Mike, I am your weight and I decided I needed a 16m bow. I wanted an SSTD 16m but they will not be here till January so I bought a XBow 16m and it's great.

I bought the Switchblade for safety reasons actually, when compared to the SSTD. While the bar looks a little simpler, there is a feature that basically disables the 'dead-man' safety. There is a 'stopper' that you can engage to hold the bar position, similar to a main loop on a C shape. In short, if you are lofted/gusted, then you have to think pretty quick and release the stopper.

Personally, I'm not confident that I would react quick enough, so placed my bet on the Switchblade. With the Switch, I just need to let go of the bar, and get instant de-power to around 99%.

If you have a look at the Cabrinha site, download the Crossbow/Switchblade videos, you'll get a good feel for it.

The only really really nice thing about the SSTD I thought was the bag. It's awesome.

Anyway, whichever out of those two you choose, you will end up with a fricken awesome kite!

Some good points there, cheers. I guess at the end of the day I felt more comfortable with the Cabrinha. In that this is their 2nd Bow kite released to market, that also gave me some confidence. Anyways, all good in the hood, and Im sure I wont regret buying my Switchie.