Monsoonz 7m First Ride…..
Had my first session on the 7m Monsoonz from WiND-X today in the surf. I do sell these kites so you can take it as biased if you like but this is my honest opinion.
It was cross/onshore and was extremely gusty due to me being about 1.5km down wind of the headland. I measured the wind before putting the kite up and it was gusting to 36knots. I was a bit nervous being the first time I had flow the kite so I got a mate to give me a launch.
Had it setup on the 2:1 setup with a 55cm bar. Bad choice, but it was the bar I had with me. This made the kite turn way to quick for my liking and the depower was very on and off. The bar pressure was good though. I found that the kite would misbehave a little due to the sudden changes in angle of attack. The shifty and gusty wind did not help either. I lasted for about 15 minutes on this setting until I crashed the kite and could not relaunch due to it getting rolled and tangled so I had to swim in…..bugger.
Once on the beach I changed the lines to 1:1 and this made a huge difference to how the kite flew. Buy this time the wind had picked up a bit and I was getting lifted a bit …just let the bar out and down I came. The kite was so much better behaved, I was amazed in the difference just changing the bar setup could make. It was a joy to fly. It was not affected so much by the shifty and gusty winds and was a lot more stable. The bar pressure was incredibly light and it was like a toy to fly.
After a short and enjoyable session I came in and as able to self land in one of the lulls. I measured the wind again, it was averaging about 30 and gusting to 39.9 knots on my meter with lulls as low as 20. I was the only kite out that I could see and the rest were windsurfers with sails under 5m.
I’m not sure what the low end would be but I recon for me that the top end on this kite would be 40knots. At no stage did I fell like I was in trouble even in those terrible conditions. Overall I think this is a sweet little kite with a huge range, turns quick with heaps of depower. But make sure you use it on the 1:1 setup.
Cheers,
Barrie
