Radsail Evo Trainer 2m

It's my first review on this site and I'm getting back into power kiting for the winter as it's too bloody cold to go kitesurfing. I bought the Radsails Evo Trainer as a fun kite for medium wind days and have now flown it about 10 - 15 times.

It comes in 3 colour options (red, blue or gold) and all look very nice. I've got the red/black/white version. It's a two line kite supplied with a bar and kite killer. RRP seems to be around £95 but you can pick them up for less by shopping around.

Out of the bag first impressions are good. Nice crispy kite material, good stitching and decent bar with line winder ends and reasonable kite killer, only concern is the lines seem quite light (110kg) dyneema - more on that later. It takes about 2 minutes from getting it out of the bag, unwinding lines from the bar and being ready to fly. Great! Much better than faffing around with 4 lines and parapacking 🙂

I've flown this kite in winds from 10mph up to 25mph and it's always fun in different ways:

10mph - pulls well for it's size compared to other 2m - 2.5m kites I've flown and accelerates nicely through each figure of eight with no surprises. You need to keep it moving at these wind speeds especially in lulls or it will tend to collapse on you.

15 - 20mph - this is where the kite feels great. Lots of steady pull with no real lift. I suspect the lack of lift is due to it's profile 229cm x 95cm so not exactly high AR. It flys around confidently like a lttle jet fighter and will have you scudding across the beach nicely if you're medium weight or less (I'm 75kg). Fly this for more than half an hour and you feel you're getting a good workout.

25mph - probably at the top end of what this kite was designed for! Again very steady handling and lots of traction but on the day I flew it was gusting up to 30mph and in one gust "ping" the line broke at the figure 8 knot on the leader line. I've never had the happen before on any kites I've flown. Interestingly the same thing happened to a friend of mine two days later hot launching in same conditions with the same model kite.

So would I recommend this kite? Yes if you want a great beginners kite that is well mannered has a considerable amount of pull and will give you a good workout in medium winds (10 - 20mph). It's also a great trainer kite for anyone wanting to practice kite skills with a bar prior to moving on to kitesurfing. Just be weary in taking it out in high winds unless you think about upgrading the lines.