paulanimal1600949550

Having owned and flown a Flysurfer Rookie2 6meter for a while now and having had a good sesion with the board the other day I thought it was about time I did a review especially as the 6m hasn't been reviewed yet. Please note though that this is my first real de-powerable kite, and apart from rookies I have only ever had a sesion with a 7m Flexi sabre. When I first opened the rucksack of the rookie and had a look at the kite I was struck with the sheer quality flysurfer have put into this kite, bearing in mind it only cost's £349, the quality easily surpassed the likes of flexifoil etc. The kite sail is red black and grey with the FS logo emblazoned across it, it most certainly is the coolest looking kite I have ever owned. The sail material is really light and crispy with all the air vents on the leading edge being reinforced, which enables the kite to inflate really easily even in light winds. The lines are also of excellent quality with the main lines being orange and the other being pale green, and the two main steering lines are white. When you first unpack the kite all the lines are connected at the sail and the bar ends so the kite really is a true ready to fly. The only reason I could see for having to disconnect any of the lines would be to add extension lines which I would strongly advise, because the supplied lines are only 18 meters long. But I will say more about the extensions further on in the review. The bar is 50cm long and is well padded. It seemed a little short at first but I really am used to it now . The bar also has a nice pressure to it when flying the kite. The whole package comes in a very stylish back pack and although not as technical as the sabres, it is very spacious with room for my harness and pads etc . One good thing about the back pack is it has no zips on the main opening to snag your kite or lines in, it is a simple pull cord type opening with a velcro fastening lid. The back pack also has 3 small external pockets for keys etc, these do have zip fastenings. Flying the 6m Rookie. Having flown a 4m rookie I already knew that pulling on the two centre lines would launch the kite, in the case of the 6m rookie (which has a different bar set up to the 4m) pulling the trimmer strap in the centre launches the kite. I find it best to launch with the de-power fully on, i.e. the yellow strap pulled out fully, once the kite is sitting nicely at the zenith the blue strap on the trimmer can be pulled which will power the kite up. It is best to power up a bit at a time because if done too much the kite can stall and start to fly backwards . However once the trimmer is sorted and you start flying the kite it is super stable and only hints at wing tip curl at the edge of the window. This is where it is worth spending the extra £25 and buying the 6 meter line extensions. The 6m extension are a doddle to fit and once on, the extensions greatly increase the size of the wind window, as well as slowing the kite down a bit. The extensions also give a noticeable increase in power to the kite. I mainly bought this kite as a higher'ish wind kite and as an entry into de-powerable flying and to date I have only used it with a land board twice. The first time the winds were light 10-12 mph on the skywatch. It was enough to get me moving into a nice cruise up the field on my furnace creek without having to work the kite too much. The second time I boarded with the 6m Rookie the wind was 17mph gusting up to 26mph. This time I did feel a tad over powered on the board (not being the worlds best boarder) but the kite did perform well, handling the gusty conditions excellently and not actually scaring the wits out of me too much. I have also flown it a lot static flying although that isn't really what the rookie is designed for. As far as jumping goes I haven't really done any whilst boarding with the rookie, mainly down to my board skills but I have had some nice floaty jumps whilst static flying. But the best thing to me about the 6m Rookie 2 is that every time I am packing it away I have had a huge grin on my face. As I mentioned earlier in this review I was able to have a session with a 7m Flexi sabre and that was back to back with a 6m Rookie prior to buying my kite. The Rookie in my opinion felt more powerful, it also turned faster than the sabre. I also felt the build quality and design of the rookie was better than the sabre. The sabre having pulleys at the bridle end which looked like they would stiffen up and jam as opposed to the rookie having rings. This is in no way a criticism of the sabre merely a comparison. But it was enough to sway my decision in favour of buying the rookie. Also the price difference was a factor, I am a firm believer in that you get what you pay for but in this case the Rookie breaks the mould. It is a fantastic kite built to Flysurfers very high standards. It is awesome to fly. Has a massive wind range. And is as cheap as chips at £374 inc line extensions it is a steal. By : paulanimal

I have had the Rad pro 4m scince I started kiteing aprox 2 years ago and felt the need to keep it in my quiver, even when selling on kites that I have grown tired of or am sick of , kites like the Bullets, Busters and a 4.9 BladeIII. Yes I have owned all of these kites at one stage, and then sold them on for one reason or other. But the Rad pro 4m has always stayed. This kite isn't a particularly impresive kite in any one way but in my opinion it dose everything reasonably well whilst being a realy mellow kite to fly. The build quality is actually very good . My kite has certainly withstood the test of time with the sail still being as new even after 2 years use. Sure the lines have initialy streatched and been adjusted , but so do flexis and ozones. The bridle would also seem excessivley thick but it dosn't cause any problems whilst flying the kite. The only thing I did change was the handles the radsail supplied ones were a tad basic although 100% functional. I changed mine for Flexi handles, more down to personel preferance than anything else. The whole package comes in a pretty well made , functional and good looking rucksack. Now how does it perform. Desighned by Andy Preston creator of the flexi blade, a lot of people have compared the Radsail pro to the blade. Having owned both kites at the same time I would disagree. The closest I would say the Rad pro comes to a flexi kite is a kind of cross between a bullet and a blade , in that it has good pull and the power comes on fairly steadily, and the Rad pro does have lift , but no where near the lift of the blade , and the lift the rad does have is a bit more predictable. In saying that it has lofted me out of a buggy a few times whilst turning. In general though mellow would be the word that somes up the rad pro to me , it isn't the fastest kite through the air but certainly not the slowest . It is just really nice to fly, being very stable with no major surprises. I mainly fly with a de-powerable Flysurfer these days and because of the wind range my de-powerable covers my radsail is pretty much obsolete, but I still use the Rad pro for boarding now and then and although my partner isn,t that an experienced flyer the Rad pro 4m is always the kite she want's to fly when we are out . And to be fair I doubt I ever will get shot of it. In my opinion the Radsail pro range of kite dosn't deserve the bad press they have had in the past . Mine has certainly withstood the test of time and is as fun and exciting to fly as it was when I first started flying power kites. The Radsail pro series 2 is now out and is probably an improvement on the model I have just reviewed (series 1) . I have never flown a series 2 so cant coment . But if you want an excellent all round power kite that wont break the bank the Rad pro wont disapoint By : paulanimal

I decided to buy a scrub board bag for my MBS Core 16 mainly to keep my new car clean after a good afternoon's kite boarding. I did a bit of research and decided it was only a two horse race between thye Kheo board bag an the scrub, the Kheo being the cheaper of the two only by a fiver though. But after reading customer reviews on the lush long board site I most certainly wasn't going to by the kheo. So I decided on the scrub bag . Looking on line most shops have them advertised but at the time of my purchase every one seemd to be out of stock but eventualy I found lush longboards had em. The bag took two days to come and when it arrived I was impressed with the build quality, the bag is padded has carry handles and rucksac straps, the bag has a double sided zip which enables you to virtually zip off the whole top pannel. The bag has three inner zipped compartments ,which are very handy for odds and ends. it also has velcro straps inside at either end which atatch around your boards trucks to stop it moving about the bag. The scrub bag also folds up into three when not in use and clips together to enable you to wear it whilst boarding although I find the bag a tad wide to be used like that. To sumarise the scrub bag is excellent value for money at £30. The build quality is excellent whith stack's of room inside ,I can comfortably carry an mbs core board ,5 kites in there rucksac's a helmet and pads plus a flask and grub in this bag .I also beleive it is one of the few bags that can acomodate a board with nine inch wheels. By : paulanimal