you find the shells and i'll bring my camera.

It would be good to know how effective the Waroo depower systems will be in extremely strong winds.

It would be easy enough to test this by tying the chicken loop onto the back of a truck with builder's twine, as a weak link, then blast down a runway at 80 kph and see if the weak link breaks.

The Sonic 11 has a sweet spot from 15-25 knots, gets a little less comfortable from 25-30 and above 30 it gets a bit unpleasant, wobbling around on the end of the lines. However, the depower effect is still fine. In the strongest winds I have been out in you can always get full depower by releasing the bar.

That justs has bad written all over it! I hope I am not on the road when you give this a go ...

The alternative is to go out riding on your shiny new 100% depower kite and wait and see what happens when you get caught by a gust front. It said 100% depower in the ad...

The truck method described is similar to the standard method of doing G loading test for hang gliders and paragliders. The only difference would be the kite is at the end of 25 metre lines.

Builder's twine is a standard weak link material and you can dial in the strength by the number of wraps of twine and the strength is testable and repeatable.

I would have a lot of confidence in the safety claims of a kite if they had video of them doing a proper test in controlled conditions. Just find an airstrip or a flat open paddock and do it first thing in the morning before the wind comes up. Use a big truck, a big airfield, a weak link and a backup guy with a cutaway device.

I haven't tried the 9m waroo in super strong wind, but the other day in ~ 25-30 my harness broke and I was able to let go of the bar and walk up both front lines with the kite just sitting on the side of the window, so not much pull at all...in this regard it seemed very similar to the sonic which I have also spent ~ 2 hours on.

The big difference is with the waroo I can get reach the bar if I let go while with the sonic I had to pull in the center line. So with the waroo I can let go of the bar while unspinning ,but can't do that with the sonic. that is a big + for me.

Also read LHs review and although I have spent much less time on each (just two sessions on each) it seemd to be consistent with my impressions of the differences. looking forward to trying some of the other waroo sizes to see if they also have that nice crisp handling combined with great wind range

Thanks for the great review, well done! The Waroo, you will find, grows on you the more you ride it until you could never imagine riding anything else...

Does that mean you are no longer riding anything else?

I seem to recall you earlier postings saying you were 50/50, then 70% with the remainder on the YPro, then... maybe this is a new declaration. I think it really makes a strong statement knowing what you ride given the fact that you can ride whatever the heck you want.

Waroo forever?

I seem to recall GB bagging Bow kites mercilessly!

EVERYTHING was bad about them!

Oh well,might as well jump on the band wagon.

The public has spoken.The public is smart.

Now all the Bow Naysayers are playing catch up !

I will thank you for not including me in your "the public speaks" bit; I'm quite capable of speaking for myself.

And I cannot quite understand from your post if it is a good or bad thing to be a "naysayer that is finally catching up." It sure sounds like a bad quality the way you are writing it. I'll admit, too, that when these things came out I was not a complete and total believer on Day 1 - but why would I have been?

So after time, with experience and when evidence emerges to show me that I was wrong about something, I change my mind.

What do you do?

I still bag bow kites, they suck. Too much bar pressure, too slidy through the turns, too grunty, etc, etc. and they kite loop for shit. The waroo is not a bow, its a kite that peter and I designed in Brazil and we designed away from all the negative aspects of a bow. That's why they're so hot right now, because even die-hard "C" riders instantly love the waroo, and if you've ridden a bow, you really approciate the waroo.