I really like Gong’s approach to kitesurfing, the innovation and the price policy. I had high expectations for this kite and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. On the positive side, the kite looks good quality wise, especially at that price point, and it delivers when it comes to loops and jumps (its intended purpose). On the negative side:
- Very low bar pressure (as mentioned by many). Changing the line setting to increase the pressure helps a bit but it remain too low for me
- The kite “folded” a few times when moving it wildly through the window (wind was ¬25knts). People on the beach thought it was not inflated enough but after checking it was rock solid so definitely a kite weakness
- When looping the kite, it sometimes “stalls” mid window, taking a few milliseconds too many to go up in the window and catch you (happened by 25knts wind, kite was half depowered, new gong lines, definitely not “chocked”)
- I really like the double skin concept in theory. It does mean that the kite sits quite high in the window at 12, with relatively little pull, which is fine by me (plenty of power when moving it in the window). However I noticed that the bottom half of the double skin was flapping quite a lot when cruising (kite at 10 o’clock stable): it can’t be efficient (drag) defeating the purpose of the double skin at least in these conditions?
- I used the kite by low wind (10knts) with a foil board. While it’s not its intended purpose, I was disappointed at its behaviour there: it stalls really easily (despite easing the back lines) and it’s incredibly difficult to relaunch once on the water: in particular when the trailing edge is in the water (front facing up), the kite just lies on its “back”; no amount of front line pulling will help the kite to take off… wind was ¬10knts: while in the air, there was plenty enough power to foil but if the kite stalls, it’s game over basically. So I need another 9m in the quiver for these conditions (I'll keep using my soul I guess)