Hi peeps,
I've been driving around with the brand new Flysurfer Sonic 3 in the back of my car all week waiting for a decent day to give it a fly. Today was that day!
i bought the 13m Sonic 3 to see how it would go in racing and freeride. The Soul is already an incredibly easy kite to ride and when racing on a reach or downwind it is fast, but upwind, it gives away too much height to be really competitive racing foils around a course.
I normally fly FS VMG race kites which are phenomenal upwind and good downwind, but they are technical to fly, can be a little cantankerous at times and tend to be fragile. The Sonic 3 is based on the VMG so I was very curious as to how it would race.
The Sonic 3 is tauted as a high performance Twin tip freeride, boosting and foiling beast.
Although the DNA of the new Sonic 3 is in its VMG foundation, With a reduced aspect ratio, it shares a lot of its design from the Soul too. The A,B and C, bridle rows are from the Soul as the VMG has only A and B. The materials of construction are same as the Soul which means it's tough. Single bung to deflate same as the VMG but it has 7 air intakes for better pressure and fast inflation.
This really is a mix of both kites. so how does it fly?
From launch, you notice how quick it inflates. From a side wind window launch going directly to 12 o'clock, it had fully inflated before it got to 12, I was so surprised, I normally wrangle most foil kites to 12 and rock them to fill them, this was almost instant. The canopy is very stable, no wobble at all and wing tips that refused to fold. Steering is quite direct and the kite is very responsive but likes to have some concerted input. My VMG's are feather light and responsive so I had to learn to be a bit more forceful. bar pressure is much higher than what I am used to but the Sonic 3 has depower ... lots of it! These are the things I took longest to-get used to, firm bar pressure which increased as you sheet it in giving you very direct feedback. It's pretty hard to oversheet and stall unlike the VMG. Sonic 3 has a good sheeting range and is one grunty beast. So much power on tap, just need to keep the bar in on tacks for the loft and be more aggressive with it. Sonic 3 downloop starts easily with just turning the bar rather than grabbing leaders to turn harder. Down loop gybes were so easy and on the few times I folded a wing tip in the down loop, the tips on stand popped open again immediately with no input from me. Upwind performance wasn't as insane as the VMG as expected, but was comparable to the R1's I was Kiting with. Speed was very good and in the 15 knot guts we easily did 33.9 knots downwind without even really trying which wasn't too shabby.
on the first couple of laps, I felt the Sonic was easily as good as the R1's and possibly even a touch better but hard to be sure in the conditions we were in, so I'll settle for very competitive. One of the two other kites disappeared and came back out later The R1 was a 15m and the F-One an 18, I didn't notice the kite swap and was getting left behind a bit but realized later which made me feel better. In summary, Flysurfer have built a fast kite that is tough and easy to fly, very forgiving and grunty for the boosting community. A hell of a kite, very impressed and available for demo to people who can fly foil kites well. It is still very much an experienced foil kite flyers kite, but has incredibly accessible performance. Bravo Flysurfer, Bravo! DM
ActionSportsWA
> 9 months ago, 6 Mar 2020
