Hi Folks,
I had been a FS die hard for the last 8years,(still owning a Sonic 9m)but now i had the chance to fly the Airwave Koala 5m. I am 67kg and had been using the 5m Koala with my Onda 633 in just under 10kn up to 21kn.
Where this kite shines compared to the Soul 6m is the instant depower, sheet out and the power drops immediately, downlooping the kite is also smooth with no powerspike when shifting out the bar,relaunch is better to control as well , the Soul 6m tends to shoot out of the water and flies to the zenit with speed whereas the Koala 5m is better to control just by sheeting out on the bar (This is not FS Soul bashing, just comparing to what comes close and what i had owned before ) To get up on the foil is super easy as the kite will pull you up and down wind is truly amazing, you can use the kite basically as a spinnaker. I did not jump with the kite, my foil skills are not there yet.Bar pressure is low with good feedback.
To summ it up, the Airwave Koala handles pretty close to a tube kite but has all the good attributes of a foil kite. Also the bridle lines do not pick up every little twig or seaweed wich is a big bonus. I bought the Koala 5m primary for foiling and with the Oanda 633 and Sabfoil 590 i should be able to go out in sub 10 to 30kn @ my current skill level. How did i come accross the koala? Kitejunkie in Germany is actually a FS test centre and i thought if he is selling a New Foil kite brand better check it out. It worked out for me. Pricing is also better as the competition.
The fabric is 38gr per m2 but this kite flies in the lightest breeze, it shows that good engeneering and aero dynamics allow for this easily.
Fly2Base in Qld is offering demo kites, try before you buy.

Cheers

Interesting post and glad you put the price there Nathan as it defaults to including a bar, I was thinking over $2400 for a 5m which is pricey, under 2k is better.

I would be most interested in a comparison vs Peak 4. One of the things I much prefer with the p4 is the complete control of power, I found the Soul 6m didn't really depower at all coming from the p4. If the Koala does that better then I could be convinced to try, as it could bring some other things to the table like relaunch.

For comparison the p4 5m is under 1k new. Although I've heard they're increasingly hard to get, supply is rumoured to be drying up in advance of p5 release, although it could just be supply/demand/covid. Flysurfer have been struggling to keep up with demand of the p4 since it was discovered how good it is on water, I believe it outsells Souls now.

Hi Mark,

We have a 5m on demo here on Sunny Coast. I've had 1.5 sessions on it and my friend has had 3-4. Short answer is that he's about 90% decided to purchase one instead of Soul 6m. I'm about 70% committed so far, need to test mid to high range response but have thoroughly tested mid to low range and very impressed. I would be moving off Peaks which is a huge call but holding off to see what the P5 is like in January. But more than likely I'll buy a Koala early next year as well.

Kite looks great in sky (great colours), looks high aspect, flies very well with fast steering, depowers nicely, not like a peak but better than Soul or Nova which are the 2 other small twin skin foil kites I've flown. I was very comfortable on it in gusty wind. Also comfortable looping multiple times in low wind to get out of water, and also looping while on the foil to power up more, it doesn't yank you off, power is controllable and well behaved.

I have made it fall out of sky by foiling at it in a lull. Reverse launched straight away with no issues. My friend had it invert and was not able to relaunch, had a swim in. This is one negative mark from 3-4 overall very very impressive sessions. We are both fairly involved flyers and fling it around. However this invert happened with bar tuned badly, with very very long rear lines. Possibly that influenced it, we have added 20cm to centres and it's tuned better.

I would not purchase the bar personally, I would spend more and get a more premium bar because I like click-in, metal V, PU centre, etc. It ticks the boxes for a cheapish bar though with nice lines.

Hope that helps.