I sold my 17m & 14m CO2 2004 to upgrade to 2006 kites. Today, 7-24-05 Sunday, I got to demo a 12m Cross Bow. I have read every thing I could find about this new kite so I want to give my story to help others make up their minds. Thanks to Mat, Cabrinha rep, for bringing them to St. Augustine and Daryl at Extreme Kites for the demo day.
Let me set the day up for you: the rider, wind, current and other sizes of kites.
Rider: Me, Don Smith, Grandpa or whatever you want to call me. 60 plus in age, 168 lbs, 2.5 years kiting.
Wind: 7-8-9 at the start going up to 10-14, maybe 15 & 16 gust for about 15 minutes.
Current: Opposing current of 2 to 3 mph against the wind.
I went out in7-8-9, metered on beach, with a 145 Lightwave and could stay upwind. Remember to add 2 or 3 mph of current to the wind, making it around 9-10-11 or 12 mph of wind blowing in the kite and I couldn't believe that I could go, much less gain ground. The 23m, 20m kites were going but not better than me. Wind picks up around 10, 12, sometimes even 13 & 14 mph and the 12m Cross Bow comes to life. The 20m are power but they couldn't believe how the 12m Cross Bow was performing. Fast, nice jumps and hang time for any kite much a 12m in 20m conditions.
I think the 12m will do what a 15m on the low end does, maybe a 16m to somewhere around a 9m on the top end.
By the way, when the bar has locking abilities, and you fine tune the override ball to your wants you will be able to do everything you do now.
Just more safe.

i had the same wind but without opposing current--south side of jetty on naval station mayport. using a peter lynn venom 16 on 100 ft lines. stayed up wind and overall a good session. thanks to daryl at oceanextreme sports for the venom!

U right, I tested also the Xbow in a 10 - 12 mph in the same time as the North R5 20m
and I was able to keep up with on a 159 Mutant.
Thanks for the testings Cab Driver.

When it picked-up to 14 - 16 I was able to reach about 18 feet heights according people on the shore.
I thought never coming down the hangtime was soo sweet.

DrLW

do you have info about the rigity of the kite in high end? because this kite is really flat on pics and I really would like to know how it works.

The kite maintains its rigidity pretty much despite how much wind you throw at it.

Me and a few other people had the 12m XBow in 18-32kts in the Gorge last saturday with no problems depowering or getting nice jumps.

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