vp wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:49 am
I helped okk to tune the kite on this video. To clarify:
- the back lines on the brand new FS airstyle 3.0 bar were way too long and had too much slack at full power.
- there was no setting (knots) that would shorten the lines enough to have it properly tuned, so we had to slide the floaters off and tie another knot.
- there was nothing wrong with the bridles or the mixer on the kite.
It only took a few minutes and was not a big deal. However, someone who is new to kiteboarding or foil kites may not realize this and loose a lot of performance. Also, from a consumer perspective, if someone spends $2400 on a kite and bar, they have the right to be somewhat annoyed if it doesn't fly perfect out of the bag. Having said that, I loved the kite - it's super stable, has a huge range, intuitive feel/ steering and boosts great.
Also, not sure if all Soul kites with Airstyle bars will be like this. But, it's worth a mention in a review, just to give consumers a heads up to watch out for it.
Thanks for that input, vp. It sounds like an unusual quality control issue that Flysurfer should address. But I suspect that most brand new Souls perform well out of the bag.
So, what can buyers reasonably expect from a new foil kite? The Hyperlink in OKk's test flew fine out of the bag. Most major brands seem to have decent quality control. Heck, my Pansh Aurora II flew fine out of the bag. As you said, if someone spends $2400 on a Soul, he or she should be able to rely on it to fly fine out of the bag, too.
Obviously, every foil will require fine-tuning for wind conditions with the de-power strap, but no new foil kite should require the user to first eliminate what looks like 6"-8" of slack from the back lines just to get to the point that the kite can be fine-tuned with the de-power strap. I'm pretty confident that Flysurfer would agree with that opinion, and I suspect that they meet expectations 95% of the time.