I have spent 10 hours with my Zephyr now.
Rider: 189 cm tall, 85 kg, decent rider. My previous lightwind kite was a 2009 Cabrinha Crossbow 16.
Not ready yet to write a full review on it but here you are my first impressions.
- In 18 knots on a twin tip I do not even need to touch the depower cleat.
- In 9 knots on my NJS race board and using 35 meter lines I am cranking upwind with excellent angle and speed
- The kite lets me do very deep downwind runs in very light wind keeping speed and with no stalling, looping the kite.
- The zephyr pulls through kiteloops and has a very "C" kite pull, threw a few F16s in 18 knots and found myself 5 meter high and travelling downwind with speed. Fortunately the kite rounds up the kiteloop perfectly so you end with the kite above you, so landings are soft (but with lots of speed).
- In 9 knots the kite relaunches in a blink
- I let some girls and light guys give it a try and they were a bit reluctant at first, they all have tried my Contra 17 and Xbow 16 in the past and they all hated the "truck pull". It was not the case with the Zephyr, they all were amazed on how easy the kite was and how early they could get going, but effortlessly.
Ok, enough by now. To be continued.....
This is me comfortably cruising in 9 knots, wind is dead onshore. Please notice there's no white caps at all and the other kiters are struggling in the shore