From the immovable, day-long, indelible grins on the faces of all 3 test riders of the new 'Crossbow' at Woodies today (as they drooled & hassled each other for their next turn) I reckon Cabrinah should have called it the 'Smileybow'.
Is this the long anticipated, sideways step-up in kite design, performance & safety
Im way too green to make a call like that BUT I reckon you have to have a serious look at it for yourself - it was an impressive demo, very impressive - from whatever angle you chose to investigate.
Cant wait to be handed the reins - my turn next guys - pleeese.

:(, should have gone to woodies. I stayed on the river, wind was poo, kite flipped inside out making my lines wrong. Kid walks up and asks if Im a man or a woman (I have long hair). And If that wasn't enough to shatter my confidence, the kid proceeds to ask if I have a gf (no :\) then says he has one . Little ****.

Then a long swim when the wind dropped aswell.

I don't think im gonna bother anymore.

I really didnt want to get dragged into a 'new' kite/a whole lot of 'new' claims debate BUT 'credit where credit is due' is a difficult concept to stand back from.
Apart from anything else today the Crossbows WA debut at Woodies can be undeniably credited with this attribute.
Towards the end of a long, magical Perth day the wind dropped .
All kites by that time had migrated from the offshore west bay to the safety of the almost direct onshore northside. I gave up with my 11M only moments before 2 12M's that were also gradually loosing ground made the same decision. It wasnt long before the last remaining 14M also gave in to the inevitably dropping wind.
The 12M 'Crossbow' was still out, consistently still upwind & only just beginning to struggle to stay off the beach when jumps &/or rolls etc were included in any run.
Cabrinahs claim is that the 12m will cover kite sizes up to conventional LEIs of 14M. Todays display confirmed that claim - absolutely no doubt. General concensus on the beach was that the 12M crossbow finally gave-in to loosing ground at around 12kts ????. (maybe a bit less? there was no meter available to confirm it)
BUT, amazing as this may seem, there is nothing magical here.
I figured on the way home (as the scotch & coke began to clear my water-logged brain ) that the bridled LE produces a greater % of projected area than the convential LEI in exactly the same way as it has long been accepted that a 9.?M Flysurfer is the equivalent of a 12.?M LEI. There is little argument now over this much debated fact.
With the 'Crossbow' Cabrinah have very cleverly built this high % projected area foil advantage into a bridled LEI. I will leave the final assessment of whether this is a successful adaptation up to you. (I have pretty much made up my own mind already).
I am looking forward now to checking out the 'real' high end range of the crossbow to see how that matches the cabrinah claim of being the equivalent of an 8M LEI? Then to work through the specs & bar configuration to see if there is an equally understandable, 'scientific', non-magical but rather well researched & developed explanation of what, on the face of it, also sounds like exaggerated, extraordinary, unbelievable 'new' kite marketing hype.
I just hope the upper end claims are as accurate & credible as the low ends claims
Time, tests & your own trials will tell the tale.
INTERESTING HUH !!

I agree PR, 2006 Summer is looking good! The Croosbow at ~$2k isn't cheap unless the Cabrinah claims are true which means in Perth conditions we may only need one kite say, a 12m. Has that other hyped kite turned up on our Perth beaches yet?
ADS