Eolo Radsail Pro 4M

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