Light Years Ahead - The Airush Ultra V2

[RadDrDuke]

I have a 9m Ultra and kite at least 2 days per week in all types of conditions with it (8knots foiling lulls to 26knots TT mega-air sessions) and have yet to drop the kite. It is so ridiculously stable.

If it lulls below 8 knots it would fall I think but we have excellent winds that are quite consistent and I wait until the minimum is 8 then go foil.

If I did drop it I couldn't imagine it relaunching well. The canopy drapes down around the one strut and would probably get water on it, and if it's light enough to fall then it's going to be tough to relaunch with water on it.

[Huib]

I have the OR Flite Gen5 12,10 and 8m for foiling. I need a smaller kite then the 8 Flite but OR don't deliver a smaller Flite.
Tried the Bandit 7m but that is a very different kite then the Flite. Much slower and a lot of power spike in the loop.
I am thinking now of buying an Reo 6m or can I better buy the Ultra 6m?

[tomtom]

REO. In 6m kites there is no point to one strut. Canopy stability is more important than weight in higher winds. Reo is known for mellow loops

[Peert]

REO. In 6m kites there is no point to one strut. Canopy stability is more important than weight in higher winds. Reo is known for mellow loops

What does an unstable canopy do? Cause the kite to suddely shake you out of your footstraps?

I had a quiver of Best Cabo wave kites (most recent version) and hated them for foiling.. no power punch to get on the foil, very low topspeed.

[tomtom]

REO. In 6m kites there is no point to one strut. Canopy stability is more important than weight in higher winds. Reo is known for mellow loops

What does an unstable canopy do? Cause the kite to suddely shake you out of your footstraps?

I rode strapless

[Seabizzle]

I thought I would add my experiences in relation to what some others have mentioned.

I have had a 9m ultra for about 8 months and have used it with a surfboard and foiling and one surprisingly decent session on a twin tip.

I really like the kite, stability and drift are excellent both in the surf and on the foil. I find the relaunch to be the best of any kite I have used I haven't used other strutless/monostrut but it is significantly better than any of the 3 strut wave kites I have used. I have never had the strut sag down and get weighted down by the water. A couple times I have even had the wind drop to nearly nothing and I flagged the kite and started swimming back in then the wind picked up and i reassembled and relaunched no worries. Maybe the sagging of the strut only happens with the bigger size?

In the surf the drift and the stability is really good, the lines almost never go slack even in light wind so you can always turn it when you need to. it is a tradeoff though as the turning is not as fast and crisp as a pure wave kite, still decent but not as good.

It goes upwind really well and reaches for the edge of the window. I had thought that the top end would be bad but it doesn't get overpowered as quickly as I expected. Because it points nice and high it pulls you forward in gusts and adds speed instead of pulling you off your line. This is particularly noticeable on the foil for me having come off a 10m 2015 pivot which seemed like it sat too deep in the window for foiling ( and too heavy).

I really like it when riding in onshore waves on the surfboard, the upwind gets you out through the surf nicely and it has good pop for strapless airs, I find it more grunty and poppy than my airush wave.

All in all if I wasn't doing foiling as well as waves I probably would just have a wave kite but for both those things it works great and I love the fact it can hang in wind too light for me to water start as I can usually bodydrag back in if the wind drops. I will pick up a 12 soon enough but I think I will stay with ar wave in the smaller sizes.

[Seabizzle]

Also in regards to twin tip, I had it out in gusty 20-25knots and I was pleasantly surprised with the jumps, I very rarely ride a twin tip these days and that was my only TT session in quite a while but it didn't feel that far off my old pivot for the conditions. With that said I would definitely be able to hold a lot more power down with the pivot in stronger winds of course

[Seabizzle]

One last thing!

A very noticeable characteristic for me is the fast forward flying speed of this kite. By that I mean speeding ahead in a straight line. It feels significantly faster than my pivot and a lot of other kites I have tried ( haven't been on the race kites lei or foils though)

[Peert]

REO. In 6m kites there is no point to one strut. Canopy stability is more important than weight in higher winds. Reo is known for mellow loops

What does an unstable canopy do? Cause the kite to suddely shake you out of your footstraps?

I rode strapless

So? Unstable canopy pulled you of your strapless SB/HF?

[tomtom]

Yea, unstable canopy make bad vibration and mess with my mojo