We had a great day of winds today in Florida with winds averaging around 30mph most of the day...some gusts near 40mph at times. We pulled out a few kites from our shop to give them a try back to back. Flew the 8m Sonic, 9m Waroo, and 7m Shockwave. I work for Extreme Kites (http://www.oceanextremesports.com), so let me get that out in the open before my review. We carry these kites, and just about every other bow kite that is out now(Crossbow, Switchblade, Turbo Diesel, OR One). These are my thoughts from riding them today:
8m Sonic:
Positives: Light bar pressure, great high end, good low end(rode it later in the day when the winds backed off a lot and was still powered up), jumps to the moon, good speed(not slow, not super fast, just right), simple bridle, probably the smoothest feel of any of them.
Negatives: Most of these are with the bar, not the kite: don't like the depower cleat system they have on their bar. Made the mistake of starting out at full power and took me a few minutes to be able to get a hold of the depower end to pull in a few inches. Would like a better stopper ball so I can rest more..the current one didn't hold when I let go. Lack of pull through a bottom turn on a wave.
9m Waroo:
Positives: Light bar pressure, great high end, good low end, good speed, jumps to the moon(got a little higher on this one than the 8m Sonic...of course it is 1m bigger too...), better pull through the turns
Negatives: Not really much that I could find out. I've ridden this one in a lot lighter winds too. Probably the only negative so far is I find myself riding with the bar pushed away a lot and that is a bit awkward. Same thing on the Sonic. I guess without the 2:1 pulleys on the bar, it takes a little more to depower it.
7m Shockwave:
Postives: This thing had as much if not more power than the 8m Sonic and 9m Waroo. You could control it easier than the other two. Push the bar away only a few inches and most of the power is gone. Pull it all the way in, and watch out!. Good pull through a bottom turn on a wave, nice stopper ball that works so you can let go of your hands
Negatives: bar pressure was heavy. I knew the 12m had some heavy bar pressure, and didn't think the 7m would have much at all...but it did. Probably not anymore than the Crossbows, but after coming off the sonics and waroos, it fealt 2 times as heavy. I had some good jumps, but nothing close to the other two kites...but this is a wave riding kite, so jumping isn't really what it was made for...
Well, that is just a brief summary...wish we had more winds like this more often... My wife got this picture of a jump on the 8m Sonic.