Tried the 11 out today in Nuking winds. went out with front lines on first depower setting and everthing else set on normal....
then went out with top y on depowered setting and front lines on front most connectors.

the wind was steady around 26 kts gusting to 35 - 40. There were mostly 9ish sizes out in crossbow/waroo pro and 5th line. plus a couple 12 octanes + an 8 octain.
I don't really know how windy it got, the wind readings went up to 40 and even more slightly south and I'd guess it was at least 35kts for 2-3 minutes in the gusts , with some solid periods around 30kts for 10-15 mins.

The kite behaved really well and with the first depower set and depower strap pulled half way. I had enough to continue cutting upwind in the gusts and aswell get some nice ~ 6 second jumps in. Hang time was longer than the impact and the ride softer on the way up aswell as down. the kite didn't get any deformation in the gusts and just shot foreward and then tilted foreward as I pushed the bar out to control speed.

Obviously this is way above the quoted wind range, and was only done as a "test" i guess to see how effective the integral depower is. In short it's bloody awesome. the kite doesn't get the macdonalls M happening during the gusts because the attatchment points are well placed , and i did engage the safety in around 25kts and the kite sat there waiting on the water for me to relaunch nicely.

All in all the wind range is really incredible. The largest bow out was a 9 metre, and one of the guys packed up after getting stuck in what I recon was the strongest gust all day...so the myth ( if there ever was one) has been busted... bows and c-kites still have a similar wind range... actually the funny thing was all the other kites that were bigger than 9 metres were all c-kites. :)

Now that is a great review...thanks for that. Seems like one heck of a day. Hopefully I'll get a fly of the beast. 6 second airs sounds good, but landing at that speed is a bit of a worry.

You crack me up..."steady around 26 kts gusting to 35 - 40."

How come you had to pull the safety at 25 knots?

tried a kite loop that kinda didn't work :)

Good thread Chop.
Its good to see kiters broad minded enough to see that C kites have continued to advance over the last couple of years. I too have ridden F-One 11m to around 35knt and a 9m to about 45knt.

I think everyone should give some of the extended depower C kites a go if they are after range before rushing off to a bow.

I do recall one retailer advocating the death of C's not so long ago and dropping nearly all of them from thier range.

Jason

We now have a 13m Tribal 2 available to demo in Brisbane. If anyone wants to try just call the shop. We will have it until 06 October.

Jason

45 knots i'd be callin the SES