HellFish

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dewey
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Post by dewey » Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:04 am

I heard that kite you were flying did not have the lowend of the production kite. The production kite has less high end potential of that kite. Still not to impressed with either. Sure does shine though. I've heard that the crossbow lives up to the claims. Can't wait to see it in action. Also there are the new windwings comming out next year.
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Post by OliverG » Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:15 am

This weekend a few different riders flew the Hellfish and no one was majorly impressed thus far. One thing I did notice was that when one rider dumped the kite, he had quite a time relaunching it. It folded over a few times and back and was flopping all over the place and looked really soft like it didn't have a whole lot of body or support to it, kind of like a wet sheet. After some time, the rider was able to relaunch it though, but not without some real work.

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Post by dt » Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:47 am

Guys with the proto's have not been pumping them up hard enough to avoid folding during relaunch because the LE seams have been ripping. I heard the cuben fiber is so thin and strong that it tears through the thread in the prototypes. Consequently, guys with demo's have been underinflating them so that the LE will last. This is solved with the production kites. It would have to be or else they would get them all back.

I did like the way the HF flew and if they give it more grunt it will be a real nice kite and with no stretch they should last a long time if are abrasion resistant.

A guy at 3rd tried a Crossbow on Friday and said it wasn't powerful enough to get going. He normally rides a 10 and the Crossbow was a 9. I would think the Crossbow with all its projected area would be real powerful. It

I heard a wives tail that you shouldn't by a new model of a car the first year it is out because they have an inordinate number of problems the first year. Later I read a study that backed up the wives tail.

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OliverG
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Post by OliverG » Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:01 am

The one I saw at SI was a production kite. And yes, there's some truth to the first year of some products, not just with Best, but with some new products from other companies as well. It happens.

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Post by dt » Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:28 am

BayAreaKite wrote:The one I saw at SI was a production kite...
Are you sure because Kinsley Wong had the demo's at 3rd and from there he went to SI. The production HF have Hellfish writtin on the top in huge letters that go all the way accross the kite with a white background. The proto's have a relatively blank chrome top and white bottom.

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elli
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Post by elli » Mon Jul 04, 2005 11:40 am

Speaking of head to head, there is supposed to be another uber head to head test in So-Cal soon by a kite magazine, and Best is supposed to be there. The Speed will be as far as I know.

Knife,
The PS2 has many tuning options, like WAC +/- and as far as I understand can fly pretty bad if not tuned properly. Check out foilszone.com, they have many articles and threads about tuning PS2s. The 05 flysurfers are very different than the 04 (the PS2 is an 04 design). They don't stall, can fly unhooked, and fly more like inflatables, for good and bad.

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Post by OliverG » Mon Jul 04, 2005 12:25 pm

Well, it wasn't one of Kinsley's kites, but someone else who had a 3rd gen proto, blew it up and then got a production kite. I'm not saying they're bad, just that from what people said it wasn't the magic kite it's been hyped as and that when the kite went on the water, it seemed soft and didn't look to have a lot of body making a relaunch tricky. It was set up with a 5th line, but for some reason the kite went down in such a way that it didn't help.

And finally, after a somewhat lengthy battle to relaunch it, everyone cheered when it did go back up, because the way it folding inside out and flopping around it seemed like it was all over. The rider's skill must have saved that one. ;)

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Post by dt » Mon Jul 04, 2005 1:31 pm

Wow, that is interesting. I wonder if they pumped it up hard enough. Since the first one he had blew up, maybe he was reluctant to pump it up scary hard. The LE is so thin I would think it would have to be pumped rock hard to avoid folding. If it was pumped hard enough, that is bad news about the HF. We will see. I had high hopes for that light and strong fabric.

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Post by dt » Mon Jul 04, 2005 2:31 pm

I forgot about your earlier post which said no one was really impressed with the production HF. So, it didn't jump much better than other kites or have much better range? I am surprised. I thought the skinny LE and light weight would improve performance a lot. I am pretty sure that if you doubled the weight of a good kite and doubled the diameter of its LE, it would suck. Oh well.

Was Kingsley there too? Did they have a battle of the Hellfish?

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Post by OliverG » Mon Jul 04, 2005 4:34 pm

As far as I can tell it doesn't jump any better than anything else. I haven't yet ridden it so I don't know how it compares to a kite that has given more air and hangtime than anything else I've ridden in the last three years, the WW Outrage. As far as range, that's not something that was commented on and the conditions weren't really such that anyone would have really been able to put it to the test, i.e. rider on 13m Hellfish while everyone else lit on 10's or anything like that. Kites are always different though. Last week I was going pretty huge on a 10 Outrage and a friend was riding a 13m Rrd ZH and was quite surprised to learn afterwards I was on a 10m.

But, back to the HF, I'm sure it's a good kite and all, but in typical Best fashion, "The Hype is Understated" is hype in itself. I know from experience that the Best kites are decent kites, but it's kind of like the TV informercials for OxyClean or whatever, or monster truck show announcements. You just can't count on what they say, you need to find out for yourself.

So that's why I'm going to the monster truck show. :vom: Or not.

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