Epic 10M Ltd Screamer Review

[thekiter]

I was fortunate to be invited to Brazil in August 2010 and wanted to take a one kite one board setup to elude the airport baggage fees. I had an Underground 128 FLX board that fit in an old soft golf bag but I didnt have a kite that could handle the large wind differences my trip would bring.

I was told that Brazil would bring 20-35kt winds so I looked online and found that Epic had a 10M limited edition kite called the Screamer which claimed a 15-35kt range...
I know Dimitri can ride well but was he smoking crack when he came up with these figures?!

I contacted Dimitri and his team and asked for a 10M to be delivered to me for testing in the land of the big round butt. It was a big gamble only taking one kite but I have been stung too many times at the airport having to pay $100+ for excess baggage. This time though TAM airways let me check my bag without any excess!!

I got to Brazil and immediately unpacked my kite and the first thing I noticed was the attention to detail on Epic's kite manufacturing. The stitching was solid with reinforcements everywhere and the color scheme was very cool, black with gold lettering.
The bar was a simple design with over bar depower and under bar swivel. The bar had elastic loops to keep lines in place when wrapped up and comfortable soft foam grip. The lines came in 20M with 4M extensions which made sense for the wind range claims.

I ended up riding the Screamer for 3 weeks and only used the 4M extension lines on 3 occasions where the wind dipped to 20kts. Most days the wind blew around 30kts and I had ample power for 30-40ft airs without issue. The kite pulled as hard as my 12M SB and turned as quickly as my 8M SB which surprised me quite a bit.
Once I started riding the kite I amassed quite a collection of bystanders including kiters so I let a few local kiters try out the kite and one ended up buying it off me at the end of the trip!

In conclusion I have to say that I love this kite for big airs and upwind capability, its range is amazing, this is THE kite for a trip where space is limited. In fact I am sure that this kite could replace ALL my other kiteboarding kites if I had two boards. I could sell all my SBs and just have this one kite to replace them all if twin tip riding was my only passion! But this kite is NOT for beginners or kitesurfers as its aggressive flying style makes it fly forward in the wind window which is great for upwind reach and boosting but horrible for wave riding. Epic I salute you for a job well done, Dimitiri... see you in the air sometime soon!

PS
Epic, can you now make a wave riding kite with the same range?!