Rider: 84kg, advanced
Style: Freeriding Wake, Freestyle
Weather: 17-22knots
Build Quality: 9/10
Satisfaction: 8/10
Disclosure: nil

First off, Wakestlyle bar.
This thing was as rare as hens teeth to get a hold of - I finally found 1 in the kite town of Tarifa Spain - after checking 15 or so kite shops. At the time, there weren't any in Australian shops that I could find.

Why... because when you ride a 7meter in 30kts, even on hard setting, even on slow turn setting, even with the bar width shortened. You inevitably still easily end up doing double kite loops in the middle of you handlepass - because they ( the smaller kites ) are so twitchy. That's why I got the bar.

Trust bar vs Wakestyle.
I found that there was more back line / steering pressure to steer the kite on wakestyle bar, - which translates to less twitchyness in the stronger stuff. I think the black plastic will have wear problems, as I can already feel it catching when the bar is fully pulled in, at the spot where the spectra comes out of the black plastic, the lip tends to almost catch, on the middle part of the bar. Kite turning, you loose the ability to pivot the kite as much, compared to the trust bar, which means turns are not as tiny, but they are more powered. My wife commented that it was too hard to turn after this mod - just going from the trust to the wakestyle



Hadlow setup vs 5th line
The safety system is gone on the hadlow setup. Instead - you get sort of a single line flagging system. I haven't tried this yet, so can't comment on weather or not there is a death spiral, also - the 5th line ain't attached any more, and I can't comment on the relaunch at all- but I think this will be different to the normal trust bar options -as you pull the 5th line, your actually puling one of the front hadlow lines on one side.

The kite- flew a lot better on the hadlow setup, than it did on the trust setup in slow/hard mode. It seemed to give a much more consistent pull, the turn was quicker, depower felt slighty less effective - however, the power up that you would normally get with big wind shifts and gusts, felt completely smoothed out by the line setup - than compared with the trust bar which gives you full feedback all the time - I think it's that there is more residual pressure on the bar when you are depowered.


In summary - I will use this setup on the 7 and 9, and probably give it a crack on the 12 - although the bar may be too small for it.

thanks for the good review.

Had another sesh, this time at Point Walter.

Other guys were riding 10 and 12 meter kites. 14-20 kts

I get the feeling that the 6 line setup - ( not the wakestyle bar ) is increasing the low end of the 9 meter by and opening up the shoulders of the kite more than the 5th line setup does. Normally on the Trust bar, I find if I change to the wakestyle setting, the kite sits further back in the window, and less upwind as a result. The 6 line setup - on the wakestyle pigtails, still sits back, but it kind of feels more like the trust on high depower, when edging upwind.

UPDATED:

Ok guys,

I was curious so I smacked the kite into the drink a couple times, to see what was going to happen with the relaunch.

This was a 2015 - 9 meter hadlow edition vegas, slow turn, low depower setting, using the 2015 wakestyle bar, 6 line setup.

First off - loops in this setting were big and powered, and end for ending the bar, is a must! The depower was fantastic, I read a few guys , including hadlow saying that you loose depower, but I think you gain rear line bar pressure, and the kite seems much much more stable in it's pull. The depower definitely still works as before.... On to the crashes

I did 2 direct downwind, and about 4 from the side, where the kite was Leading edge in.

It was hard to get the kite LE down on the side, because it kept relaunching like a bow kite straight away ! so that's basically it, pull the outside back line a couple feet, it reverses into the C shape, and launches

Kite dead Downwind, you can see the line pressure is 100% on the 2 hadlow lines, which kind of makes the kite rock a little from side to side. Again, tug a couple feet of rear line on your desired side ( i did this while floating downwind, not swimming ) and the kite reverses out. I tried but didn't notice exactly how this is happening, but think its something to do with the rocking between the hadlow and the front lines, which are mostly slack during relaunch.

Anyhow - awesome news, It's now a lot quicker to relaunch your vegas than ever before !

i also own the 2015 Vegas 11m & 9m with wakestyle bar
i am riding for a year in the 5th line setting (sometimes with 2m line extensions) because i wanted to learn good this kite and finally today
as i am riding everyday here in Zanzibar , i changed my setup to Hadlow setting :

much better pop = height in my unhook tricks
more slack in my lines which i need to pass easier
i think the kite lost some power in lowend (but i am not completely sure) i couldn't go upwind so good
RELAUNCH : much easier ! just pull the mini 5th line that already existed in bar the kite takes position
pull the right or left back line and that's it!

the only thing i would change to my wakebar is the GRIP! Oh God , you people in North Kiteboarding
my hands are killing me after 3 days of kiting , make it softer!!!!

i will return with more info

Finally someone did a review on this. We talking heavier or lighter fellers? I'm 95 kegs and ride the 14.5 most of the time. I am keen as to get it on the Hadlow setting but not sure if it would be better or worse for a heavier bloke. Any thoughts?

Select to expand quote

daveisthekotz said..
Finally someone did a review on this. We talking heavier or lighter fellers? I'm 95 kegs and ride the 14.5 most of the time. I am keen as to get it on the Hadlow setting but not sure if it would be better or worse for a heavier bloke. Any thoughts?

Better.

still haven't tried the qr because it looks a little death spiralish i'm sure it wont but man.... did i really connect all those lines properly? going to treat that one as a reserve never use her and just hope she's all good.

i backed to back the new 13m 2017 vegas with wakebar in 5th line and 6th line give or take an hour of fart assing around with the line conversion.

and honestly i couldn't get to much of a noticeable difference. the wind did change somewhat from session to session. i noticed on 5 line mode i seemed to get 2 really noticeable pulls from the kite when unhooked looping. the initial one and then another one about halfway thru the maneuver but in 6 line there wasn't that noticeable almost 2 stages. it just seemed more consistent and smooth throughout. don't really want to say if there was more slack or not as weather conditions had changed. anyways bloody loving it and who would of thought such a tiny freaking bar length would work so well on a 13m kite. i feel like its forced me to kite better on a whole by not scrubbing off wind/power but sineing the kite to fast and sheeting in and out to much as i ride.