To be fair, I don't even know why am I creating this thread and review, since I have no brand affiliation, nor do I sell those kites, nor do I know any international dealership of this brand. Probably just to brag.
ParAAvis is the Russian brand that sews foil kites as their byproduct, just like Ozone, while their main products are paragliders and parachutes. Few years ago they have created Smile II, naming of which was weird because they already had Smile and that was not a kite, but a reserve chute. They tried to create the most user friendly mid aspect foil kite, which wasn't that great and had issues, plus newly released FS Soul threw a huge shade on the kite, so majority of those kites were sewn for children snowkiting racing class JKS.
During 2020-2021 winter season, out of the blue, affiliated folks have announced that Smile III is on the way and it is going to have way wider size range than previous generation. Most importantly, 15m size. For us, Russians, who do not have access to tropical coastlines with steady 20 knots winds most of year, we have to resort to "swamp kiting" and use as little wind as we can harness using the biggest kites and boards that we can afford. Some of ParAAvis kites are going in fixed 15m(Drive 2) and 18m(Q18) sizes because of that. Folks said that this was a brand new kite, comparing to the previous one, absolutely revolutionizing it and fixing mistakes. I have ordered it back in march and have been waiting for two and a half months for it to be sewn and delivered to me last friday and put it on the maiden flight this sunday.
So, Smile III, what is it?
Aspect ratio: 6.5
Cell counts: 41
Intake valves: 6
Drain valves: 5
Fabric: 40 and 32 g/sqm 2x ripstop.
While I have been waiting for my kite I have managed to test this kite in 15m size. My first impression was how smooth and friendly that kite was in terms of stability, predictability and power delivery. And now I have managed to fly my own wing for the first time for few hours. Wind conditions weren't much. At first it was 8 knots. While I was on a 170cm door that was barely enough to go and have some minor upwind. With my weight of 101kg that was close to a miracle. But then wind have picked up to 10 knots, and that's when the kite began to shine. This kite gave me the feeling of absolute control, it did everything I wanted from it, however I wanted from it, no surprises, no explosive power surges. Just carefree riding. Moderate bar pressure, in my opinion it's just right. There's gonna be a bold claim, but I say this 15m foil kite turns faster than 12m Soul. I have noticed that when I pull on the bar the canopy of the wing just changes angle evenly as whole, instead of relying mostly on the trailing edge like Soul did. Probably that's how the mixer works, it's much more complicated, see photo below. This kite is also incredibly stable, no wingtip folds during transitions, no collapses, even kept the shape when I botched landings on jumps, even refused to frontstall when I yanked the power lines in marginal winds. If gusts came, somehow it felt very smoothly through the bar, no yanks that throw you forward. Upwind is solid 8/10, almost went at the same speeds and angles as the hydrofoil users, but still wasn't there. I believe this wing was not planned as race kite, but it picked up quite the speed.
In conclusion, this is the most amazing kite that I had, smooth, friendly, stable, easy to use with enough power to go and play at the most marginal winds. I love it. And now, cream of the crop, the price tag. 15m wing without the bar was just 1130$.
Mixer in question. I have no bloody idea how it works, but it works. Manufacturer claims that this mixer can be transformed back to the classic variant, making the bar pressure even lighter but losing the 30% of the bar input and depower range.
Very thin bridles. Tend to clutter a bit right out of bag, so I had to shake them for a little much longer that I used to do that with Soul's bridle.
Drain valves. As I have mentioned there's 5 of them: At each wingtip, about 35cm (1ft) away from it and right in the middle.
To be fair... this kite looks like FS Speed, with such swept back wingtips and slightly higher aspect ratio.