Hi Guys,
I have been riding the apollo 16 for the last two weeks in France (French brittany and Bordeaux area). I have been kiting for many years but not very often so I am still a beginner at aistyling (dark slides, boards off and one footers with no rotations) but I will try to give a little feed back. I am 83 kg and I used the standard lines which are I think only 22 meters on a 132 TT. I used this kite in low winds 10-12 knots and higher winds around 18-20 kts. I also used it in below 8-10kt with a malibu longboard. I could not go upwind with my TT in very light wind.
BeforeI had A Naish draft 14 and I also still own a Sonic FR 15 that I used this spring during approx 15 sessions. I like the sonic but I wanted safer and more "plug and play" kite because It is still an issue to launch my sonic in 15kt+ winds, moreover when it does not inflate properly or the ears goes tangled during launching. Also the sonic does relaunch but not every times, and I also spent several hours to untie the knots in the kitelines.
In low wind the apollo is pretty powerful and turns much better than the Sonic 15 which helps create power and helps going out of darslides or other tricks with kite loops. I think the lowends of the Sonic 15 and Apollo 16 are similar and longer lines would clearly help the apollo. It is also a very stable kite and I never had any bad surprise in below 9kt. In the upper win range, you can fly pretty high and the hang time is excellent. Hang time is not as good as sonic 15 and landings are are harder. Also I think you travel much more downwind than with the Sonic during jumps. Depower is very good I am sure I can easily hold this kite in 25 knots but the ride would not be fun for me. I was flying the apollo 16 when other people were riding 9, 12m and even 8m on TT. I think the best range is 15-18 kt. Even when very well powered I was always in control, not overpowered trying to hold my ground... Upwind is off course very good, as expected with a high AR kite. Relaunch is also surprisingly good, no problem even in light winds. Bar pressure was muuuch softer than Draft 14 but you can feel where the kite is. I can't compare with sonic because the feelings are very different. One thing that was disturbing when flying this kite in the higher wind range is that the canopy is sometimes deforming (flapping) when fully depower. It is not a big problem and I could not notice anything in the bar or harness.
As a conclusion, I am pretty happy with this kite and will keep it to progress.
Doing this post I just saw this video on the web which might like people reading this post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EUyNct7xPQ