Thought I'd throw my 2cents worth in after having ridden an F-one impact 9m and an f-one M5 10m in the same session. Firtsly I love the m5 ten because of it's adjustable 5th line/safety , massive wind range, great unhooked riding due to the blended tips, and build quality.I didn't really think they could improve much on it's qualities.
The impact in direct comparasin is a very light kite, when compared to all the other kites of the same size i have held, (slingshots/cabrinhas/ north etc) i havn't held a hellfish though. The build quality is similar to the m5 except the slim struts appear to have gotten slimmer and the leading edge is both slimmer and slightly different material.
Your suicide leash connects to the end of the fifth line, and there is a stopper up the 5th line to stop the bar from flying up to the kite, ..you just either unhook your chicken loop and let go, or quick release the chicken loop to activate the safety. The kite inverts and sat on the water every time i did it unklike some of the other flying 5th line kites i have seen in the past., then i pulled in the bar using the 5th line and as soon as i hooked the chickenloop back in it was starting to relaunch. very impressive!
the kite itself turns twice as fast as the m5 and pivots within a kite length if you want small radius turns, it pulls all the while in the turns, up and down and when you release the bar it tracks straight whereever it's pointing. bar pressure in 14kts is lightish to meduim, and when the wind picks up to 20+ the bar pressure increases also. It absorbs the gusts awesomely and i never had to pull the depower strap in or switch front line or 5th line knots from the full power position all day( up to about 23 kts) hence i recon this kite will handle a LOT of wind considering the low end is as high as a normal 11 C shape kite, lastly jumps, you go higher faster due to the speed this thing moves at and so long as once your up there you fly along the edge of the window, before diving the kite downwind to soften your landing its golden, and i think i would feel fine trying board offs with this kite , but would personally probably go for the m5 or m6 ( higher A/R)if i was only a massive jumps & hangtime dude.
overall it is an extremely FUN kite to fly, I'd say refreshing and so different to a normal c kite , even more so than the bows I have tried. i have never flown anything so fast before, I am still scared to try uhooked kite loops and if i don't die trying I'll let you know what they are like. This kite will definately be good in the waves.
Looked good..... what I saw today, nice to see that you could "take" the gusts, what crap conditions...yea, and it looked nice and fast too.....
wow that thing is friken fast. If you like throwing it around its the kite for you.
Ofcourse the kite could be doing flips loops and spins up the ying yang but it doesnt make a difference if the rider is still going along as normal, may aswell have a normal slow kite and not chuck it about.
Dachopper,
You say the bar pressure is light to medium in 14kts.
does this mean you were flying a 9m kite in 14kts.
how skinny are you?
best winds
Tony L
ABK
the lightest i would say the wind got was 8/10kts. Ie every1 stopped moving and kites were barely in the air yesterday at melville.
I'm 77kgs riding a 122 underground FLX, and i would guess that the 9 impact had simlar bottom end to the 10 m5, 11 GK sonic both of which were out at the same time, and my feeling is that to shoot upwind i would need 2 kts more on the 9 than on my 12...
when i would guess it was 14 kts, i was roughly maintainine the line or up to 20 degrees downwind ( hard to say cause the wind was dissapearing and always in a 5kt range), , next time i will try the 12 at the same time to get a better appreciation. but this was only me trying to kite and get a feel for the bottom end ; ie there wasn't any extra power left to jump more than a meter or unhook for anything when the wind was at 12-15 kts.
my girlfriend who is lighter was caining upwind on it more so than me while i was on the 10 at the same time, so at 14 kts she was almost cruising. i think the bag says 16 kts bottom for what its' worth, and i would say at 16kts it feels like the beginning of my comfortable to throw handle passes and jump reasonable wind range, loops start to feel powered. I prefer to be riding a kite that when the wind is 10 - 23 kts, i can allways unhook and try something so i ride on the smaller side than most people, hence i was on a 9 in 14 kts waiting for it to pickup to 16-20ish
Hey Chop
Took delivery of a 11m impact the other day and had first go today in about 14 knots for a downwinder with the 2m line extension. ( 24m? total line length?)
