Postby Regis-de-giens » Thu Dec 30, 2021 9:31 am
I did a first real test on the snow yesterday ; really happy because it was more than 2 month I had not kite due to shoulder surgery;
The kite Spririt2 is really pleasant and I loved my session yesterday. Kite launches and relaunches in very low wind, then it is powerful in low end (7 knots at the beginning) ; it is stable, does not want to dive to the ground; its loops is really excellent at the first half of the turn (respond quicker than the pulsion, turns short and round with enough power) while its radius increase at the second half of the turn: i.e. when looping to climb a mountain, if kite was initially lower than half of the window, you need to force it a bit more in the end if you do not want to rip the ground; no big deal because it is in the average kites ( far better than my ex-speed 4 that I disliked for exemple).
Wind began to be more gusty but kite was still trusty and stable ; overall the kite get backward naturally when a turbulence comes, you do not need to check it a lot ; However in two big turbulences , I got 2 frontstalls , and it came back to normal before touching the ground ( kite never collapsed fully in two up to the ground), good point; no kite crash during the session. This session in 8-15 knots was excellent, including climbing loops, low end in wind shadows, soaring at 2-3 meter elevations from the ground ... really a nice kite that bring lots of confidence and significantly more performant upwind than the Ozone summit of my friend on a snowboard (Aspect Ratio is higher on the Spirit2).
Some very small tips instabilities when kite very low and if wind dies, like normal I would say but nothing serious nor changing your ride. Bar pressure is just fine. I would recommend a 60 cm bar on the snow to shorten the radius at the end of the loops when climbing.
In the afternoon wind died , then after our sandwich, a breeze went back to about 5-6 knots, the time to relaunch, and only one minute later : 25 knot of gusty wind ... I broke one front line of my bar and it led to a break of one Z Bridge (this happens ... bridles are thin but it is hard to say if it is too fragile or not since I broke the front line first ... ) ; my friends on the Summit had to release the kite and broken its 5th line as well ... ; so , it was too violent and short to assess the depower and the high end of the kite. It seems more pleasant in high end than the pulsion but a bit less instant depower than the FRS , to be confirmed since not really assessed through only one gust.
The flight qualities are excellent , I would say it is between a Pulsion (power, plug and play, stability) and a FRS (good loop even slack lines, high end), more agile and light than a Soul IMO; For the price asked it is really an excellent price/quality ratio. To me one (if not the best), of the kites for my all-round practice on snow.