have you ever flown the ion2?

how do you compare the 9 atom to the 8.5 ion2?

Dave,

I rode the 10.5m Ion2 in 30knots on Saturday on the 20m lines and all I can say is AWESOME!

I should have tried it heaps earlier. The kite is super quick and gives a very direct feel, as you'd expect. Power definitely reduced, which is exactly what I needed - otherwise on the 25m lines I was just hanging on and jumping big.

What I found surprising was the size and hangtime of the jumps, even with 5m less lines. It hardly made any difference. It was also great for throwing around in the chop, hanging out to test it like this in some real waves.

This kite rocks! I still can't understand why more people aren't testing out flexifoils. They are built tough, fly brilliantly and are probably the best engineered out there. Simple, reliable and functional. No bits that break, get in the way, or just take up space.

Well I can give a review as i rode the 9m today.
15 to 20 knots, onshore, bigger than normal surf and again a new board to play with [555]
The conditions were tameable with this kite. A fast and reliable motion was exactly what I needed and the way the kite delivered was a good indicator as I had never flown it before.
The first problem I had was with the launching; I stood on a fragmented cuttle-fish and sliced open my toe, still nothing i can fault on the kite although I wasn't impressed by the inflate valve giving resistance when pumping up but that was easily solved by pumping up using the deflate valve instead.

The Rev and Atom are very similar but the Atom was a bit more traditional in its behaviour on the edge of the window. [the REV is awesome at the edge]
But back to the atom, the Atom was at home in the onshore surf and frontal conditions but due to the conditions I didn't try any moves [having to ride in the white water] but I did do surf riding that was impressive [I'm talking about the kites performance] as I could always rely on the kite to get me out of trouble when a set was coming through.

The upwind ability was unlike anything I have ridden though, that or the use of the swash for current as that was a new thing for me. The angle I was making to the wind allowed me to go directly along the beach one way and out to sea the other. Unfortunately I couldn't make it through the surf to the deep more often and the times I did I got bored and went back to surf riding.

When I got dumped and washed around the kite behaved well, not luffing or doing anything annoying like it.

To compare the kite to the Ion2 I would say that it flys basically the same but the atom would have better upwind and the Ion turns better.
I think i have to fly it again as the conditions were so different to normal that everything would be based on the conditions not really the kite.

My conclusion is some people will love it but others will go for something different but they will have to think a lot about the Atom before hand.