TractionKiting.co.uk

I have both of these kites on demo just now so will be doing an ongoing review. So far Im very impressed with them and I havent even flown them yet!!

O.

get them along to st andys on monday if you can still walk and ill test them for ya. Thats if i can walk as well mate after the nairnshire challenge.
we will be like a right pair of old men.

nothing like a bit of shameless kit grabbing is there )

lol, Monday is looking like a northerly, I guess it would still work in St Andrews though.
Going to have the kit at St Andrews tomorrow not sure what time yet though.

O.

Took the 11m out on Saturday and had a couple of teething problems.
Firstly there is no non-return valves on the bladder so once you have pumped up the kite you need to be quick at getting the stopper in otherwise you loose all the air!

Secondly, I attached the lines to the wrong bit so there was too much rear line pressure, landed the kite and changed the settings and off we went Launched a dream and I headed to the water, fully depowered.

Not sure about the depower strap, its a pull / pull system, which seems to work but I didnt feel I had completely control on how much power I was letting out, this could be just me though and spending more time with the setup may change my views on it.
I found when I pulled to power the kite up it let a lot out which I didnt want but I managed OK.
Throw the kite in to the power and up I went, but I think I still had the kite to depowered because when I pulled the bar in the kite back stalled right in to the center of the window, pushed the bar out again and BANG, power was there and I was heading towards the sand.
There was quite a large reach on the depower rope as well which was fine for me but if you had shorter arms you would probably want to adjust this.
I ended up coming in before I had a real chance to try the kite though since I was worried I might do something stupid and not be able to run the Edinburgh marathon.

The kite moves fast and has a ton of power for its size, really liked the initial feel of the 11m and Im looking forward to getting more time on the water with this, in maybe slightly lighter winds.
The Q/R system is really easy to use as well, you can ride leashless if you want but for extra safety I attached my leash just incase the donkeydick slipped out of the chicklen loop. The Q/R is very easy to find if you needed to active it and once pulled the kite just flags out and floats down to the water. Lovely!

The kite itself is built very very well! I really like the grab handle thats on the bladder near the center strut, this allows you to walk up/down to the beach knowing its not going anywhere, brilliant idea!
The leading edge has reinforced pads which protect the bladder while its sitting on the beach which is nice.
The pump fits inside the bag, rather than outside it which again I really like, it keeps everything neat and tidy. You can tell GIN have really thought about the bag, probably just as much as the kite itself.

So, first impressions are really good, I just need to get used to flying them now

O.