Postby Regis-de-giens » Mon Feb 13, 2017 9:45 am
I know a rider who loves light wind and rides in lake (he uses a speed4 Lotus 15m) ; he just bought a second hand 12m Pulsion last month .
Its riding conditions in lake are irregular, changing from 0 to 10 several times in the same session ; after 4 sessions, he said he loved the Pulsion and was impressed by how it stays at the zenith, in less wind that all the kites he owned (15m lotus, speed 3 dlx, sonic, speed 5). He Loved how it turns quick and smoothly and by the high power of the 12m similar to his speed4 15m Lotus (a bit more in water start but a bit less speed in very light wind, surface difference being certainly the reason). But he reaches the same low end with better stability.
The only drawback he found for its personal use is its ability to relaunch when the kite lays several minutes in the water. I agree with him especillay for his special need to be able to wait minutes for the next "gust" to come to relaunch (even if in my practice in open sea , when the winds get below 2-3 knots it rarely increases again the the next minutes, so i need to focus more on the kite never touching the water with low wind as I will never get enough wind again to relaunch in the next hour) ; So, he noticed that the Lotus cloth is superior on this point after a long stay in the water (to me the Lotus is far above all other cloth of other brand on this feature, thanks to its wonderful water-tightness and reperlancy).
We discussed this and Benoit Tremblay decided to sew a new prototype of 12m Pulsion "Lotus" , i.e. using the cloth Porcher 32gr ("Lotus" is also Procher 32gr) with similar "slippy silicon feeling". The test was successful according to him, with only a impact of the "softness" of the cloth. The 12m prototype is apparently only 100 gr heavier, about 1850 gr. Feeling in the air seems less rigid when flying the kite, so just a matter of preference ...