Thanks for all the feedback guys, I am having a look around for test events that I could join. Seems like the logical choice will be the evo and if that one does not feel right the enduro. On the other hand the more playful choice would be the dice/gts. Will report back in a few months which one it is and what size I went for.
nothing2seehere wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:24 pm
Out of interest, whats wrong with your Neos?
I haven't tried the latest versions, but the '14-'17 Neos jumped pretty high. The loops aren't powerful but thats not a problem when learning the timing. They are poor in terms of hang time so you need to be a bit more precise with your timing for soft landings but otherwise they make a decent freeride kite - and a really top quality wave kite. I'd be surprised if the formula has changed that much that they are no longer decent freeride kites.
There is this guy called Erik Blokker, I watched this video and thought that is the coolest s*** ever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWuA6d_Myws he has more stuff on his youtube and instagram. That got me thinking that I might need another kind of kite to get into that.
While I was in cape town for 2 weeks I couldn't find one single person looping a rebel or a neo. Didn't even see another guy beside me trying to jump around on a neo. I saw 2 guys riding rebels and they all just went up there and had much more hangtime than every other guy jumping, based on the distance they traveled until landing. Only really good riders had the enduro, I saw 2 guys looping that kite like crazy. The Evo and Dice i could see a lot, rider skill varied more and it gave me a good idea about the kite.
Also while beeing there I tried riding the Neo more on the upper range of its wind range and it did not feel good. I was on the 10m, around 18-20 knots constant with gusts up to 23/26 knots and I could hold my edge but the big problem were the gusts. I was riding on the hard setting for bar pressure, prefer that one a lot since I can feel where the kite is without looking, and my arms are not weak, I can do around 12 pull ups in one set but it ripped the bar out of my hands twice with gusts. Despite my lack of experience and no comparison to other kites I thought there must be something better for me. Maybe I am just a wuzz or the neo is not for me in that regard. Zero complaints about the neo except that riding it lit up felt really bad, the guys where I bougth the kite from told me that it would be normal to switch to smaller sizes faster on the neo since it is such a grunty kite.
Another thing is that it is a shared quiver, we usually don't get problems since we have 30kg between us but for my lit up riding, boosting and getting into loops adventure we will. Since I would like to be on the same size for jumping that my brother wants to use on this TT/directional. And I really like the idea of having at least this 8 or 9m kite that feels great lit up, just for that purpose when the wind is a bit light and I can jump 1,5 meters I can practice the loops and when the wind is on I can train big airs with landing loops and eventually progress towards 7 meter high up loops with a landing loop.