For those of you who have a Blade III 6.6, 8.5, or 10.5, you may be interested in this review of the superblade. The superblade is a Blade III with some relatively simple bridal modifications that convert it to a 4-line de-powerable foil. The modifications are the result of a significant amount of experimentation that was conducted by my friend who goes by the handle of "loco4viento". I contributed mostly as a test pilot and also put together the attached diagram. The diagram as well as the comments below are based on the 10.5 Blade. These mods are effective on the 6.6 and 8.5 as well.
Basically the modification removes the entire C and the most lateral B bridal lines from the A and B bundles and combines them into a new bundle that is then coupled to the existing break bridal leaders. In addition a new A line is added from this new bundle to the most lateral A bridal Y junction. A normal LEI or ARC bar and lines is used where trailing edge lines are attached to the break leaders and the leading edge lines are attached to the A/B bundle. The bar does need to provide a fair amount of sheeting. I use a 20" line from my shackle to my power strap.
All I can say is "WOW". I was about to sell this kite because of it's very narrow range and scary, difficult flying characteristics. Now it has great range, easy and fast turning, and much better upwind performance. It also is very safe and easy to deal with on the beach. This kite flies a lot like an original S-ARC with turning characteristics between and 840 and a 1120.
With the normal bridal configuration, there was always a compromise in the bridal adjustment between grunt and up-wind performance. To get the power to water start in really light wind the angle of attack needed to be higher resulting lots of grunt on a dive but a very athletic, marginally up-wind ride. When set up with a lower angle of attack there was not enough grunt to get started in really light wind. The superblade mods give you more of each characteristic. Sheeting in during a dive provides nice grunty power. Once your up and going sheeting out brings the kite farther up wind than I have ever wittnessed any kite go allowing me, at 155lbs with flat board, to park the kite at 8mph with a relaxed edge and go WAY up wind. The huge bar pressure and lethargic turning characteristics are gone. However one must use a little caution not to turn to hard or the kite can stall in the turn since it now comes around so fast.
On the beach the tiger has been tamed. When sheeted out there is very little pull when the kite is overhead and there does not seem to be any tendency to over fly. It's not as stable as an S-ARC but does not require much attention. The problem of the kite losing it when parked to far to the edge of the window is reduced dramatically as well. Landing is much improved. With the power strap fully loose all you do is pull the bar all the way in and the kite will drop down nicely right down the middle of the window.
The kite is also great land boarding and gets you going up wind quite well in 4-5mph winds. I land board in the desert and the winds are very gusty and shifty. I would have never considered riding with a standard Blade in these conditions. This is not a problem now although not recommended for beginners. This kite can still hurt you badly in gusty conditions if you aren't on top of it.
Summary
I highly recommend this mod to those of you who have one or all of these kites. As far as I can tell the only sacrifice is the greater simplicity of two line flying. In every other way performance and safety is improved. The mod does not involve any permanent changes to the kite and takes less than an hour to perform and you can always change it back if you don't like the performance changes. Chris
By : screven
