Pansh Ace 2.5M

I fear that ,up until today, I fell into a group of men that suffer from an obsession, an obsession that can lead you to make ill informed, badly judged decisions and one that may just have cost me dearly if I hadn't 'seen the light'. You see up until today I have been obsessed with size......always feeling that I needed bigger and to that end my last Kite purchase, before this, was an Ace 6m which introduced me to a kite that was of a good quality and took my flying skills up a level, involving more input from me to get the most out of it, I was pleased, but.................

To be honest I am a little scared of it, ( after a few close calls) and as a result it only comes out of the bag in light winds and then its not that rewarding, it luffs quite alot and .......well.....its just not what I thought I was going to get, for me at least its a case of bigger is perhaps not that much better, but I like the kite so what to do??

Well Pansh, just last week, released a 2.5m version of the Ace and I figured this would fit just nicely between my 2m and 4m beamers and at £50 delivered, whats to lose?

The Kite arrived in the famously short amount of time that I expected from Pansh, ordered Friday night, here Tuesday morning and everything was in order. Notably , when I unfurled the sail, unlike the 6m , the bridles were not secured with a larks head at each wing tip this time but there were no tangles either so no problem.

Many reviews have discussed the qualities of the kites manufacture so I won't go into any great detail, needless to say the 2.5 comes up to the same high standard as previous models just smaller. The supplied handles are still the same 'servicable' design and the lines are in the same category but all the same length it must be said.

This time I chose to give the Lines and handles supplied with the kite a chance and can report that they are...erm...not bad at all really, the handles could do with softer padding and the lines are a little rough but other than that every thing works fine.

When it comes to flying the kite I had thought that comparisons were going to be drawn between this and the 2m Beamer III but to be honest these are completely different animals. Where the Beamer is quick enough to require a good level of concentration in a stiff breeze, If you take your eye of the Ace for a second it WILL spank you. The Beamer can pull me (13st) around quite a bit but the Ace had me off my feet and Scuds of over 20ft!! The Beamer has little to no lift, the Ace had my arms stretched out above my head most of the time and I am sure may have even lofted me a couple of inches too!

It turns on a sixpence, its lightning manouevrabilty is capable of making me look really cool in front of the small groups that stop to watch where I fly and it simply plasters a huge smile across my face when I'm flying it.

Who knew that something so 'small' could provide me with so much fun???? Don't get me wrong the Beamer is great for afternoons out with the kids and when the trousers you are wearing need to be worn again in the future but if you fancy a real challenge and something that can wreck a pair of Levi's in couple of hours then the Ace is the one coming out of the bag.

In conclusion .....I love this kite, it has 'cured' my obsession with size, destroyed my clothing, given me the best 2 hours at the end of some pre stretched dyneema that I have had so far and all at a fantastic price.

I guess with Pansh it's a marmite thing so I'll finish by saying one thing.......

......we are fortunate to live in an age where many companies make some fantastic kites that meet many different needs whether performance or budget related. More importantly we live in an age where we are free to make a choice and there should be no reason why, when we make a decision to buy a certain brand or product, we should brace our selves for any kind retribution for saying just how happy with our new purchase we are.

So please feel free to rate this review and add any comments but please make them about the review and not just because you don't like Pansh......thank you.

By : CrashMatt