Just received a 9m Best Waroo Prototype for demoing. Took it out this morning in some COLD(for Florida) 40 degree temps, and some gusty West winds at around 6-12mph. Didn"t get in the water, just wanted to pump it up, see if it would fly in the dead off shore winds, and get a feel for the kite. A few thoughts just flying it on the beach in these conditions: (click foto"s voor vergroting)

Looks: Looks like the other bow kites. Probably more similiar to the GK Sonic in shape. Not way flat like the Crossbow. Closer to C shape kites

Pulleys/Lines: Different back line connection points than the others. The back line bridle is attached to two points on the wing(covers the entire wing). The front line bridle comes off close to the center of the kite and has a pulley on it.


Bar/Lines: Very nice, simple, clean. Like a normal bar. No pulleys. Has a huge depower strap.

How it flys: Well, the wind was west(due off shore and coming over houses) and very light/gusty. It was probably blowing 5 with gusts to 12 or so. The kite flew, which was impressive. Speed seemed good for a nice, not super fast, not slow. Will obviously need more wind and time on the water to get a true feel for it....


I finally got the 9m Waroo out on the water yesterday for a few hours. The winds were very light, around 9-14, with maybe a 15 or 16mph gust every once in a while. I attached the wind graph of what it was blowing yesterday when I was out there. I was out from around 2:30 until around 4:30 or so. I was on the 9m Waroo and the Slingshot Glide. The winds were side onshore and the tide was filling in the inlet, but I rode at the North side of the inlet which gave me a little extra boost as long as I stayed close to the inlet. Here are my thoughts:

Postives:
Low End: Wow... I typically would ride a 16m or even a 20m in these winds, and I could actually ride on the 9m. I wasn"t lit by any means, but I could ride, hit the small kicker waves, do small forwards, backs, kite loops, etc. If the 9m is this powerful, I can"t imagine what the bigger sizes will be like. There was another guy out riding down the beach on what I think was a 15m and a surf board. He was having trouble getting back to the same spot, but he was also on the other side of the inlet which the current wasn"t working for him. Daryl pulled up in his car when I was out there, and his first words to me were: "I can"t believe you are actually riding on a 9m right now..."

Depower: I had to adjust the way the kite came setup out of the bag, to get more back line tension on it so it was more powered up. Full power is obviously when you pull the bar all the way in. It only takes about 6 inches of depower and most of the pull is gone.

Speed: very nice, fast. Just like most 9m kites out there

In the waves: The waves were very small, but some nice form to them and you could do a few quick down the line turns...the kite was very smooth through the turns.

Negatives:
Chicken loop length: One of the negatives is that if you want full power, you have to pull the bar all the way in. When doing so, my elbows are half bent and very awkward to ride. I would probably add a longer chicken loop so that I could have my arms more extended at full power. I am going to try this kite with a normal 4 line bar or pulley bar and see what happens. It should work fine, maybe even better

No stopper ball: if you let go of the bar to spin it, scratch your nose, or whatever, the bar shoots up the chicken loop line. It would be nice to have a stopper ball like the slingshot one, or something else to prevent it from doing that.

Depower strap is HUGE: Not sure why you would ever even need to use any of the depower strap. With the strap at full power(not pulled) you can still kill the power of the kite completely. Plus, it is WAY up there..those with shorter arms may have troubles reaching it... but again, I don"t think you would need to reach it.

Overall: I liked it a lot. I am a normal "C shape" type of guy, but really enjoyed this one. It fealt more like a "C shape" to me, and maybe that is why...