Postby eli_anderson » Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:20 pm
Ok, man words can't really say it more than just grab and go.
I like bar pressure. NOt a ton of pressure, but enough to feel where she is whilst doing silly stuff.
in low wind, the bar pressure was there, as one would have to push pull on the bar to get desired quickness, once the windwazup, less input was required to make the kite move vertically. At any time i felt I could control the pressure by increasing or decreasing my board speed, if I was riding fast, the pressure was med-little, If I rode slow, kite further out on the edge, seemed to require bigger inputs and there was med. pressure. I rode it for 2.5 hrs straight on one evening session.
compared to the Sport +, man thats tough. both seems to be around the same, go fast, less pressure, go slow more pressure.
There is a difference, in a side by side, same winds, example, 10mph, by 15 sport + will get me up, and I can take 'closed reaches' and jump a little higher finishing with a nice solid loop, you get some pressure from that.
In the same wind with the 17m, I could take the same reach, but board speed is quite a bit faster, once I pointed harder into the wind, the board speed slowed a little, but the speed upwind is very respectable.
Sport probably has more Pop, the Zephyr has some OUTSTANDING float! Both were nimble while floating.
I like the brute strength of the Sport, and the blazing speed of the Zephyr. Don't even get me started on the Edge Rx, cause it is even faster, more boosty, and crazy nimble!
I actually removed the pig tails on the back lines, in order to increase the pressure and the low end grunt, once I was on 'step' I let the bar out for speed. I made it Back Sheet/Stall as I tend to prefer some back stalling when in waves, specially big waves. and on KGB's also.
It likes to go fast, at some point I realized, slowing down the kite before redirecting, kept me up on plane while transitioning, once I was ready, I slowly let the bar out, half was ish, and she opened up again.
The Sport to me, is totally versatile, wake, dangle, wave, light wind it's all good.
The Zephyr, flat out kicked everything ass upwind, downwind, accross and it kept me riding my 132 when I'd be on a surf/skim board with my 15 sport.
I basically describe the bar pressure as perfect, you can cleat, or add some trim to speed up the kite and decrease pressure at any point.
Does that help? I tried.
I had a 16 year old kid on it yesterday in super light winds, I told him just try to stay up wind, well, on his first reach he jumped 4 times one right after another, and still went up wind.