Took a 12 out to play with yesterday at woodies in light conditions. Wind was probably about 15 knots at the most.
Kite looks well enough built, material is different to my North, feels different not sure exactly how different, but different. dont know if this difference will affect overall strength.
Kite is in about 18 panels or so through the canopy, struts and LE are quite small, LE is segmented and looks tough.
LE is bridled at either end with a pulley at the LE.
Bar is well organised, simple straight forward. Its comfy on the hands, felt smaller than my North but more comfortable. Trim strap is a wratchet easily within reach, pull to power up pull another strap to power down.
There us a stopper thing on the chicken loop rope, basically it is a clam cleat that can be locked in place so you can maintain power and ride with the bar against it,,,great idea, i didnt use it.
Lines are the waxy sort of stuff, essentially tangle free and kook proof connectors.
In the air, first thing i noticed was the grunt, even in light winds this kite felt grunty. On the water managed to stay up wind mostly, however did loose ground inbetween gusts. Given i'm a fatty, 90Kgs on a 138 board not too shameful.
Kite turns fast, and maintains its grunt throughout turns.
loops well, tight fast and plenty of grunt *ouch*
Lots of lift, feels like this kite will take you skyward and keep you there.
The throw on the bar is little, and consequesntly the depower from the bar isn't huge just enough to take the edge off. the depower comes from the trim strap which feels substantial
Overall i'm impressed with the kite, it performs well, is built adequatly, turns quick, has plenty of lift and hang.
There is lots and lots of grunt, by grunt i mean it feels powerful even in light winds. i am realy looking forward to getting the kite out over the next few days to give it a bit of a workout in decent wind.
Will report back,
Had 20 min. in light crap after gear failure on my 12mxbow2. Thanks Reli man.
Liked the bar feel, width and soft bungy-like material as used by Ozone. Simple 4 line with no pulleys. Similar grunt to xbow with pulleys and soft to touch. Bar pressure seems similar if not better feel.
Didn't test relaunch, but tried to kill it in the bushes...it lived!
Build quality, well that is another story. No one pump!...arg, to me 1 pump is worth $500. The input valve is not one way........reminds me of my old but loved Aero 2s....hate it!
20 minutes in crap, can't say more that that..........maybe I sould be a poet. Thanks again Reli and I look forward to try and break it next time...and test the relaunch.
Ahhhhh! the old "use tree to catch kite trick"
missed by that much.
For loops try tight loops and wide loops, seems they are very controllable in power delivery via just how hard you pull the bar.
This is probably true for a lot of kites, but the Thruster is the first one I've used that seems to offer the right feedback to make good use of it, for average kiters.
Reli what you descirbe is amazingly similar to the 12m Catapult Joker i recently aquired,except it has one pump
and is probably cheaper.
Had a play on the 12m at Pt Danger sunday.
turned into a session from 8.30am to 2.30pm with a couple of 20min breaks for a sugar fix.
wind direction was weird for me but when I could find a wave the lined up a bit better it was fun. For pure wave riding there maybe kites that work better. But for those that treat waveriding as an adjunct to other styles and Jumping then the Thruster would seem like heaven.
But as I said when the wind and waves line up it would be beyond my skill level to pick a better performer.
Those that are at a stage of their kiting who want to perfect jumps and need hangtime to nail a new trick, pop around the chop and flick the lips of bay waves. Plus nail soft controlled landings in 3" of Altona low tide wash. then you simply have to try one.
I have noticed the kite can suck you into positions that you normally don't go. For instance; it turns quick and moves quick, this catches up with you in lighter winds where in diving the kite for power you are find it turns nice and quick at the bottom of the dive, this gets you diving steeper and steeper till you get the kite so deep in the power zone, the angle of attack of the kite to the wind is impossible.
you have just turned the kite and want it to power back up to the top , usually on a wave face that is pushing you to the kite and you have to resist the urge to sheet in to get power and in fact sheet out to let the kite breath and start flying.
All seemingly basic stuff to those in the know but frustrating till you work out that diving the kite at angles most other kites work at solves the problem before it starts. another cause is that the kite is very grunty which sucks you into winds abnormally low for a 12m, equally the Boost Junkie will start searching out the topend for ballistic boosts and be riding the 12m in winds a 9 or 10m kite would be well well powered on. If this is the case with you take a lesson from my experience on Sunday, and take care to double the distance between you and others. Poor Sparrow nearly got squashed, and I certainly had plenty of time to watch him coming closer
