Got my Waroo 20 today .. nice colour , blue leading edge , red canopy
Turns nice for a big kite.. great bottom end . I was only on the water for an hour or so.. for the most part I could stay upwind.. but would lose ground on the lulls .. have a look at the graph below.. I was riding on and off between 4 pm and 6 pm (btw.. I am 220 lb and was on a large 44x158 plywood board.. )

Anyways.. it seems awesome sofar, can't wait to test the high end and the boosting..

just another shot... (no white caps... real light)

underside..

so what woul you say the bottom end is?

3 knots for someone lighter?

think my wife could hang on th beach and talk at me and create enough wind to kite in.
damn dude....that is light friggin wind, and i hear the nemi pro 21 is the light wind king in their line up....hmmm

Here is a link to a short video ... taken at the same time by Paul from PBK kiteboarding .. Thanks Paul

http://www.pbkiteboarding.com/movies/steve_waroo.mov

What was the guy upwind of you in the video riding?

Fred

I think is was a Naish Raven 16m and a Jimmy Lewis surfboard.. the guy that was riding that is a very efficient rider.. and I believe he weighs somewhere around 160 lb ... he still had to work the kite, a lot harder than I did in order to stay upwind.. just to put it in perspective.. I'm usually sitting on the beach watching these guys.. even when I ran my contra 19.5 I couldn't get out in the same winds as guys on surfboards or skimboards that were running 16m kites ..

Don't get me wrong , the 20 waroo is not necessarily the ultimate light wind kite, it can stall fairly easily and you have to trim it to fairly precisely. however, as far as I know it's the first larger then 16m SLE kite and I was very concerned that they couldn't translate the turning speed or the power of the other smaller waroo's into the larger kites.... I believe they've done an excellent job at Best of delivering a kite that will be useful for larger riders and give similar performance to any other 20 m C, SLE or Bow kite on the market.
this also does not mean that a guy of 140 pounds can run this kite in 3-5 kt, the kite simply won't stay in the air properly If it gets below its range.. I believe this kite is really designed for larger guys who need that extra grunt... small guys are probably a lot better off sticking to the waroo 14 and 16m but if you're over 185 lb .. the 20 will be a great addition to your quiver.

Hopefully they will have the Contras and the big Waroos available for demo at Kite Expo in Pismo Beach next week.
I'm curious about the upwind preformance of the Waroo 20 in low wind.
I've seen Waroo 16 and 14s around here, but the upwind preformance doesn't look stellar on these kites. The riders I've seen arn't staying upwind while other kiters are. However once the wind gets above a certain amount they go upwind better than some of the other kites.
I'm getting the impression that the upwind threshold is a bit high with the Waroo, but when it kicks in its better than avarage.
Due to the Beaches I kite at I need to be going upwind at the lowest wind range. Just holding my ground won't cut it as the wind is often onshore or the launch areas are upwind of areas where kiting is banned.
Right now I ride a Flysurfer Speed 17 at it is great for these conditions and my weight 225lbs. I was going a mile and a half upwind while a skilled much lighter guy on a Waroo 16 was not holding his ground. However the Speed 17 is not ideal in big surf so I'm looking into a bigger SLE or a Flysurfer Pulse.
You mentioned that the Waroo20 is a bit prone to stalling. Do you think this could be a problem in the waves?

Cheers

Fred

Fred,
I think you are right about the threshold of the waroos. On the low end of my 9m you really have to have perfect flying techinique to keep your speed and you cant bear off too hard to get upwind or the kite will lose power. But like you said, when the wind is strong enough these kites go upwind like crazy.
Coleman

wow, that's some pretty damn light wind,and a pretty big board..

i might have to collect a 20m for personal use....