Honest comments without the standard sales pitches please.

Im in the market for a new kite after ripping my Bandit Dos in half at the Robe Nationals (awesome event), and am having a lot of difficulty finding time to demo the massive range available. Im looking for unbiased opinions from anyone who has had the oportunity to ride the range to help narrow my search.

Im trying to decide between the Bandit 3, Switchblade, LF Envy, HIFI comp and Fuel at this stage.

Im an 80kg rider who prefers the flat water consider myself a beginner, though have been riding for 2 years and want to progress my free/wake style, but am alos looking to dabble in some waves.

As I said please keep the "I ride this, therefore it is the best and you should this one" to a minimum. If you can directly compare kites to each other (or even better to the Bandit Dos) it would be a great help.

Cheers

Guids

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caseyguids said...

Honest comments without the standard sales pitches please.

Im in the market for a new kite after ripping my Bandit Dos in half at the Robe Nationals (awesome event), and am having a lot of difficulty finding time to demo the massive range available. Im looking for unbiased opinions from anyone who has had the oportunity to ride the range to help narrow my search.

Im trying to decide between the Bandit 3, Switchblade, LF Envy, HIFI comp and Fuel at this stage.

Im an 80kg rider who prefers the flat water consider myself a beginner, though have been riding for 2 years and want to progress my free/wake style, but am alos looking to dabble in some waves.

As I said please keep the "I ride this, therefore it is the best and you should this one" to a minimum. If you can directly compare kites to each other (or even better to the Bandit Dos) it would be a great help.

Cheers

Guids

Hi Guids,
First of all happy christmas :-)

Ok out of the kites you have mentioned, ill start with the Bandit 3 but ill keep it short and sweet...

Bandit 3: Ok firstly if you have ridden the Dos, which you have, then you have a good comparrisen to go by.
I have flown the Dos many times but was really eager to get out and try the new improoved Bandit when it was released... i was extremely dissapointed! Its totally different in the air compared to the Dos and the normal Bandit.
The light wind abbility has been taken away but the high end is only slightly better imo!
Its also supposed to loop better, but everytime i looped her, she dropped me like a stone!
If your after freestyle/wakestyle, then this is not ur kite!
If your after waves, then you might like it better than the other kites you have mentioned!

Switchblade 2010: I havent actually flown this kite but i know there very wakestyle orientated and would be the equivelent of looking at the Havoc 2010.
These are both 4 line kites so will be better in the waves than a 5 line kite.

Envy: I have flown this kite several times now and its a very grunty kite and feels very similar in the air to the Wainman Rabbit.
Very quick through the air with very good wakestyle appeal!
Would also be extremely good in the waves in the smaller sizes.
Loops ok but there are alot better kites out there for looping due to its shape!

Fuel 2010: Marmite springs to mind... you either love it or you hate it! This is a kite not for the feint hearted, it will spank you when your least expecting it and you have to be really dialled into this style of kite to get the best out of it.
If your a beginner like you said you were, then i would seriously take this off your list of kites to buy.

Hifi Comp 2010: This has the most freestyle performance out of the lot here, explosive pop when you unhook and amazing kiteloops.
If you want a kite purely for freestyle/wakestyle then this is your weapon of choice!
More depower than you could ever want for a C kite, more so than the Envy imo!
But would be a bad kite choice for waves. 5 lines etc!

You cant have a kite that will be excellent at everything... but certain kites do excell at somethings over others!
You have to decide whether you want to ride waves or ride freestyle.

Hope this helps.

Merry Christmas!

Ps. sorry i couldnt give you info on the Switchblade but im sure someone will be able to help you there!

The Bandit dos was a great grunty kite but being a heavier ridder i found it stalled a lot and it was way to agresive for wake style or freestyle as it was just a beast that would spank you if you got it wrong plus the loops really sucked.

The B3 is a way better wake style kite that rides fast is supper stable and i find for my weight it is just a better kite than the dos. It does take a bit to tune in to it but as long as you know that it flys further forward in the window driving further up wind and giving a better top end and smoother lighter feel on the bar plus it is the best kite i have ever unhooked on as i can un hook on it when it is in the top end of the wind range easily you need to drop the kite back in the window a bit more but then you get that real bandit pull in your tricks.

The cabs even though they seem to get stuck in trees easily are just a nice easy kite to use and ride but dont expect any real grunt like the dos at any time, they do loop very smoothly though.

Cant coment on the envy but is one kite worth demoing.

The fuel is normaly a 2 kite min quiver 3 kites if you can aford it not quit what you are after i dont think.

The nobile T5 is a great kite verry grunty for its size you should be able to get one for a demo in adelaide easily You may like it I did.

The Waiman kite is allso a good kite to try only had one ride on it so far but seemed great but i didnt like un hooking on it as much as the B3 but if i get a bit more time on it i would be able to tune the kite to the way i like it it has a lot of tuning options and is a awsome wave kite i have heard.

Hope this helps

Hi Casey

I have tried the B3 and i have to agree with blue ice,it was nothing like the Dos.

Switchblade 2010: i found a bit slow through the air in the larger sizes but the hang time was really good. great for un-hooking as it parks nicely.

Envy: once again i agree with Blue ice its a very grunty kite. (No need for more info)

Fuel 2010: Nice kite for freestyle, if you are after a kite that re launches like a delta, bow or hybrid, then its not for you.

HiFi Comp 2010: Havent tried so i cant comment.

I recently brought a JN Prima Donna 3, there are not many around, i think they have only come to Australia this year but im not to sure about that. I was like you wanting to get more into freestyle and wakestyle and i absolutely love it. Its a c shape so once again you would have to get used to the way it flies. its a five line basically for the safety but it makes the re launch a lot easier than a four line c kite.

Hope that helps

Good luck
its a hard choice this year

I'll keep this short n sweet.

I had last years Dos's... Loved them but things wear so I replace my gear annually.

Ordered some B3's, then demo'd them in 10 and 13. As noted nothing like last years.
Ended up demoing lots of kites and bought the new 2010 10.5 Helix as I Personally loved the feel of It. Still yet to replace my 12 dos but havn't used it much lately as the 10.5 is one sweet kite.

Just bought the misses a 7m switchy... You won't find me bagging Cabs here any more.
It's a bloody great kite and people should ride one before they bag em