If I were to pick one word to describe this kite it would be: SOLID.
Its so stiff when you pump it up its hard to weigh it down, the struts keep wanting to pop up... almost like its telling you it wants to go!
In the air the advantages of the extra stiffness is apparent as it flies straight and true even in gusty crap wind. I've flown it in the Gorge a few times and the wind there can be quite gusty, this kite makes you forget about the gusts as it stays so solid in the air and depowers so well.
It’s also very fast but not too fast. My previous small kite was a Airush ATV 6.5m. That kite was a lot of fun but it was too damn zippy, felt like flying a trainer kite. The 7m Yarga has a sort of big kite feel even though its quite small. The kite turns at normal speeds unless you apply lots of bar pressure and then it will turn like a 7m, which is great because sometimes you need it to go fast, but most of the time you want a kite that's easy to control.
Explosive lift is to be expected of a kite this small, and this kite definitely delivers, what's surprising though is the hang time. I had trouble timing a lot of my jumps at first because I expected the kite to drop me out of the sky quickly as other small kites usually do, but this one just hung me up there and drifted me down like a much bigger kite.
Because of its ability to go very fast, it has a very impressive wind range. I have been able to go upwind on it when others were on 12-13m kites.
The only negatives I can think of is that the bar pressure can feel quite heavy when you aren’t well powered. After 25 knots bar pressure is quite nice. I think the bar pressure helps though in keeping you from over flying the kite.
I tried it once in the waves and was happy to find it was so easy to fly I could concentrate on the waves and not what the kite was doing. Again the extra bar pressure nice in that it helped me keep track of what the kite was doing in the air without looking.
I like the kite so much I am going to get a Yarga 9m for my next size up. I have been flying the 10m Nemesis which I think is great for upwind and boosting, but requires too much speed to get its power, which can be trouble when in a lot of chop. The Yarga series seem to be a bit more versatile in the smaller sizes especially for wake-style tricks and heavy chop/wave riding because it can develop smooth solid power at lower speeds. Don’t get me wrong though, these kites can still go as fast as you want to.
Simply great kite performance wise, and the price is a sweet bonus. Thanks BEST!