Tomasz - 7-4-2017 at 12:04 PM
So I bought the Leopard 9m brand new back in November and have had plenty of sessions on it this winter. Figured I'd share my experience for anyone
that's interested....
I've owned the Lynx 7m for about 3 years and it's been my go-to kite on land up until I got the Leopard. I was riding my old Pantom 12m & Venom
16m before that. The Lynx made both of them obsolete, as I could get up & riding in less wind and keep riding into much higher winds safely than
either of the arcs.
The Leopard is definitely an upgrade. Even though it's a larger kite, it still maneuvers as fast as the smaller Lynx. It gets you up and riding in as
little as 6-7mph winds (on skis), and I've flown it into the low 30mph and still felt in control. It gets a little scary in 30+, but it's a "I better
pay attention to what I'm doing" scary, not the "oh #@%$#! I'm gonna die" scary. Jumps with this kite are amazing. Floats you gently back down to
the ground. I had one session where I was launching myself at least 40ft in the air. That day didn't end so well for me, but that's a whole other
story and has nothing to do with the kite. Rider error, had to happen one of these days right?
On another session, I had the kite out on a 10mph day and had no problems riding upwind and getting good jumps. A friend was out on his 10m Montana,
we traded kites for about an hour. The difference was astounding. I could barely stay upwind on his and couldn't get any lift at all. He's a far
less experienced kiter, but as soon as he got the Leopard he managed to shoot way upwind, with no effort whatsoever. By the time he handed the kite
back to me he had an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
On a day where there was only about 6-7mph winds, we took my old arcs along with the Leopard out on the snow. I was feeling nostalgic... The 16m
Venom was too heavy to get flying at all. I tried the the 12m Phantom & got a bit of a ride, but it was a struggle to keep it generating power,
and no chance to keep my ground, let alone get upwind. I then put up the Leopard, and all of a sudden I was riding uphill, upwind with no effort at
all. I was amazed at the difference.
Now for the negatives... I only have one. This is definitely not a beginner kite, it does take some finesse to fly. If you move it too far to the
side of the window and lose a bit of power, the kite has a tendency to fold on the wing tip over the bridle lines, and it takes quite a bit of shaking
on the steering line for it to brake loose and open back up again. In the same scenario my Lynx never does that. That's about it. Over all I love
this kite. I hardly ever shell out the money for a brand new kite, and this one was spendy, but I don't regret a single penny...
I took it with me to FL on my vacation & got some buggying in on it, so here's a shot:
And one on the icepack that builds up on our bay:
Tomasz - 7-4-2017 at 12:12 PM
Ok, that didn't work as expected.. so here's another try:
carltb - 7-4-2017 at 12:28 PM
if you think the 9 is good just wait until you have a go on a 13.5!!!
Tomasz - 10-4-2017 at 03:17 PM
So how much of a difference would the 13.5 make? The 9 already gets me moving in pretty low winds and is very responsive. I always pictured the 13.5
as slower to turn and therefore a bit less fun to fly. I take it that the lift & float makes up for any of that, right? I have a line on a 11m
Leopard from a couple of years back, I may be pulling the trigger on that....