Just a quick note I have not flown or am in anyway associated with BEST kites or Kitepower. I am a total noob to the sport. I have read a bit about this kite here in Seabreeze and on their websites. (I fly Slingshot and Airush)
This evening I was down at Dolls Point checking to see if there was enough wind to have a quick session(seabreeze said 10-13 knots @ 3.30pm). However the wind was crap checked my wind meter 4-7 knots.
I saw the KitePower van drive by and park at the other side of the rock groin. Out comes a silvery kite and 2 guys. I drive closer, park, get out and walk out onto the beach and see the owner Steve of Kite Power and his son pumping up the new Hellfish 13mt.
WOW! I was the only other person to see the kite at this time. I went up and checked out the infamous Cuben material. Kinda looks like a thermal blanket. The Underside is white and the topside of the kite is like aluminum foil.
They pumped it up and launched it in 4-7 knots. Pretty damn amazing! The LE is as skinny as they claim. It stayed up and was pretty responsive in the wind. It didnt seem very powered but it did drag them across the beach when they flew it in the power doing kite loops. Still the wind was only 4-7 knots
I am no pro but as a person who checked the wind with an electronic device I can verify that this kite does get up in light winds (4-7 knots). It is definately worth a look and I reckon if stands up to a bashing and the laminate doesnt peel(As most say it might) its an awesome kite. I think they have 2 at Kite Power now so bug Steve for a demo.
Unfortunatly 4-7 knots on a wind meter = 10-13 knots real wind.
If you stick a wind meter 20-30m in the air im sure it would read 10-13 knots. BOM dont measure the wind strength 2m off the ground. So you'll always get a reading on a wind meter thats approx 5 knots under what its really blowing & what the graphs say 
dangle your wind meter off your kite and fly it up slowly then bring it back down and check it for the reading :\.
Wind meters suck. If the sand is blowing across the beach go kiting, if not, go kiting.
But seriously, I've seen wind meters reading 12-13kn and been powered on my 9.
Hehe and the guy with the wind meter said he needed 17-18kn and went home.
Yes Uber, good to meet you, and yes it was the infamous Hellfish, and it lived up to everything that Alex Shogren of Best Kites had told me about it.
The Cuben material is not like any other laminate I have ever seen. There are 2 grades of material in the kite, the leading edge, struts and the tips are all made from a heavier grade of the material. This stuff looks and feels very tough, and is not really crome, it is grey. The spectra fibres in the laminate are a random matrix, very fine and evenly spread throughout the laminate. This material is very tough and waxy to feel, the leading edge and struts were pumped as hard as our North guage pump would go, to the point where the inflated LE and struts has a high pitched ping when flicked.
The kite was brand new and not a demo from the US, as we were led to beleive it would be and it was shipped straight from the factory in China to us. I weighed the kite before I left the shop, it was approx 2.5kg, kite only, an 05 13M Poly/Dacron Yarga is approx 3.8Kg.
The material in the sail is the chrome stuff and is incredibly thin, shiny and tough. It has a crinkled look, and I think that is part of the way the material is manufactured. The spectra fibres in this material although not arranged like normal ripstop sail cloth are more uniformly layed up withing the laminate. The laminate is slightly opaque and appears grey when looking through it at a bright light, but is otherwise very reflective and shiny.
The kite has 4 line attachment points and is fitted with kook proof connectors, which matched up perfectly to the Peter Lynn 50cm 4 line bar we used to fly the kite.
All seams are taped and look like they are glued as well, the single leading edge seam is taped and also capped with another layer of reinforcing material, it looks totally bulletproof (maybe actually too!) The leading edge and struts are the thinnest I have ever seen on an inflatable kite, I estimate the leading adge diameter to be 10cm at the middle. There are 3 reinforced connection points on the leading edge tube, obviously for a 5th line and the connection of the new Pitch Fork Hellfish bridle (which we did not get with these kites). The second of the 2 x 13M kites will be shipped to the Geelong store tomorrow and will be available for demo down there after Thursday.
The wind we first launched in was approx 6/7 knots, with lulls to around 4/5 knots, the kite flew a 180 degree wind window and parked easily at the edge at a low angle, very impressive for a kite this size in this wind. The kite didn't just park it actually sat there quite stably and could be turned up from thsi position, tightly.
The kite flies quite fast, and is extremely responsive to any steering or sheeting input, and when it flew across the window had very impressive power and dragged my ass all over the beach, even managed to do small jumps.
Towards the end of this first flight the wind dropped to 4/5knots, the kite was still flying the same sized wind window and would still park at the edge, which I was very impressed with. We flew till dark, and went back to the shop which we had just shut/abandoned (sorry if anyone called) and ran out of just after the DHL guy left!!
Alex Shogren told me that these 2 kites are pre production prototypes and there will some tweaking of the design on the full production kites which he is doing final testing on now. He says that if I am blown away by these kites the final versions will be even better.
Look out for some on water reviews, I'll leave them for people who will put the kite through a more rigorous test than my body can handle.
Cya and
Goodwinds
Steve McCormack
www.kitepower.com.au
Whoah!!! Wind Meter Haters!! Fair enough. I am no pro so I need as much help as I can get. Thus the use of a wind meter. Sorry to offend the seasoned kiter. All I was trying to do was illustrate it was very low wind thats all.
Thanks to pyslor for letting me know about the real wind reading up higher. I didnt know that it was that much difference. Will take note next time.
Lets pray for more wind! Hope everyone lightens up a little. Seems to be Wind Deprivation is like PMS
Ah but you see.... i PARKED (yes held it at the edge and it didnt luff) the kite about 4m off of the ground, yes it had plenty of power up high but was still easily flying and up turning down low at the edge of the window.
