Rider: 83kg, intermediate
Board: Home made plywood board or Epic Oxygen v2
Kite: Epic Infinity v3
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
About 1 month ago, I bought the kite and board from Eastcoast Kitesurfing and Nigel asked me at the time to post my feedback on this forum after a few runs with the gear.
Here is a video taken from Altona beach, on a low tide afternoon with sea breeze blowing between 9 and 12 knots.
http://youtu.be/5_NqPHXrwO8
We were 3 kites out there, the Epic Infinity v3, LF NRG 14m (2013) and NRG 16m (2014). The other guys were also riding lightwind boards.
The low end of the Infinity v3 is quite comparable with the LF NRG; providing you ride the right board and have the right stance technique, all 3 kites were pretty much performing the same, i.e. Infinity v3 and NRG 16m were going crosswind / slightly upwind while the NRG 14m was crosswind / downwind only.
What was interesting was the top end of these kites. When the Wind picked up to 14 to 17 knots, the 2 LF NRG kites had to come back to shore as there was too much grunt in them and the riders were being pulled downwind too much. Note that we all changed to standard twintip boards by then.
Only I was still out there with the Infinity v3, still feeling in control of the power and pull.
When the Wind again picked up over 16 knots, then I quickly came back to shore as I was lacking the necessary depower range.
Down here in Melbourne, people ride Cab, Naish, LF and Ozone mainly .... but very few ride in lightwind conditions.
On another afternoon, only myself and a guy on a Naish Fly 15m were out in the water with similar performance. I was able to ride upwind much quicker but I am guessing I was more technique than gear.
All in all, if the low end performance of the above kites is quite similar, the top end performance of the Infinity v3 seems safer and more stable than LF NRG kites of the same size.
Finally, I also own a 10m LF NRG (2013) and I do believe it takes over nicely when conditions get over 16knots, allowing me to ride from 9 to 25 knots on a 2-kite quiver.
Cheers, Fred