The gusty wind conditions on 12/7/06 gave us some good insight into how a couple of the popular supported leading edge (SLE) flat kites handle. Thought that I would pass along the observations since I've been asked a couple of times about which kite I'd recommend. As background, the wind was blowing 18 gusting to 35 mph at Gilmer Airport according to NOAA.

Khalil, Seth and I arrived around 2pm and the smallest thing we had was a 12 Best Waroo, an 11 GK Sonic and a 12 Flexifoil Ion. Khalil decided to give it a go first on the Waroo. He launched and was on the waters edge getting ready to go out when a huge gust hit. The Waroo inverted and Khalil ended up having to bail to his leash. Broad brush conclusion - 12 square meters, even with the flat kite depower, was too big for the gusts.

Right about the time Emilio showed up with a couple GK Sonic 8s. We rigged them up and Emilio and Khalil took them out for some great kiting. They flew upwind almost to the 2nd set of islands half way across the lake on 135 cm and 132 cm boards respectively. The Sonics were impressive. The shape did not vary at all whether powered or depowered. Bogdan showed up about this time with his Waroo 9 and went out. According to Bogdan the Waroo needs some pressure on the back lines to keep its shape. This theory proved itself as Bogdan launched and then depowered. The kite inverted and just kindof laid flat in the sky. He was able to coax it back into shape and get out on the water where he could keep the back line pressure on. Even on the water, however, the kite jellyfished (it shape changed with the gusts) and didn't look nearly as stable as the Sonics.

I will say that in the 14 meter size, I think I prefer the feel of the Waroo. It's a bit more solid and turns a bit quicker. The 2007 bar is better for one handed steering with a reasonable stopper solution using the two center lines. However, in the strong stuff with the small sizes, the Sonic wins hands down.

The Sonic is designed to fly primarily on the font lines which enables it to depower 100% without losing shape. The Waroo is a higher aspect kite that needs back line pressure to fly and keep its shape which diminishes its effective depower range. For our high wind, gusty conditions this makes the Sonic 8 or 11 the no brainer choice. I'm sure the Waroo is fine if you have constant high wind as you can keep a little back line pressure without consequence...

I should also mention that Emilo was considerate enough to cut his session a short and let me have a go on the 8 with my 125 cm board. Very nice. It's a really fast fun kite to fly. You find yourself wishing for more gusts.

Late in the day, Emilo was able to get out on my Sonic 11. The wind had dropped a bit although the gusts were still there. The 11 exhibited the same solid shape through the whole session. I believe that had we tried the 11 m initially we would have been fine given the much better stability of the Sonic.

Seth also launched the 12 Ion just to see how it would handle. He'd changed into clothes by that time however and dídn't get to take it out on the water. That's the downside to broadbrushed conclusions... We'll have to wait a bit to understand how it performs.

Hope everyone was able to enjoy down at VanPugh. I'll bet you guys had some monster swells. The windsurfers (David and Konrad) our way were all smiles as we were packing up.

- Mel