quality seems good, but all kites I’ve ever owned seem about the same these days. Bag is definitely too small, but the kite will fit if you roll tight and fold it 4 times. One issue I first noticed is the struts are so thin that if you have to carry your kite into/out of the water with little wind the center strut will buckle, making very hard to carry. (this is also a major issue with any 2 or strutless kites).

Beginning of session was about 10 knots, but quickly got up to 15, and the last half hour was 18 knots gusting to 23. So I got to test quite a range.

First 30-40 minutes was about 10 knots (maybe oscillating from 9-12), and small board 135 x 42. Relaunch worked well, it tuned up on its wing tip and launches deep from the window (similar to my old c4s). Admittedly, I was having some trouble at first going upwind, but I’m going to attribute this to getting use to the new kite, because I seemed to be fine after a little while. The FL is a pretty fast kite, but initiating a full turn is slower than what I was expecting, a fair amount of bar input is required to spin the kite quickly and there seems to be a little delay before the turn. I can’t say it turns super fast, seems similar to my old 14M – but hey it’s 17M you can’t have it all. Once turned the FL does dive quite fast to generate the power. Result was I was going pretty good in light breeze with a small board. So goal achieved.

As the wind picked up to 15 (and gusting to 20) I progressively pulled in the depower. I would say that it felt really nice 12 gusting to 15, I would have had ¼ to 1/3 depower pulled in. Jumps were really, really nice, I’ve never had float like that! And it downloops in air very nicely. Was doing backrolls easily and surfing some 2 foot lake waves in. Bar pressure is not that light, less than my deltas though.

Towards the end the wind got up to 18 knots (gusting over 20). I had the full depower in and was really just hanging on. The puffs really pulled me out of control at points, and had to edge like crazy to slow down. I still managed some jumps and backrolls, but I was mainly trying to keep my speed down. One drawback I see to the FL is the lack of depower at the bar, you really have to know how to edge at the high end, because even with the bar totally out it can pull very hard. This lack of depower is a bit of an issue for me though, I have a bad back and my deltas which have so much depower on demand really help me to maintain the correct posture and protect my back, a matter of fact I have not felt pain in my back for quite some time until my FL session. But to be fair I know had this kite out of the appropriate range. I think the depower throw was fine below 15 knots, but I have to test it again to be sure.

This might sound odd but my initial thought is that this kite is very similar to my old c4s, the FL looks to have a little c shape curve in it, and it turns on its wing tips which generates good power in the turn and sinning, the relaunch is very similar.

So I didn’t really get to ride this kite for long in light wind, but it did get me going. I can conclude 20 knots is possible but I’d switch down much earlier because I don’t find it comfortable above 15 knots.

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calibra
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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby calibra » Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:06 am

in witch knot did you have connected the directions lines??? if it was in the first, starting from the kite, it will have to much power with 20knots, if it was in 2º knot, you can handle 20 knots but you have to carve a lot do hold the power of the kite., but when you pop well, prepare to fly high :D

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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby nicor » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:58 am

calibra wrote:in witch knot did you have connected the directions lines??? if it was in the first, starting from the kite, it will have to much power with 20knots, if it was in 2º knot, you can handle 20 knots but you have to carve a lot do hold the power of the kite., but when you pop well, prepare to fly high :D
Had it on the knot furthest away from the kite. I can't imagine how powerful it would have been if I were on the closer knot. that's like 4 inch loss in travel on the bar.

Had the kite out again the other day, again not really light wind conditions, I'd say 12-17. At 17 I had the depower fully in. But had excellent power at the low end and still able to jumps and tricks. this was a much better session, I had far more control of the kite at both ends of the day's spectrum. I probably need a lot more time, but impressed with my last outing. We'll so how the low end actually is once a get a 8-12 knot day.

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Re: 2013 Blade Fat Lady

Postby kitesurfwarehouse » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:36 am

Im glad you are enjoying the Fat lady. In 15 knots there is nothing better.

We had one on a demo day in the UK last week and it was the out in 18-20knots no worries on demos , but when the wind died later and everyone packed up , we were still doing demos no problems, and it really got riders excited. I find it very powered at 20knots , but certainly very kiteable, but yeah you gotta use your board too at the top end. I start changing down about 17 knots as I prefer my trigger once its past this. But anything and everything below , I think its outstanding.

Its worth trying the line extensions too. They add another couple of knots to the bottom end although the kite becomes less responsive with them on.


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