I spent a recent period of time flying a 12m batwing and thought I'd report on the results.

The kite is certainly unique in design and has a couple of features not commonly found on other kites. The design feature I am most impressed with on this kite is the ability to depower without the use of pullies or fifth lines. The front lines connect to a single point on the bridle making a secure conneciton with the kite. The reduction in complexity from other bridle systems is a genuine design improvement and will improve on the reliability of pullied SLE kites. The amount of depower available to the rider is quite high but depends on the available bar travel (I tested on a sonic bar), the rider has the ability to significantly depower the kite. Depower was available within a comfortable arms reach, an area that has been a bit of aproblem on some of the other direct rear line/no bar pullies SLE kites. The use of a bridle brings the benefits of reverse relaunch.

I didn't use the single point inflation system which uses short, removable joining sections to link the LE with each of the struts. The pre-production link sections were not quite finalised at tthe time of testing so I inflated each strut separately. This was relatively easy due to the ball valves on each strut. The ball valves worked consistently and maintained a good seal.

Construction looks solid. The struts use a nice double-stitched flat seam while the LE seam is also reinforced with an additional layer of cloth. The LE is well protected with scuff pads including a long one in the knuckle of the LE where it would drag on the ground when held the wrong way up. The bridle attachement points look solid and include reinforcement that looks designed to tolerate loads from multiple directions (as would occur when the kite is in the water or in the surf). The canopy and wing tips include areas in kevlar/mylar laminate. These are used to give the kite the bat design as well as carry the load on the trailing edge and wing tips. The notch in the trailing edge is an interesting design development. I believe it is intended to make each half of the trailing edge more independence when turning. It may also have some impact on the airflow under stalled conditions. I'm not sure how best to evaluate it apart from reporting how it flys.

The kite is quite stable in the sky when standing depowered on the beach. Some put this down to the use of battens though I'm not sure. I suspect that other design parameters play an important part. When riding, bar pressure is slightly higher than I am used to (I normally fly sonics), but after a session or two I was comfortable with the bar pressure. It was immediately noticeable that the kite was more tolerant to bar position than my regular kite the sonic. The kite is less prone to stalling than the sonic, though this is not really a problem for experienced riders. It does give the rider a little more flexibility in terms of bar positioning though. Where this flexibility really pays off is in the jumping. I found that I was able to consistently jump higher with the batwing than my regular kites, despite having spent two seasons on my own kites. Now I am no pro and I'm sure that in the right hands my kites are capable of the same height, but I found the batwing easier to achieve good, consistent height on. I suspect the tolerance to a wider range on bar positions is what delivers the consistent jumping height. For a non-pro like me this is a big plus.
Turning speed was good. I flew the kite in its mid/low range and so didn't really get to experience its behaviour at the top end. I suspect that the deep SLE shape will be relatively resistant to inversion and allow it to maintain stability in higher winds. I'd like to test it out but am obliged to pass on the demo kite to other riders.

I only had two relauches with the kite. Both were easy with a similar technique to the sonic. Pull one back line to lift one side off the water and then release it when the kite is on its side or pointing skywards.

The kite was provided as a temporary demo direct by WindWing. I have no affiliation with any kite brand.

I'll try to get a few pics up over the weekend.

Cheers,
Munteruk

Pics as promised.

Thanks for the review... A few questions:
- What do you weigh?
- What size board were you riding?
- What were the conditions - wind and water (flat, surf, chop...etc)?

And the ultimate question... would you replace your Sonic quiver for Batwings based on your demo?

I ride '06 Sonics (14 and 11), love them, disappointed in the construction and kinda shopping for new kites (but who isn't always kinda shopping for new gear?)

I weight about 74kg.
Board was a 122 x 36 (pretty small really)
Conditions were about 12-15kts cross onshore in small surf

Certainly the kite felt more robust than the sonic which can feel a little light sometimes. I haven't had any issues with the construction of my sonics though so I can't be too critical. I'd emphasize that the construction of the batwing really looks solid. I like it.

The batwing feels a little more c-kite like than the sonic. It pulls you off the water differently in jumps and I certainly appreciated the extra height it gave. I'm not sure how I felt about the insensitivity to bar position. At first I didn't like it. I couldn't tell where to put the bar. After a while I realised that the kite didn't really care and it didn't matter to performance whereas I find on the sonic this is very important. You can still over sheet this kite (like all kites) but it seems to come on softer. Which style is better - I don't know. I suspect that the batwing would probably be better when unhooked as there would be no need to greatly adjust the chicken loop. I also suspect that the sonic with its sensitive sheeting may run a little closer to the peak of all out efficiency. Different properties for different types of riders I supose.
It would be interesting to see how the 9m and the 15.5m fly. I think the biggest gains in kite performance (across all manufacturers) need to be made in the larger sizes which have generally felt a little slow compared
their smaller models.

For me its a moot point - I don't own the batwing and my kiting budget is expended for the season...