When we left, the wind reading at the airport on BOM was 9-10kts and that is ALWAYS 4-5kts stronger than what we get down here.
The wind was perfect for a 4 ounce Trick kite (delta) so believe me when i say it was 4knots and pulling me down the beach, go to dolls pt to see the dragging marks we left if your sceptical...hell, youll even see the spots where i left the ground (yes im only 60kg haha)
Anywho, the kites here so come check it out for yourself and give me an easy excuse to get out of the shop and demo it hehe.
Peace
BEST say they have an exclusive business arrangement with the makers of Cuben cloth.
Apparently other kite makers can't source this cloth for a number of years.
So what happens when I buy my new Hellfish and on the first session I trash the thing. Totally fillet the fish on a sharp 'No Kiting' sign.....ripppppp
I would then go to my local kite-doctor or sailmaker. But he can't do a proper repair cause he can't source the correct cloth.
Does he fix the kite using available dacron/rip-stop and patch the quilt?
Interesting point.
Pay $2000 dollars for a kite without bar and lines, then rip it and it has an ugly makeshift repair !
Be good if they offered their 3 for the price of 2 deal. And throw in free bar+lines. That would get the kites out there and people could really see if the kites stand up to what they say they do.
I reckon a standard rip-stop/dacron patch would do. If the rip wasnt too big it probably wouldnt make a difference.
Still not sure how this works 
If we can boost off the beach in 4>7kts with a 13m why does the size range go up to 15, 17, 19 & even beyond I think
And are we going to need a 1.5M kite for our next trip to Gero
Hang on they aren't making a 1.5M kite 
Oh dear... I am confused .....
Please explain
What I had seen was the guys not really boosting but getting dragged along the beach when they were doing kiteloops. Peace said he is about 60kg. On the 13mt he could just do 1mt high jump. In that light wind I reckon a 17mt would of had a better chance to have launched him.
Looks like the other brands are gonna put up some stiff competition. Has anyone got links to the Crossbow kite ppl are talking about?
Well... It will be interesting to see the 20 kt wind ranges of these " best kites i have ever flown "... also if you use a dacron patch, that stretches 10 times as much as cuben fibre , your patch will deform and be innefective as soon as you put some tension on the main canopy...... Also In your opinion, you don't think your 13 would have been able to fly in that 4 kts of wind, and did the 1 meter jump involve some running along the beach, or 4kt was enough to power the 13 from what you saw ?
Looks like the other brands are gonna put up some stiff competition. Has anyone got links to the Crossbow kite ppl are talking about?
Best come out with 1 silver kite yephee (come on tonto-were is zoro?)
every body will come out with radical kites this year kiting will come of age
who are the people who push & develop their time in R&R well you guested it neilpryde (cabrinha) just wait & see how neat is little puppy will kite & jump at your nearist beach ,you wont miss the crossbow it will stand out like big brusied dogsballs
who are the leaders in the kiting feild cabrinha & norths so just wait & be piacent
cabrinha and north are THE leaders are they...?
They are 2 brands, thats about it, their kites have issues all of there own...
hahahaha i cant help but to laugh at your posts iti - your blatantly on their payrol or gettin something free off of them lol. Please stop trying to hijack threads.
Chopper your ignorance astounds me.... stretch is measured as a PERCENTAGE. Lets say dacron has a 3% stretch rating (i think thats about right) SO if you use a dacron patch 5cm wide it is going "stretch" a WHOLE 1.5mm OMG OMG YOUR WHOLE KITE WILL BE RUINED!!!>!>>!<!<!:$<@#
seriously dude you grasping at straws here....
Peace
cabrinha and north are THE leaders are they...?
They are 2 brands, thats about it, their kites have issues all of there own...
they are the two biggest brands in europe arnt they
please explain what problems they have
i have been on them for five years i have no problems
if you don't care about a 1.5 mm gap in your kite, then y bother getting non stretch cuben cloth ?
Tonto and zorro?
Only TWO brands any good?
Just for the record, Tonto was the lone ranger's mate and THE man rode silver. Zorro's steed was Tornado.
And I can think of 10+ great brands which have all 'lead' in one way or another!
Time to pull back and have a serious look at what your posting.
Also check for bipolar disorder I reckon.
hahaha shoulda walked into the repairers workshop up here anytime over last season and you would always see at least one model of a certain brand laying on the floor with a burst leading edge, 2004 and 2005 models. On the 2004's a lot of them it wasnt the first time the L.E. burst...
They arent godly brands, they just became big because they were backed with the windsurfing labels...
Flexifoil and slingshot are two brands i rate highly in the way they pay sooo much attention to detail in their kites and especially in their bars and realease systems etc.
Richie and Steve are out now flying the Hellfish in about 5kts... Man I hope we get some more wind soon!
Peace
Common can someone pls go fetch the HELLFISH from Steve McCormack's shop and test the &^%&^$ thing. To please the rest 
attach a wind meter with GPS to the 5th line attachement points hanging like 5 cm from the LE and post the results!
AWD
quote:
Originally posted by dachopper
if you don't care about a 1.5 mm gap in your kite, then y bother getting non stretch cuben cloth ?
Hey Peace,
Flying Hellfishes in 5knots of pus wind is so homo.
Wait for some real wind man.
Dude its called testing the kite, we arent gonna wait for perfect winds because at this time of year its not going to happen. I had heaps of fun mucking round with it on the beach!
Trust me, as soon as we get decent wind one of us will be out there!
Jealous much?
Peace
