It's obviously windy up north because noone has said a word about the new C4. Apart from the good colours what's the difference?

2011 C4 and Catalyst kites are now available at KP Sydney for demo, and we will be sending them around to other dealers on the East Coast soon too.

Hi There Wishy,

Yep, we had plenty of wind up North and got to play with the kites. C4's were plenty popular kites and spent most of the week flying.

I'd rather other riders place reviews on the kites, there were plenty who rode them and enjoyed them so come on guys and girls of Exy Expo, review away.

Personally, I felt they were quite similar to 2010 kites but marginally gruntier, and definately smoother, perhaps a touch more responsive. Changes are subtle and to really get nit picky you'd need to fly 010 and 011 back to back.

Also a front bridle adjustment which I didn't have much time to play around with, buut basically a 5 second adjustment makes them more "C" like than freeride.

New inflation/deflation valve and cover, new bar setup which is way cleaner (no more back line adjusters) and smoother trim system. Bars now in 45, 50 and 55cm depending on size.

Wicked new graphix and colours. Really stunning kites. I have 12m and 9m demo's available in Perth from tomorrow onwards!

DM

While you wait: S-bend on C4 2010:

and one on a 04/05 LF kite

After missing most of last season from broken then rebroken ribs I am now finding it hard to do anything more than freeriding. The only kite That I feel 100% confident that will be where I want it is my 9m Generator (all sle kites I have tried don't give me the feedback on what they are doing). The problem is getting back into kiteloops is full on with the generator. The torch and vegas are pretty similar. So I spent a bit of time on the c4 and my confidence is building. Kite loops don't stretch every vertebrae in your back but a smooth power right through the loop and you can control the size of the loop with your eyes closed. Un hooking is so easy you can even un hook and keep edging for a bit. I didn't have much of a go on last years C4 but they feel pretty similar although getting rid of the rear line trimmers cleans up the bar and the bigger valve seems a bit easier to pump up. I played with the bridle adjustment a bit and the difference is noticeable but the setting I prefer makes the kite similar to last year, the other would probably be for high winds when over powered. All in all I think you would have to ride the 010 and 011 kites back to back to find any real differences besides cosmetic which I reckon is better. The C4 is in my opinion the easiest kite to get into freestyle
but still not my ideal choice for surf. And Wishy we do have sw wind all day atm but this year it keeps being broken up with light northerlies so I think the longest span of wind has only been about 6 day's. Not sure what it means but is totally different to any other year, it might be a big cyclone year I suppose.

We tried a 2011 9m C4 up at Exmouth. It felt similar to the 2010 model, slightly lighter, smoother and more responsive. I would describe it as the kind of kite where you can pick it up and feel totally dialed straight away. The improvements became even more noticeable when we went back to the 2010 model. Awesome for waves or flat, unhooked moves or cranking predictable, powerful boosts and kiteloops. Definitely worth trying, I think they start arriving in Oz in the next few weeks!