cyclone wrote:Big kites that dont turn are DOGS! What kind of fun will you have on a big kite that doesnt turn? There is soooo much discussion about this its not funny... EVERYONE wants their big kites to turn faster!
I had a G-ARC 13m and it too was slow to turn...
Dont get me wrong here though, im not here to bash foils... i bash everything that i feel deserves it... remember my v4 review before it was lost in the site crash???
The psycho 15.5 is not like that at all. It IS kind of a slow pig to turn, but it works like this:
To jump high you don't have to whip the kite back hard. You just bring the kite to 12:00 and sheet in. Up you go. Of course the faster you do it the better you jump with the psycho, but it doesn't need anywhere near the same kind of turning speed that the LEI's I have tried need to jump well.
Sining the kite when underpowered: With the psycho you never have to sine the kite. So turning speed is not a concern in underpowered conditions or when you want to accellerate quickly. You actually pump the bar the same way you would pump a big poleboard sail. When you sheet in the kite develops a strong pull, slightly more downwind and you accelerate. Then when you sheet out the kite accelerates forward in the window with more apparent wind and thus more power.
Basically the psycho flys similarly but in the end it performs very differently from all of the other kites I have tried. I happen to like it very much and so I stick with it, even though it does have its disadvantages.
Having said that, after trying a number of 2003 and 2004 LEIs, including 12 and 17 Nitro, 19 slingshot, a 16 RRD and a 14 skoop, all of the new kites I have tried have very much fixed all of the problems I had with the older LEIs. These kites responded to my input quickly and directly, did not luff very easily, and had a fairly good depower range.
The main thing I hated about old LEI kites was the "floppyness" and the delay when I turned the bar. The newer lei kites don't seem to suffer much, if at all, from this problem. Except for the special things that the psycho can do, the newer LEIs i've tried all handle pretty much like the psycho but with faster turning (in addition to the differences in performance peculiar to the model).
So as you see if you have followed these threads and looked at all the arguments, it is very much like with kiteboard design. Everything is a compromise. Take your G-arc out in some super gusty, turbulent wind and compare the performance with your current favorite LEI and you will probably see what I mean.
As far as I can tell pretty much all of the kites on the market now are "good" but all excell in some areas and have disadvantages in other areas. LEI kites in general maybe have evened out the highs and lows more than the foils and perhaps this explains their popularity. In the end the best choice for the individual rider is going to come down to rider preference and intended use.
Trent