rummy

It has been a long time since I had my Peter Powell stunt kite, and having got back in to kite flying I suppose I have been trying to relive those happy, heady days of twists and loops, swoops and passes. In the Flexifoil super 10 I feel comes close –with a twist of course. The holdall for the kite is, of course of very good quality but I feel the addition of a shoulder strap would be a welcome bonus. The kite is of the usual flexifoil quality –excellent. But being picky I thought the string winder was a bit tacky, not like those you get with the Bullets. The instructions for the kite are of course excellent and straightforward allowing set up to be completed in no time at all. Now to be honest getting these kites to fly on your own can be a bit of a pig and is best done with a helper. Although, there is many a web page dedicated to the ideal launching system for these kites. The best seem to revolve around some sort of string or stick arrangement in the ground. On the ground these kites are pretty uninspiring; my first thought was that there was no way in hell that this thing was going to fly it seems so wrong with the connectors at the top and everything flailing behind. But! What do I know-? When the kite is airborne it very quickly changes from being a flat (aerodynamic as a brick) to gaining the shape usually seen upon the mother in law. And like the mother in law is quick to show its true nature, boy- do these things go. I’m going to be honest and say that the speed that these kites move through the sky can be breath taking and having your wits about you is a must, particularly in higher winds as the speed at which these kites cut through the sky is quick and in the higher wind what could be the coolest manoeuvre ever could turn into a very hard crash.Stability nah not this kite it wont stay still long enough. Mines crashed loads of times especially with my son at the controls but thanks to the flexifoil quality it hasn’t damaged a rod or a cell-yet.and thats what you pay for weighing in at around the 100 quid mark its probably worth it. Talking of higher winds you get the twist that I mentioned earlier. These kites give a persistent pull resulting in you working up a sweat-more wind = more sweat .and in the beginning I found the day after flying the flexi my muscles ached,especially the face from the grinning. However the good news is after flying this kite for a month I have lost a stone in weight and gone up two sizes in the chest department ( shame it doesn’t work for women)-sic. In short you get a very good upper body work out which in a good way is a good thing? So if you see a man jigging around running a merry dance in the middle of a field in arms everywhere, take a lookup 30 metres or so, there’s probably a flexifoil super10 at the other end. whereas if you see a man arms and legs flailing 30 m in the air, that’s the man who bought a 10.5m blade as his first kite. I’ll recommend this kite as a good entry into the world of power kiting, if like me you fly this kite regularly it gives you a hell of a work out. This isn’t a bad thing as you have to be reasonably fit for power/traction activities - a snapped muscle takes longer to heal than a broken bone and is more painful, a risk not worth taking. We need more people in this sport for the long term, that way we get more flying areas and of course better equipment to use. Couple this with the fact that it is so fast through the sky you will be concentrating on your kite and improving your kite skills, a fact that you might even be glad of when you eventually get your mitts on a big blade. Does it come close to the feeling I got when I had my Peter Powell stunter all those years ago, nope, I’d say it surpasses it. An utterly brilliant kite. Author : rummy

The kids are growing up and at an age where I appear to be not important any more and the wife has been nagging me to get a hobby. So I popped into the kite shop at Hinckley and 1 and a half hours later walked out with the Pepper and a verbal lesson on the do’s and don’ts of power kiting chucked in for good measure. Being honest I know this is a starter kite on the budget end of the scale but I think the stuff bag lets it down, a ripcord bag with a felt tip tick to tell you how big it is seems wrong. I would rather have paid another ten to twenty quid on top for a rucksack. For this reason I was unsure as to whether or not I had made the right choice. Mind you a stuff bag lying amongst all those flexi’s and ozone rucksacks I felt a bit of a cheapskate. Well! The guy in the shop assured me it was the perfect kite to foray into the world of powerkiting. Although I insisted on the 3.5 not the 2.5 as he suggested, as my last foray was about 30 years ago with a Peter Powell stunt kite. On unpacking the kite at home I found that the lines on this kite are of very good quality,being colour coded and were perfectly matched. The handles are ok but I would prefer something a little thicker. On examining the kite it all appeared ok with no errant stitching. On the field I set up the kite with some trepidation of excitement and some anxiety, I had listened too well to the salesmen I fear. It swelled up as it should and a gentle tug on the lines got it airborne slowly to about six feet then wham straight up to the zenith taking me twelve inches of the ground and my wife who was watching collapsed on the floor in hysterics. After exchanging profanities with my wife it basically came down to this, I could carry on standing there with my arms straight above my head because it’s the only way to relax from the pull, or I could do something with the kite. After regaining my senses and getting some blood back into my muscles I began gingerly to see what the kite would do. It does everything you expect of it, work this kite in the power zone and it will pull you around, but one problem I have found is that it can be a pig at the edges of the wind window and has a tendency to turn itself inside out. This has also happened to me in the wind window but may be because I’m flying in dirty air –the field is surrounded by trees. After flying it for around two months now, I’m glad I bought this kite, its taught me to respect the wind and take things one step at a time .In gentle winds my nine year old can fly it. In strong winds it WILL try and bite you. As a beginners kite I can highly recommend this kite, however if you are slight in stature or like I used to be- unfit. Maybe the 2.5m would be better until you are used to the pull. Author : rummy