bingles said...

Any good?? they look nice..

Extremely good, would have them this year again, just never liked the 5th line because all my kiting is in the waves.

Yes they did look good, especially the gold and bronze colours.

been riding fuels for 3 years, and now bought 12m HiFi 08 (mostly coz i found it at a bargain price).

Overall, i like the kite and plan to keep it. It's a pretty good kite. It does lack a little low end, but honestly on very low wind days i stay in the water as long as all other guys riding bows or C's of similar size.

Turns very very quickly - would be great for kite loops.
Relaunches very easy... even when i had lines around the kite tangle and kite folded upside down, i managed to relaunch by fiddling with the centre line.

So overall, i'm very happy with it and it does good job... here are few disadvantages i guess:
- the inlet valve on the bladder doesn't have the little lid on the inside to prevent air comming out when you take out the pump. It's a minor, but i would expect all kites to have it these days.
- the air connectors to the struts do'nt have the clips to block the airflow after pumping it up (i guess you can buy these separately), but once the kite dropped hard one of those came out and the whole kite deflated
- there is more bar preassure than on fuels (but i guess here one could say HTFU)
- if you get swung beneath the kite (mostly in low wind days), it's more likely to fall out of the sky than my other kites
- and the 5th line attachment ring is far above the bar, meaning you really need to run your safety leash from the front of the harness... or find longer than standard leash if you wanna ride unhooked...

he he - but it does look nice!! Im still trying to decide between a few diff kites - looking to upgrade my 06 C kite.. Im torn between Flexifoil Atom, Naish Torch, North Vegas, Slingshot Fuel or similar kites, but all the diff kites characteristics confuse me.
I want to saty close to C kites for the performance aspects of them hence the "hybrid C's??" I love my fith line so also want to stay with 5 lines, mainly just getting into unhooked tricks (no dangle just busting railey's) and free riding, whatever that means. I appreciate your feedback, hopefully the thread wont go to pullin the piss out of something/somone as rapidly as some do. cheers, bring on perth summer, love it.

bingles said...

I love my fith line so also want to stay with 5 lines

I'm pretty much in the same boat - I've also added VaporIII to the list you have above. Actually it's top of my list as soon as I get time to demo - looking for a 5-line kite that's has that nice C unhooked feel and pop but swept back enough to drift downwind a bit better than my current 9m (06 Airush Reactor) for downwinders.

(Hi Fis look nice and will def consider for my next 12m)

bjw said...

A couple of days ago had a go on the Envy- Balmoral Boards Narrabeen have a demo - thanks guys.

Really ultra stable kite in the air. Turns well. Ive been riding Fuels always and loved the Envy. Gotta say it suprised me as usually Im not impressed with other kites than the Fuel. Im keen to try it in more wind though.

bjw spot on, best 4 line kite available IMO 10m is good 8m is awesome and my 6m gets here next week and I got a feeling that's gonna be sick.

Bingles if you have a bit of experience behind you and are getting into kite loops and that jazz then consider the HiFi comp. Give Jason at west oz kiteboarding (google or WOK on SB)a call he's got a demo 9m which is proving very popular, whilst your there demo the Envy he has for demo to and compare.

I know of a few fuel riders that converted to the 08 HiFi's and gone onto purchase 09's.