Cut&Pasted:
I flew this kite for about 5 hours in about 10-28 mph with a Jimmy Lewis Fish 6’8” strapless surfboard, a bunch of different directional raceboards with huge fins, Session 141 and Rip Plus 138. I weigh 200lbs, I’m unusually tall and have been kiting for about 10 years, five of them obsessively. I generally fly the speed 2’s but I have one P4 12 for those really high wind days. I met up with KiteRider from Quebec down at Hatterass and he had borrowed this demo kite from Ted on his way down. He was nice enough to let me ride it in a variety of conditions with a variety of boards. I was very impressed with this kite, in fact I’d say hands down it is the nicest kite I’ve ever flown and I’ve flown probably close to 50 kites in my short kiting career.
Pros:
- Turning speed and depower are greatly improved, about a 20-25% improvement over the S2.
- They did away the overpressure valves which you don’t need on these big kites anyways which will save weight and also keep the internal pressure up on the kite.
- There are now some serious structural cross members that run the width of the kite and make a big X across the kite, this should cut down on structural damage when the 5th line is used and also make the kite more structurally sound.
- The depower bridle moved from a 6.2.1 on the S2 to a 4.2.1 like the P4, this helps the kite turn much faster and also have more depower by moving the B risers 50% more when the bar is pulled in or out.
- The kite seems to fly properly out of the bag without having to tune the mixer to B-1 and C-2, a nice change.
- FS added dedicated 3 Fifth line attachment points, when I make my own FDS bridles I can make them with 7 bridle lines and have the load distributed over even more points which should help avoid internal damage in the kite when deployed in high winds. The new dedicated 5th line points do not have any extra reinforcing
- No ringlines, these always sucked so it’s nice to see them gone
- The bridle lines are in general much shorter, about ½ the length of the S2. The primaries are the normal bridle material but the mains and secondary’s are sleeved which makes them much stiffer and less prone to tangles. The Blades use these thin sleeved lines on the bridles and I always really liked it.
- They did away with the Black LCLs which break too easily and now have only white and pinks. As someone who has broken hundreds of LCLs I can’t tell you what a relief this is, I gave up on the blacks long ago and would only replace them with whites, not that I’m racist or anything.
- They labeled the ABC and Z bridles which makes the mixer test easier especially for newbies.
- The diagonal cell structural straps are ripstop not the stiff crap that ripped all the time they used on the P3. I don’t understand why FS doesn’t make flat tubes of the ripstop to double the strength of the rib cross member connectors and to keep them from ripping off from the edges.
- Much less tip collapse than the P4, still a little bit, especially in super light winds.
- Better Sprenger pullies, the old Ronstans suck in comparison.
Cons:
- The pulley lines are still crap, I don’t understand why Armin does not switch to using 3 mm Amsteel, we use that on all our kites, hundreds of hours of really hard riding and no failures. All the other bowkite manufacturers use 3mm amsteel on their pullies, why can’t FS?
- The Infinity Bar is crap, the chickenloop lines wear out way too fast and the swivel does not swivel well. I’d opt for the old bar and the newer chicken loop which is actually pretty nice.
- The FLS looks bad to me, they have the FLS line running though the aluminum block and out to the kite with a bungieish cord. I can’t imagine that the line will not get issues when pulling though that block at high velocity but I did not test. I would recommend getting the kite with the 5th line so at least you have a chance at water relaunching it.
- The extreme wind range creates an illusion of control that makes the kiter feel like the wind is much less than it actually is. For beginners this could prove to be very dangerous indeed
- The power spike when pulling in the bar in is not smooth like the S2 but tends to spike, sometimes violently in strong gusty winds more like the P4 does. When riding in gusty winds I started pumping the bar to the rhythm of the gusts and by the 3rd pull I got yanked off my edge very violently and thrown downwind.
- Looks like the same zipper on the bag, I have to mention it. All these years and still the same crappy zipper on the bag.
Launching (7) Kite inflates slowly in high winds, tends to drag the launcher pretty far downwind, especially if they don’t preinflate the kite, not as good as the S2.
Depower (9) Much improved over the S2, on par with a bow kite
Jumping (10) Insanely high, more pop than the S2, If you push the bar out the landings will be much harder and faster as well. It’s hard to imagine a kite with more pop and hangtime.
Upwind Performance (9) There is nothing on the market that compares, except the S2 or S1.
Downwind Performance (8) Better than the S2, when you turn towards the kite it does not drop out of the sky, the P4 is still a better wave riding kite
Gust handling (8) Much better than the S2, not as good as the P4
Low End (9) At least as good as the S2
Landing. (8) Easier to stall and self land than the P4, especially if you opt for the 5th line.
Water relaunch. (9) Very easy, did not have any bowties or overflies in my usage.
Turning. (9) There is room for improvement, but it’s fast enough that you could use a S3 15 as your only kite and not be annoyed by the turning speed when doing tricks. It was hard to go back to the S2 after flying this kite.
I don’t make any money with kiting and have paid over $15000 in FS kites and boards over the last 5 years. I love the FS brand, and work hard to support it because it keeps me having more fun than everyone else on the water even though I weigh a lot more than they do.
The bridle spacing is insane on the S3, the A-B spacing is bigger than the B-C spacing near the center of the kite and the C-D spacing is very large near the ends of the wingtips. I got so excited by this kite that I switched my S2 12 to a 4.2.1 bridle to test it. It had more depower and turned much faster and flew fine in about 10 mph of wind. When I tried to launch it in gusty 20+ offshore conditions the kite was extremely unstable and I got body dragged all over the place, cut up my knees pretty bad, and had to come in and land the kite after 1 tack. I’m sorry to say that there will be no S2 to S3 conversion thread, this kite is very different than the S2 in as far as the bridle spacing and the shape of the wing is concerned. There is no easy way to upgrade your old equipment. The kite has a more swept back shape to it and there are 4 more columns of bridles than with the S2. The bridle rows are not straight across, but are swept back as well. There are some funny bridling on the wingtip, with several of the bridles running between the primaries on the wingtip and others crossing over each other. I assume these are to prevent tip collapse during periods of extreme depower when turning.
If you need only one kite in your quiver and you live in a not so windy area like I do the S3 15 SA is the kite for you. If you live in a windy area like Hatteras and want a one kite quiver a S3 12 would be the right kite. These kites are amazing in their power and depower and turning speed and leave little to be desired, except the kite itself. Want to be the one having the most fun on the water, jumping the highest and cranking upwind? There is no doubt this is the kite. I predict FS will sell a lot of these kites and also that there will be tons of S2’s on the second hand market in the very near future.
The biggest problem I see with this kite is the potential for people like me who always put up the biggest kite they can get away with for getting into a lot of trouble with this kite. The depower is so great that you tend to stay out for longer than you should, by the time you decide its too much the kite is way out of its usable wind range, you can’t ride with any board speed and the landing becomes extremely sketchy. For this reason alone I’d recommend that anyone who gets this kite opt for the 5th line system (not the FLS) which is much safer for high wind emergency self landings. If you get the FLS then convert the kite to a 5th line yourself, it only takes about an hour, and make sure to test it in light winds before you use the kite in high winds.
Good luck and happy kiting!
Thanks Armin for making the S3 a worthwhile upgrade and thanks to Ted for the loaner.
Karl
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Water: P4 12SA Speed2 12, 8 & 15 SA Speed 1.5 10 6:2:1, Session 141, Rip Plus, 6'8" JL Fish
Snow/Land: B3 10.5 (FS $350 KC) & 8.5 (FS $325 KC), B3 4.9 205lbs / 2.1 meters
