Cabrinha Crossbow

First point…..I am not sponsored or in anyway connected with Cabrinha. I am not pimping this brand or this kite. This is purely my thoughts and experiences on something new. If you want to disregard them please do so.

I have had the chance to fly the 9m Crossbow on 3 different occasions now. The first day was around 25 to 30 knots and incredibly gusty. The 2nd was around 35 gusting 40 knots with waves up to around 2 meter faces. On both these occasions I used a Nobile 128x39.5 twin tip. On the third time I used a 5"10” surfboard (no straps) and the wind was around 14 to 18 knots. I weigh in at around 90 kgs (200lbs)

Of course I did not read the manual or any guidelines to the kite so I was interested to see how easy it was to rig. In fact it is simple and intuitive. The bridle is only attached to the leading edge so lies flat on the ground and is easy to see if it is tangled. The lines are colour coded and have kook proof connections so it is easy to figure out what goes where.
I took a moment to put the stopper ball lower but that was the only adjustment I made.

The kite flies very stable. On the beach it has no tendency to over fly the window partly due to the fact that it seems to sit fairly far back in the window. It does however like to drift off to the side so some attention is needed. What is most noticeable at this point is that when you depower the kite it has no tendency to pull you around on the beach….nice in strong, gusty winds.

On the water.
The kite seems to turn in a different fashion to a normal LEI. If a normal kite turns around the wingtip then the Crossbow turns around the centre of the kite. Not good or bad just different. For the rest the only thing I really could say was different was the depower range. It is immense. Even in 40 knots if you let the bar go through the stopper ball you will sink! Jumping is a whole new ball game. It is hard to comment on the lift per se because I would not have been able to hold a normal 9 in the winds I was riding in. So hang time……insane, but as I never tried to jump it in normal 9m weather I can not say it is that much better BUT the sensation is one much more of flying. You really feel every lift and puff in the wind. Three or four additional lifts per jump were not unusual…the kite responds very well to rider input and I would have to say it was a lot of fun just jumping as high of possible and flying……beware though, it is possible to turn the kite too fast and jump with it far back in the window. This leads to vast amounts of downwind speed and is pretty scary at first. If you relax and wait though the kite always catches you up and let"s you down softly.

Wave riding.
I tried this in both strong and light winds and this is probably a revolution in the sport. Just turn the kite into the bottum turn and then use the bar to either accelerate or slow down. No more long drawn out bottum turns due to too much power you can just depower the kite and take whatever power you need whenever you want it. In fact the bar is like the throttle on a car. If you pull it towards you at anytime you will accelerate and if you let it go you slow down. Forget flapping the kite up and down to get going, if you just keep the kite still you will find you can generate power just with the bar alone…….something that takes getting used to but certainly presents a lot of opportunity. The fact that the kite turns in it"s own length means you have a much better chance to get it is the right position when turning and if you do get it wrong at least you can dump the power.

Windrange.
What do you think? I could ride a 9 comfortably when people were blown off the water on 6"s and I could ride the 9 (albeit on my surfboard) when people on Rhino 5 16m were struggling. Romain, a friend was riding the 12 Crossbow and to be honest he looked to have the same power as me. If I was to go on a trip I think I could easily take a 12 crossbow, one twin and a surfboard and nothing else and know I was covered from 12 knots up to around 35/40 knots.

Other points.
I have not put the kite in the water so I have no idea how it relaunches.
I have not tried to handle pass the kite so I have no idea how it would behave, however I did wave ride a lot unhooked and it behaved perfectly. If you apply the depower strap the turn radius of the kite becomes bigger (ie it only turns really tight on full power) and the pressure in the bar is reduced. I cannot see why handle passing should be a problem. Probably it is not the ideal kite for Looped passes but given the other advantages of the kite passably good at this is enough for me.
Without a powerlock hook or harness line it is hard to do much in the air! The depower is pretty sensitive and if you let it go in the air you will drop from the sky. Next time I ride this kite I will certainly put a harness line on it so I can relax a little in the air and let go the bar with one hand.
The bar pressure is certainly quite heavy. I ended up setting the stopper ball really low so I could rest the bar on it whilst riding and then using the depower strap to control the riding power. Not a problem if you learn to deal with it but if you set the stopper ball high you are going to feel it in your arms after a while riding.
There is a hole covered in neoprene in the canopy so that the inflation valve does not rub on the ripstop. Maybe I am missing something here (and I hope so) but why not just move the valve round the leading edge. In a very well finished kite it looks strange.
Why is there no one pump? It seems to be the only thing the kite really lacks. OK,it"s a luxury but I don"t know many people that would choose to go back after having had it!

Conclusion
I like the kite. Just the wave riding potential was enough to convince me it really is a great advance. The jumping is great and the range is just exceptional. Add to that the other factors of very small pack down size with no battens to get in the way and the one kite travel aspect and I really think Cabrinha have done a great job bringing something new to the market. Congratulations Pete!