Hi first let me congratulate the switch team, on the excellent job with shipping, I took the free shipping option, just cause I'm in FL, and there isn't much going on here in the summer, and I had the kites in 5 business days, unbelievable fast. Are you sure you're shipping from HK? lol
OK, Yesterday: 26-30 mph Side shore, 2-3ft, I took my 6'0" Wam (Quad setup), 9m Method fresh out of the bag, and to the beach. Inflate half way, shake it up a bit, make sure bladders are in place, just in case, LOVE, and I mean LOOOOVE the inflation system. holy cow, to inflate was super fast, I mean granted there isn't much LE and 3 struts to inflate, but still, I've never been done riggin so quickly. I must admit I was a bit weirded out with how thin the LE is, but is good, I inflate really well, and off I go.
I inspect the kite, looks solid, fabric looks like every other kite, although I'm not sure if it is, the kite seems incredibly light, which I guess could be due to the 3 strut and reduced LE diameter. Bridal seems thicker, stronger that other kites I've owned or flown. Nothing extraordinary or surprising about the obvious construction.
Immediately I dive the kite and I get yanked off the board, almost tomahawking the kite, shit this kite has power, so I regroup, and go out, WOW, what a feeling, the first 15-30 mins was feeling the kite out, tons of power, can't imagine any other kite being quicker, holy cow this guy is fast.
So I go out, through the break, quickly, and powered up, I make my first real turn, OOOOOMG, here it is, the freaking power turn I've been reading about, it is awesome, I wiped out my first one though, didn't expect it. but from this time on, I was on, I felt like a Formula 1 on a turn at 200 mph, what a feeling. So I crashed my first turn, so I'm getting ready to relaunch, kite is sitting waiting on me ... it was like the kite was asking me ... come on you pansy, get me up, let do this! excellent relaunch.
I crashed the kite 3 times, not my fault, chicken loops completely came out of the harness, not sure still how that happened. Another time was during that power turn, well offshore, and another near the impact zone, which I though was gona be a real bitch, cause one of the wings was taking a lot of water, all 3 times, kite just jumped out of the water. Very impressed.
On the wave I'm a bit more powered that I'd like, I did notice that the throw is relatively short, keeping the kite powered up a bit, allowing it to remin a bit hot on the wave, perhaps I should've been on a smaller kite. But it drifts wonderful, and again, I love the fact that I pull on the bar, and the kite is there, turning where I want it, when I want it.
I'm used to ridding Cab SBs, so the bar pressure didn't bother me at all, the bar pressure I though it was perfect, if the element had this much bar pressure, I'd change quiver, mainly cause of the versatility, but if that means loosing kite turning speed, I'd stick with the method. I like to feel the kite.
I didn't boost any (intentionally), but can't wait to take the kite for a spin on a flat day, feels like it boots big time. I could feel the uplift at times, and feel GOOD.
OK, now is not all good: but I'm not blaming the kite yet, could be me not used to it.
There was a time, not sure exactly what happened, but the kite passed over me, and completely fell out of the sky, I recovered it, but it was very weird. I was recovering my board when it happened, so honestly not sure if its something I did with the bar.
Another thing is, I noticed this is a noisy kite, It flutters quite a bit, you can hear the fabric a lot during the gusts, it handled the gusts OK, not its best, but honestly so far so much good, I don't care, I can adjust to this.
I also noticed that the kite like to fly powered up, I tried depowering a bit, and the kite seemed to drag, it felt slow and without any power, didn't affect the turning speed, but seemed to depower A LOT, almost too much, with just a bit of depower.
My main complain is the bar. the depower got jammed once, I had to get off the board to concentrate on powering my kite back up, the bar seems a but cluttered though, and the BS velcro on the depower DOESN'T WORK, so the depower strap is dangling, and wraps around the center line.
This was my first time out, so ... Thanks to Tropical Storm Debbie, considering getting a 7 or even the 5 for more wind range.
In a nutshell, I'm honestly starting to think, how did I ever fly anything else. This is what I'd always thought a kite should be and behave like.
So there my 2 cents...