Monkey Griffin 12M

I wouldn't normally do a review , but I think I might have the first Monkeykites Griffin in West Australia so here goes.
I'm an old surfer , not really interested in freestyle , I just want to ride waves. This is my 3rd season and I'm getting into the surf down south almost daily now - mostly at Boatramps , Margaret River .
i hated this kite at first- compared to my Waroos it turned slow, was real jerky with the power and wouldn't go upwind as well as the Waroos. That jerkiness was a real hassle in the surf as it would be a handful to control when your screaming down a wave and dont want a heap of power, not at my level anyway.
I tried to sell it , but no takers , so I spent some time playing around with the setup and found the magic button. What a difference a few inches on the bridals make- it's a completely different kite now - turns quicker and with more consistency with the power, goes upwind so easy. Real nice bar pressure-great feel .
This kite has serious power - it is higher aspect than most bows and it would easily be equal to my Waroo 14, maybe even more low end , and to control all this power you really need to use the depower strap- the Griffin likes to fly much more depowered than I would with the Waroos, but it handles it well- it is very stable - you can let go of the bar and adjust the depower strap and the kite will sit still in the air. I dont like the depower system though- it is a cord with a cleat system- as you use more depower you end up with a metre of cord dangling around your knees, but I guess it does give you very precise depower.
The bar can be configured for pulley use (2:1) or no pulleys (1:1) There's advantages and disadvantages to both , but the bar pressure was way too high for me in 2:1, with 1:1 there's less overall depower, but I had no problem reining it in with the depower cord.
The bar feels good , nice shape , nice leverage.
I went out yesterday at about 20 knots and it ended up being around 30 knots at the end of the session - no problem at all although i'm close to 100 kgs on a twin tip.
This kite is very well made - it seems to be a different material than my 06 Waroos, which are about 4 months old and have a few patches in them already. The bladders stay up tight even after a week , which must mean something. There's obviously more foil in the wing shape- the kite wants to fly even before you get the lines on it.
So I went from hating this kite to loving it- i think the Waroos are great kites, maybe the Griffin is even better. At the price I paid for it, an introducory price, it was a steal.