After several years and many crashes, my 10M Slingshot Key frankenkite (my first kite) has finally kicked the bucket. Repairs are no longer worth it. So I'm looking around for a replacement. Ideally a new one, because used ones would be too fragile to learn new tricks on. My 12M is an Airush, but I'm not necessarily looking to stay with the same brand. So I'm wondering about what are the characteristics of the different brands? I'm looking for advantages/disadvantages of each.
The available brands is pretty overwhelming, and I don't know where to start. Anecdotally I have heard (or learned):
- The Naishes with the jagged leading edges seem to be hard to relaunch, so I'll probably avoid them.
- I was told Norths are good, but overpriced for non-professionals like me.
- Everyone seems to sell Cabrinhas, is this a good all-around brand?
- Looking for four line kites, odd number of struts (I like to mount a GoPro on the center strut)
A little Googling found some web sites that do comparisons:
http://www.kitefinder.com/en/kites
http://www.kitecomparison.com/
http://www.kiteboardingreview.com/
but I wonder if there's a more concise summary anywhere of the strengths and weaknesses of each brand. I imagine it depends on the style of kite, too.