Flexifoil Super 10

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