ed257 wrote:jsquid wrote:Figures, I just left and the wind turns back on. Last week was very trying wind wise, but the 17m and 19m Core XR3 literally saved our trip. Given the low winds I had a fantastic time, Provo is great!
Back at my desk, after clearing snow two days in a row, longing to be at the beach.
Enjoy the return of the tradewinds!
Cheers,
Jeff
Jeff,
How much difference is there between the xr3 17 and 19 in terms of low end and high end? Do they drop out in lulls? How is relaunch?
Thx,
Ed
Honestly Ed,
I wasn't flying the 19, it was my buddy Rory that was flying it, he uses the 19 because he is a bit heavier than I am, I'm 190 and he has about 25 pounds on me. I logged many hours on the 17 last week and the wind was quite variable throughout the day, I never had to switch kites as it picked up, at times when the wind picked up and I started to feel overpowered a quick trim adjust was all I needed and kept on riding.
Last week had it's share of lulls, but the kite never really dropped out, generally I could just sine the kite or sheet in and ride through it, the exception being if there was a shadow right at shore and I was trying to transition, can't ride through that, but if you knew it was coming you could plan for it and downloop the kite for your transition and ride back out. Yes, the 17 turns fast enough for that, just don't get overconfident and downloop it in a gust... Tried that too and the resulting yank was quite entertaining.
The low end on the 17 is great, again, I didn't use the 19 last week so I can't give a fair comparison. At my 190 lbs, if I could get the kite in the air, I could get up on my 139 twin tip. I will say that I did put it up in a day that was really low and only gusting to about 8 knots and got pulled downwind, on my 139, but any day the wind was above 8 knots I was golden.
As far as top end goes on the 19, I did get a comment from someone last week that thought Rory was somewhat insane going back out on the 19 when the wind picked up, I told him about that later and he just said that he trimmed it and never once felt overpowered. So I'd say the top end is absolutely controllable on the 19 too.
Relaunch is no problem at all, if you can launch it in the first place you can relaunch it. I say it this way because there still is a bottom end, I tried to see if I could launch it in almost no wind, just to see if I could get it in the air and kite on apparent wind, but it was just too light to launch in the first place. I did spend a bit of time just touching the kite down and relaunching in about 7 knots, never an issue. I also had it down with the leading edge up once, that was also an easy recovery on such a large kite, keep in mind though, this was tested in shallow water where you can get a foot down for leverage.
Bias disclaimer:
I am in the process of becoming a Core reseller in Canada, so some may think this is biased. I am however, truly stoked with these kites and will always try to be objective in what I state.
Cheers,
Jeff