Saturday's gustiness was interesting. I tried out Proto's new toy - his 9m Waroo, by the Novotel - awesome kite - it fared well in extremes of 10 to 35knots. Even better than the Cabrinha bows - just so simple, no clutter.
Anyway here's what our guest writer ProtoCole has to say himself. His uncle doesn't run Best. Neither does he own stock.....
Arrived at Botany Bay, 2pm, wind howling, gusty 20 to 35 knots, rain pouring down. Empty beach.
Having recently bought a 16m Crossbow last season- wow what a revolution in kite action! We loved and still love it. However, on Saturday I used my new 9m Best Waroo for the first time- Its another step forward and an Absolutely Fantastic kite- I have been buzzing all weekend!
I am totally impressed by the Waroo. It has all the best bits bits form every kite i have flown (Flexifoil storm 1 (10m) and 2 (14m) , Naish Boxer (12m) and (16m), Switchblade (12M) Xbow (16m), Best Nemesis 21m) and none of the over complicated (having now flown the Waroo) unnecessary dangly bits that other kites have.
I have always assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that Best kites are the cheaper-lower quality kite on the market, but this is certainly not the case with the Waroo-it has everything-even lovely sponge tubey things on the lines to make holding them in the water a pleasure.
We took the Waroo down to the sand. Unpacked her. First impression was of good build quality, and reassuringly simple.
Valves on each strut, and one inflate and one big deflate on the leading edge. No awkward fancy big sand plagued valve as on our Cabrinha Xbow. Every valve has stopper ball too which worked well. Very simple super easy to inflate, a couple of minutes and she was pert and ready to go.
The bar and lines are top quality, really excellent. (Bar and lines were unravelled- again very simple, no over complicated pulleys of dangly plastic tube things for the depower, just a lovely colour coded strap system. Bar comes with color coded lines, a wrist lease, and release on the chicken loop. All very straight forward and easy.
As for flying- Once the lines were connected correctly! The launch was super easy and controlled- the power easily dialled in or out by sheeting the bar. Turn speed was incredible (was a 9m metre) massive power when needed and no power at all if required by simply pushing the bar away! Incredibly re-assuring (it was 20 to 35 knots and gusting to over 40 by 5pm!). After about 2 minutes I was in the water, on the board and racing across the bay with the biggest jet of spray shooting out behind me- totally amazing.
I dropped the kite a few times initially as it took a few runs to get used to how much or how little i could sheet out to reduce the power. A few times i sheeted out too much and lost speed and the kite gently fell. However- re-launching was super simple, I just held the bar to turn the kite out of the water, it floated to the edge of the window and just sailed up into the sky! incredible! After about 20 minutes i was completely used to the position of the sweet spot to be able to maintain steady flight or dial in major pull, and had no more troubles. The secret with bow/SLE kites seems to be to keep some power in the kite and not over depower (unless you are in trouble-which is when the depower safety comes into its own).
As for bar pressure-what bar pressure- there wasn't any to speak of-I could have gone out all day-had to stop as my legs were knackered and it was dark!
In summary the kite is fantastic and the best i have flown yet. If idiots like us can have an amazing session in terrible gusty conditions then this is the future of kiting!
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