So my experience having over 35 sessions on my 14.5m Aluula Flite is that too many people are spending lots of time talking about the LOW END - gotta love the videos of guys reverse "snow kite style" launching in NO WIND...YES it's my biggest kite and YES I do fly it in lighter winds which for me is like 13-14 knots but it's WAY more fun in it's sweet spot of 17-19 knots - but there is 100% a performance advantage of the rigid ALUULA frame / struts vs. dacron kite and YES I used to have the same flite in a 14.5m in dacron so I can tell -Gestalt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 5:09 pmI personally have the 8m,10m Aluula Roam, and the 17m Aluula F-lite. I have personally also flown the 12m and 14.5m Aluula Flite's several times each.
The 17m A-Flite starts becoming unmanageable past 15 knots, where a 17m Juice can go to 20 knots.
The 12m Aluula Flite as per experience and the website starts getting overpowered at about 17-18 knots. For a 12m that's crazy.
My Core xr6 12m can do rated 24 knots easy, and I can hold it down to 26 knots.
The 8m A-Roam, which has amazing power dump capability, flies solid all the way to 28knots. It's quite fun in the 25-28 knot range, but I wouldn't jump with it. I also would not dare take it past 28 knots. Where a Neo 8-m will go up to 32 knots in comparison.
These kites are very stable right up until you hit their threshold, but that threshold is comparatively low at the top end. At the low end it's a different story.
THE TOP END on the ALUULA is much higher than the Dacron. Does that mean you should get a 7m kite for Rooster - NO - It just means if you can pick up a 14.5m Aluula it will be the best 14.5m kite you have ever flown hands down. I few times I over-rigged by mistake and ended up flying my 14.5 in up to about 23-24 knots maybe a bit more even, as they say I was LIT AF - probably borderline dangerous for all you little guys but at 275lbs dry out of the shower and with some edging skills it did work - full disclosure that day I did go in for my 11m XR6 which was much more appropriate, but the big kite has a LOT OF TOP END if you want it - had the biggest boost with a hella drift on the way in...
Just my .02 of direct experience - a BIG Aluula kite from Ocean Rodeo or the new Juice if you prefer Duotone is a fantastic toy - do you need it? Depends... matched with the right board it can be a dream - I do find the bar / line recco from OR to be suspect, after getting some great help from another experienced kiter switched to the SS 23 inch bar with the 27m lines and the kite opened up and now flies like a dream - best for 16-20 knots IMHO...
Mc