On the North Vegas there are two style settings, what is the benefit of using wakestyle and when would you use it?
I had a good example of this yesterday. I'm working on some unhooked tricks at the moment and I've been spending most of my time on my 12m. I was out in strong winds yesterday on my 9m. It's so fast that a small miss input on the bar turns a low powered backroll into a sent mega boost to face plant.
The wakestyle setting slows it down and makes it a bit more forgiving.
Wake style setting should only be used when removing your fins from your board, wearing bindings & hitting kickers and sliders whilst playing hip hop, gangsta style tunes.
ok all comments are IMHO but i have been riding the 012 vegas now for a while and i ride as much as humanly possible in any conditions wave, flat and with kickers, boots strapped and on a surf board in WA.
The freestyle setting i use on my surfboard or in very stormy unpredictable sessions on flat water, it offers higher depower (not complete depower but still pretty good) this means when you push the bar away from you the kite will more or less stop pulling and help you self land in high winds. I find the freestyle setting to make the kite fly faster to 12 for more aggressive boosts but offers a lighter bar pressure so you are more likely to have less float and come down just as fast. The lighter bar results in less powered turns but i would still recommend this setting for big hooked loops as the kite will be easier to get back to 12 to ease you down. Its cool on a surf board because it offers all the good drift and speed characteristics with the lighter bar pressure and ability to sheet out and not be pulled off the face. it also has a 'slightly' better relaunch ability in this position.. unhooks alright but sits further forard in the window and is harder to smooth out your pops.
The wakestyle i mainly use, is good for flat water and unhooked progression. sits further back in the window resulting in heavier bar pressure and a more linear pregressive pull unhooked. More power in your turns so you will need to use your board to control your speed/power simple transitions can feel hard and clumsy when underpowered or overpowered and if your not use to a c kite you will feel like a gimp. turning is slower but this obviously helps when you unhook and are thrown down your lines giving you time to catch your kite. Basicly wakestyle is kite low, hard pull and catching your kite down the lines to which the vegas is a very good introduction kite to. The only thing it lacks in terms of advanced wakestyle is line slack (wwhich i dont really like or need as im not passing the bar) and is a bit punchy unhooked compared to others c's, maybe a bit too fast also depends what you want.
This is all based on my opinion and experiance )or inexperience howerver you would like to see it) just wanted to 'chime in' and give some food for thought.. start the ball rolling. i havent tried the 2013 kite but it looks very different to the 12, maybe somebody else can give some feedback on how its compares.
Not referring here to any other kite with alternate settings than the Slingshot RPM as this is the only kite I am sure offers alternate settings using this technique.
If you understand the theory behind this new development in kites it may make your choice a bit easier & more appro for differing uses.
Despite the pigtails only being 100mm or so apart on the LE the settings make a HUGE difference to performance. Whats happening is that a kite has a natural pivot (fulcrum) line somewhere between the centre front and rear wingtip.
The front pigtails for freeride are forward of this fulcrum line - the rear pigtails are behind this line.
With the front lines connected to the inside, freeride setting then the bridle plays a much more active role in the control of the kite = more SLE styled performance normally suited to hooked in freeride kiting.
By connecting the front lines to the outer, wakestyle setting behind the natural balance point of the kite the SLE influence is reduced as both sets of lines are now working more on the wingtip side = more like a 'C' kite.
No-one can advise what attachment setting suits any individual kiter for different styles of kiting - its all about personal preference.
Some kiters prefer 'C' kite feel when wave riding (beats me why but they do).
Some will even tell you they prefer freestyling on SLE kites (ditto above even more difficult to fathom???) but they do.
One kiter I know flies his RPMs on wakestyle setting for waves and changes back to the freeride setting for his mobes & S bends etc ???????? It works for him ???
Just telling you all this as I was fascinated to learn how come you can get such a huge difference in characteristics from such a minor difference in connection points.
Thanks to my hero Dano (of "OMG he invented the Rev" fame) for explaining it to me - blame him if I got it wrong 
