Hello Seabreezers

With the season nearly upon us I am now looking sorting out my gear.
I had a mismatch of gear 12m vegas 9m rebel 7m rebel.

Kite style: Would say mainly freestyle. Love doing massive jumps, tricks etc.
I have only ever had rebels (bar the 12m vegas), I know feel like trying something new.

Q. Giving a choice would you go for Cabrinha Switchblade or Rebels.

Looking for dealers to demo the Cabrinha kites in Perth but looks like they are down south of the river.
If you think of any others kites worth a mention please let me know.

T.I.A

Hey mate,

If your doing "freestyle" then maybe the DICE is a better option for you.

If you simply want to do big jumps then the new REBEL is the go.

Do yourself a favor and demo a few options.

Can't comment on the new switchblade, sorry.

Last one i flew was 2013.

good luck

What sort of tricks are you talking about? That's important to advise.

kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2387985

You may find this useful comparing a SB to an evo, thought it was a good comparison, last post.

Basically what I am saying is, north have two kites (JB mentioned one of them) between the rebel and the vegas you might want to consider given your current quiver against the SBlade.

I will say this the Sblade has a nice solid feel like norths, so you are at least looking in the right area.

Hey Guys

Many thanks for the info, it really is a tough one picking kites, I didnt realise there was going to be so options etc etc
The rebel is North's all rounder and I guess I was looking for a similar all rounder, I was offered a brand new 9m and 12m Switchblade (2016 model) with a 2017 cabrinha Overdrive 1X Recoil bar for $2600 which seems like a good deal.

My way of thinking is I . go too wrong with a all rounder kite, but agree need to test before I pull the pin.

Hi Touch107fm,

The answer you are looking for is determined by the potential confusion with the terms "Freestyle" and Freeride". Most people use this term incorrectly. Back rolls, front rolls, roll and loop transitions as well as big jumps and much more, are "Freeride" tricks and NOT "Freestyle".

Freestyle boards and kites are VERY different to Freeride boards and kites. Freeride kites and boards tend to be much easier and less demanding to fly than their Freestyle counterparts. Timing, positioning and kite flying skill are much more critical with freestyle kites whereas freeride kites tend to have more "Sheet-and-go" performance and much more forgiving of little mistakes and less than perfect kite control.

A beginner can easily fly a high performance freestyle kite but they rarely are able to extract the useful power and performance from them and those kites then get labeled heavy, unstable, gutless etc

Rebel and Switchblade are similar but not same by any stretch. Rebel is more advanced freeride and boosting/social racing. It is 5-line and directly connected lines (no bridle). Switchy is all round performance, 4 line and bridled and probably a bit easier to get the most from it.

If you are truly looking for freestyle and don't want to go all the way to a Vegas, Torch, Fuel etc then there are a veritable plethora of 3 strut performance advanced freestyle/freeride kites from all the manufacturers. FX, RPM, Park, Dice, Enduro, GTS and the list goes on ... and on....

I'm happy to demo kites for you and discuss with you a kite to suit your needs.

DM

I own a 14 Rebel and an 11 SB and yes I know there is going to be a big difference with the turning speed solely because of the size but if I was to just look at the basic flying characteristics and imagine the 14 being a bit faster there would be bugger all difference between them both for the general rider like me. I just replaced my “other” brand 9 meter and I wanted to go with one of these two for all of my future kites... I've decided to go with the SB mainly because of the simplicity of the 4 lines.

Funny I wouldn't call either an allrounder. SB more so but really the 3 strut hybrid C types I'd call more all rounders in that you can apply more readily to all the kiting styles (to a certain degree). I'd call the SB and rebel more of a freeride specific kite.

Why limit yourself too 2 brands when there are so many amazing kites on the market ?

Ozone are going all out this year too give people the opportunity too try some of the best performing kites on the market.

If you get a chance come too the Global demo tour www.facebook.com/events/1139100949492653/

This is a great opportunity.