Screamer 5g 10m LTD VS 9m - seeking input

[KiteCulture]

well. to be quite honest, I've been lucky enough to work with Dimitri so we trade for equipment. Having said that, I absolutely love the gear and always provide my view point. If there is something that I'm not a fan of, I'll say so. My objective is not to put yo on something that you won't enjoy. For me... The Screamer 10, in 2009 was pretty twitchy and loaded with bullish horsepower. I remember sitting down on my snowboard and did that initial dive to get me up and riding... and it nearly pulled me out of my boots! So I learned to treat it easy. Now however, the new lines (3-5G are way more refined and you have what I'd call predictable power. It doesn't blast you unless you make it do that. So... it will spank you if you are doing silly crap, but I suspect most kites will. Compared to the Renegade the Screamer takes slightly more finesse to relaunch but I feel on the 5G line, you don't have to pay attention to the kite any more than the Renegade. You can depower the kite on the front lines. I do that when I can't decide between the 7 and 10...so I milk the 10 a little or if it's really gusty. As the Screamer sits more forward int he wind window, if it's gusty and you get a bunch of lulls with the kite overhead, it will fall forward on you. On those days, I launch and get out as you don;t notice it much when riding. The Renegade eats gusts better...but the payoff is lift. The Screamer handles gusts just fine, but you'll notice it tug a little more at the bar than the renegade. In bad ones, it might pull you off edge until you push the bar out a little. When I was in the OBX, I rode the 10 all the time - oops, We have a 7 meter day for a bit. I can't fault the Screamer 10 for anything really. For the new riders, you'll probably be easy with it the first bit until you get a feel for it. But you'd do that on any kite. I try not to ride the Renegade and Screamer in the same session if I can because it takes me a bit to adjust to the upwind difference. With the Renegade, it requires slightly more effort to stay upwind (kudos to Dimitri for refining that in the 5G line as it's nearly not noticeable now) where the Screamer... you have to try to stay downwind! Which makes it a great boosting kite cause you can jump all day long and not loose ground.