Light bar pressure, fast to turn and very fast through the window and accross the water.
Notice also it develops a lot of power in the turns. Heaps of depower.
DOn't like the overcomplicated depower strap. I converted my last kite to a straight sailing rope and cleat and that was much more effective. That being said, I think it will have a lot of depower as at full extension there was no pull at all.
Overall loving it now. Quick, light, lots of depower.
don't forget to try moving the center line knot in and 5th line knot in when you eventually get a 20 +kt day to see how the range changes...Im only just doing it now with my ten and am noticing a big increase in top end
Agree with the line adjustments.
If you are out in bigger winds haveing the depower set up so that at full depower the 5th line slightly engages then you have an extra boost in depower for the uncomfortable gusts.
best winds
tonyL
ABK
had a chance to take the 9 meter impact out again today in some of the worst onshore gusty 15 - 25 kt winds melville has managed since i got here... first few runs i had the centre lines at their loosest setting and 5th line at it's tightest setting ie powered except for the 5th line which was " tought" when i let the bar out, went fine but after unhooking and getting spanked with the depower strap pulled fully in, i got some1 to catch it while i adjuusted the front lines to the middle setting and went out for mor carnage, now, i was fully depowered in up to 25 kts, and i needed 20+ kts to stay on the water with the center lines on the middle knot and the depower strap pulled all the way in...
hence i recon i would unhook with this kite in at least the 25-30 kt range comfortabley with the front lines at the 3rd ( tightest) setting , which i couldn't of used today as i would have sank( way too much depower). The depower of this kite truely phenominal, and when your unsure if you want to adjust the centre line knot to depower the kite at launch , you can allways move it and then pull in the back line adjusters at the bar when your riding and your almost back to your full power again.
finally i crashed unhooked about 20 times, and the safety line / relaunch system kicks arse! it takes on average about 20 secs to be up and riding again, but if you had a great white chasing you , you can flip the kite over similar to the way the crossbows flip over and then get ripped through the center of the window...pretty much in a few seconds.
tried a couple of kite loops when the wind was around 16-20ish, it has a nice whip and will try them in some decent stable wind tomorrow.
chop
Thanks so much Chop for letting me fly that great toy of yours.........I really liked it a lot. It was cool to fly the 9m Xbow and then the 9m F-one Impact. The kites are similar in a way, where the Xbow has a bit mure "grunt," the Impact has greater turning speed. I was trying to see if there was much of a diff. in bar pressure, and there was. One still has to pull hard when wanting full power, so that is the same, but as you depower the Impact, the bar feel is very nice and soft like.........definately a nice kite to fly, fast as can be. I can see it as a great kite for powered turns and wave riding. Jumping I counldn't evaluate, as I didn't take the time to learn how it jumps.
Thanks again Chop.
I'll be down woodies tomorrow if any1 else or gruzie would like to try it in some strong winds.
tried the 9 on new years eve now up at lancelin in around 30 gusting to high 30's. great performance and depower, though i would have felt uncomfortable kitelooping, maybe on a 7 impact it would have been ok to loop in the stronger winds, definatly only tight loops though.
Can anyone tell me who retails F-One kites in Melbourne?
Interested in demo'ing the Impact & Tribal as an alternative to Bow style.
How different a kite do the F-One style kites look compared to the new North Vegas due for release in Feb? Same concept?
for pics try the link on
www.xshore.com.au
for pics of the fone tips.
for the 06 vegas try
www.twintail.de/kitesurf-fotos/North-Vegas-06_189.html
from what i have seen of the vegas 06, the front bladder is angled at the edge for a few inches and then there's a straight battern also angled to give the tip it's angle.
the f-one has no batterns and the front bladder turns into the wingtip itself "elliptically" , so there is no real angle in the LE, it bends smoothly around, the north concept looks to be along the same lines but not totaly eliptic, just clipped.
dont listen to dachopper, there all foney kites, it says it in the name..... just kidden- hope you made it home alright chop chop
