flysurfer sonic3, any news?

[Horst Sergio]

Hi Adventure Logs,

no I was not told but maybe comunication error. But as I have seen so many pictures of it (teaser from others) and its flying around here in public since month, I didn't expect problems with low res pics. But if it is meant to start 24th so for all equal conditions, this makes sense, too.

[pmaggie]

I have my 13 wating in the bag from last thursday...
Anyway it's too cold here for the moment, so I can't actually test it in the water. What I can say for the moment is that it eventually comes with a very good quality backpack and some other amenities, not only the very simple bag without suspenders of the first Souls.

[Nem0]

Now it’s online!
https://flysurfer.com/project/sonic3/

[joriws]

[Regularkiter]

[Horst Sergio]

So again. Having a bit more time so I can write a few more words, to prevent missunderstanding:

When the last Sonic²s have been sold 2 month ago, I decided to just buy another Sonic² 9 m² even if my actuall is after much more than 100 sessions still perfect. I did this on my own risk not knowing if I will like the Sonic3 more or not, but let's say I have seen FS development strategies and my very special demands looking for a pure classic race kite behaviour for stunt kite flying it. Therefore I still prefer the Sonic1 FR flying characteristic and bar feedback, but Sonic² was to much better in light wind relaunch, why I changed to Sonic² when it comes out, in 2017 as I remember. This background just to assess my words.

Till now I have flown the Sonic³ just in 9 m² and just two times and both times with a wrong bar, so it is all not a complet impression yet:

Till now this impression is, that it is quite similar to Sonic² maybe a bit more towards Speed5, by tip shape and slightly lower AR for example, but without loosing performance of Sonic² and more likely again a bit more performance especially glide which felt well especially during transitions. Also bar feedback should be better and more intuitive, not on Sonic 1 level but better than Sonic².

What I didn't expect was the new cloth that looks interesting, but still has to prove its strength as always. I was also sceptic about the lotus cloth and now very happy with its sustainability. As I see some similarity to lotus I would hope it will have a similar sustainability, which starts to be an important factor for me.

I hope to do a better 1:1 performance comparison inbetween a new Sonic² and Sonic³ in the future both on good bars. So far Sonic³ felt in many aspects as Depower, Relaunch and Float a bit better, but for me personally as said, I would still prefer Sonic 1 FR digital backstall behaviour when it comes to reverse flying etc. which I expect not to be relevant for 99,9% of the users.

That's why I think for very most who have been happy with S1 and S2 the S3 is for sure interesting and another small step forward into easier handling. Also for those with Speed5s who haven't had any issues with relaunch and who are looking for something significant more performant without loosing to much of the easiness of Speed5.

Last picture shows one of the special personal reasons why I am happy with my Sonic², with more square ears, which are holding thier shape in a wider range of positive and negative angle of attack. The Sonic³ tends to have a more continous, if you want so predictable, travel to roll in the ears. But the Sonic³ pops the ears up much better if not close to 100% by itself, if putting the bar back at its angle of attack range. But as I prefered the more digital behaviour even more of the Sonic 1 or of the Sonic², I am happy to keep it.

@zob: corrected short cutted names

[a99]

Color design of front up side looks terribal, especially on red and yellow colors! Something as 20 years ago. How was possible to release such bad design comparing with subtile Sonic2 and Sonic3?
Weigths:
Sonic3 11m less on 200g comparing with Sonic2,
9m less 100g,
but 18m is on S3 heavier on 100 g !!!???
15m weights quite the same.
13m 100g less on S3.

Significant less Aspec ratio on all S3 !

https://flysurfer.com/project/sonic3/

[zob]

Abbreviations S3, S4, S5... used to be used for the Speeds. Now I don't know if you're talking about Speeds, Souls, Sonics or Stokes!?

One thing I notice, FS kite prices increase faster than my salary. In fact the prices are beyond silly. I guess they have enough wealthy customers, that they don't mind loosing customers like me
Good luck!

[Adventure Logs]

I actually like the color design. You can't really tell through the pictures posted, but the top color shows through on the bottom layer and makes a pretty cool effect. I'm just sad they changed the color scheme. My Sonic 2 11m was blue but on the Sonic3 it's orange. Not as pretty lol. Definitely you can tell the premium quality. Love the new strap that's included and the upgraded sandbag is a nice touch.

I'm sure the reason why the 18m is heavier is because they're aren't using the Lotus cloth for the leading edge which is super light weight. Only problem was it had a tendency to deform and dimple when you pushed the kite hard which ended in a loss of performance.

I wouldn't say a "significant" less aspect ratio, the 18m Sonic2 was 7.25 compared to the Sonic3 which is 7.2. There is a larger difference the smaller you go though with the Sonic2 9m being 7.1 and Soni3 3 being 6.6. I like that each kite is different, designed for it's size. Why each size of the Soul had it's own characteristics.

[Horst Sergio]

@Regularkiter :
Thanks, nice review.

@Adventure Logs:
Yes as nearly always they did quite some nice small improvements, also the splicings are build another way. Also the bag is nice in principle but unfortunately even for the 9 m² to short to just fold it once.
And yes a kite is not about just comparing numbers, I would be happy that it hasn't become lighter, the kites of those manufacturers with ultra light cloth just will cost you dopple or more by their short live time.
If anybody has problem to keep a Sonic² in the air while there is wind to fly a well performing foil it is defenetly not about the kite weight, but about flying skills, which means better go for a Soul anyway.

Increased number of words in the first post, hope also information is now increased or more clear.