Zebra Slope 4 qm mini-review

Today, i was able to test a (libre) zebra slope depower opencell kite.
for those who do not know, zebra kites are inexpensive but nonetheless high quality kites. inexpensive, because they have no complicated design that needs hundreds of ripstop panels to be sewn together. in fact they have just two differently coloured fabrics for each cell, hence the name zebra. bad thing is, that this design reminds about all those CHEAP and crappy entry level kites and alos about early day paragliders (that are also crappy compared to today's paragliders!)

but dont let yourself be fooled by the design! those zebra kites are amazing!

i could not believe the amount of depower this zebra slope has. because it has just one pulley for depower. but this pulley is moving not only the C-row, but the C+B rows are cascaded together and go to the pulley. so the AoA adjustment works very nice!
the 12sqm zebra has two pulleys per side, so the depower effect should be even better.

the 4 sqm zebra slope does turn fast, too (no wonder because it is so small...)

the slope did not show any tendency to overfly, it was rocksolid at the zenit. it was also very lightwind stable. the wind dropped occasionally, but the zebra was very unimpressed and was sitting at the zenith with no problems. so things look promising for the 12sqm slope beeing a very very good lightwind kite, almost on par with big buggy kites like PL reactor or similiar kites.

image from the web (http://www.vliegersenco.nl)


p.s. anyone knows if all single-pulley depower kites actuate the B+C row together ? or is this a new trick?

another picture from www.zebrakites.com