Power Kite Forum - Speed 4 10m (Regular)

Best kite I have flown to date.

I was actually just going to stop there, but I suppose it might be helpful to talk a bit about what's so great about it.

Overview
The Speed series has historically been a high aspect, lifty but floaty kite that is fantastic for water and land freeriding. They're great all around, but more developed for the performance rider than for the beginner. The change from Speed 3 to Speed 4 is a major shift, bringing the awesomeness of the speed 3 to the masses by introducing a bit more predictability and simplicity to the series.

Bridle
A lot of people have serious issues with the FS bridles. They do tend to have a LOT of bridle and many pulleys and all sorts of connections, knots and settings. The S4 has taken a step back towards a simpler model by removing most of the pulleys and choosing the BEST (not necessarily the EASIEST) spot for bridle <-> kite attachments. In short, the snarled, mile-long trainwreck that is the Psycho III bridle is gone and the Speed 4 is much more reasonable.

Wind Range
I can fly the 10m starting at 5mph (no kidding!), and am powered up to ride on land at just below 10mph (I'm 175 lbs.). For water, it starts to be rideable just below 15mph (with a lot of looping and skill), and I haven't yet hit the top end (I'm guessing you should put it away around 30mph). At just above 10 in the water, a power stroke doesn't quite cut it, requiring a serious loop to pop up and be riding. Also at just under 15, this is not a park and ride machine... you're going to have to work it to stay moving. Once you hit 15 it's great upwind and great at PNR. In the water, I'm guessing 18 is the sweet spot for timid riders like me. For land, it's the same story for steady 5-8 mph... at 5, you can ride, but you're going to have to throw it around a bit. At 8 you should be pretty consistently moving on both a buggy and a board, but 10+ mph should have you grinning ear to ear.

Depower Characteristics
Like all Flysurfers, the amount of depower per unit bar throw is amazing. I wouldn't necessarily call them "gust munchers", but when a big gust comes along, I'm always amazed at how I can just bar out and let it go right on by. For a lot of kites I've flown, you EITHER get this amazing depower OR you get really smooth, reliable, strong power. With the Speed 4, you get both. When you pull the bar in without moving the kite around, it snugs up nicely and lets you know it's there, but not surprising you with any jerky power delivery. You pull, you get power in a relatively linear manner.

It's easy to backstall if you want, by just holding the bar all the way in for a couple of seconds, but a lot of that is because I usually keep my flysurfers fully trimmed (out? whatever -- powered); I like to have the ability to backstall so I know I'm getting the full power out of the kite when I want it. If you trim 100% the other way (in? -- depowered), the kite still turns surprisingly fast. I'm sure this changes quite a bit in the larger sizes, but it's nice to be able to turn the kite when you're trim is set to depower.

Flying Characteristics
The S4 flies very smoothly and predictably. It likes to sit a little forward in the window, from my experience; When directly above you, it does like to overfly the window a little, but rarely so much that it actually luffs and creates problems. A few problems come from side gusts / direction changes, but I've only ever flown through the bridle once from such garbage conditions.

Some kites feel like they prefer to slide around the window rather than carve. The S4 is definitely a carver, and prefers to be facing towards the direction it's heading (adjusted for canting into the wind...) The 10m turns wicked fast and I almost never have to reach up and nudge a line to make it turn faster -- definitely not in anything over 10mph.

The S4 builds speed quickly with a bar out, but not so quickly as to be disconcerting. Once moving, a half bar in will keep it steadily powered until it bleeds off, or if you load up the lines, it'll pop you right into the air in a comfortable float. If you yank the bar in after getting the kite going you get a solid pull, but not a yank. Everything about this kite is smooth, in my opinion. Turning, power build, and depower are all smooth, but not sedate.

Air
I haven't caught a ton of air using the S4, but I did catch a little and what I got I really liked. I definitely felt I could've gone higher with no big characteristics change in the kite. The 10m is a little small for real static pendulum jumps, so static jumping was just a matter of flying around real fast and pulling in the bar at the proper times. Once in the air, a quick redirect was often not necessary. Often, I'd just pull in the bar and keep the kite high in the window and it would gently float me down.

I'm pretty new to landboarding, but at transition, I'd keep the kite high in the window and while moving relatively slowly, I'd have 3-4 seconds of reliable power from just moving the kite across the window under power. Once I started moving faster, I had enough power to pop a little transition air while using that 3-4 seconds... It wasn't much of a difference in speed, and I didn't do any fancy kite flying, just flying it across the window and a small power stroke to get back the other way. Downloop during transition would build some fast, strong power, but again no yanking. It would, however, get you cookin' pretty fast. I use downloops in light wind and the speed just eats it up.

While cruising, it was just a matter of sending the kite a little to pop up a little air. The nice thing for a noob like me is that I could send it slowly and get a little air, send it a little faster and get a little more and so on... I never felt that "oh hell, I have made a big mistake..." feeling that some other *cough*psycho*cough* kites have made me feel.

Loops are my favorite part of the S4 10m. I'm not technically a "kite looper", because I have yet to jump while on a board using a loop. I do, however, loop the kite when I want to generate a ton of power for low wind, water takeoffs, etc, and I have thrown a couple of big loops while body dragging just to see how high I could get. The answer??? HIGH. The awesome thing about the kite loop is that the S4 doesn't slide around during the loop, so you don't bleed power (or get spotty power) due to friction. It seems to eat up a loop, come out smooth and ready for the next one and it's easy to chain them together to solid, smoothly building power. If you need to redirect and loop the other way it's possible to keep the bar and and bleed very little power while doing so. For the most part, the S4 isn't cranky about which way you're turning or when you're making your transitions -- as long as you keep it moving about the same speed with about the same trim, she'll keep you powered up.

Downsides
Clearly, I like this kite. I think it scales well for progression for new / intermediate riders, and I think it has some great characteristics for all sorts of riding. Oh yeah... this was supposed to be about the downsides. First, the FLS system that comes with the Speed 4 is not my favorite. While the 5th line of the FDS can be annoying, the safety is much more reliable than on the FLS, and is much less prone to accidental death loops. The restart on an FDS is also much easier because it is much less-likely to tangle, even after multiple cycles flipping around. The FLS grabs one of the front lines and lets the kite just flop about like crazy, then you pull yourself up to the bar and hope everything sorts itself out. The FLS on the S4 is WAY better than it was on the Unity, but still not my favorite.

Also, in gusty inland winds, I don't feel comfortable taking the Speed4 (or any of Flysurfer's close cell foils, for that matter) on the water. Too much bridle, not enough float. On the coasts, it's a different story, but inland, the wind changes, dies, gusts, etc ALL THE TIME. If this sucker hits the water, you're supposed to have about 30 minutes to get it sorted. Perhaps it's just me being a noob, but that makes me nervous. I don't want to lose a $2K+ kite just because I wasn't fast enough at detangling something that happened due to a wind shift.

Last, obviously, is the price. When looking at some of the LEI brands around, it makes me feel better, but not much better.

The Upshot
Overall, I'd highly suggest buying or at least trying one. I think the sweet spot in the series is either the 10m Deluxe or the 12m Lotus, which has just about the same range as the 10m regular +/- a mph or two on each end (it also turns faster and is generally faster due to less mass). If you don't wanna spend the extra cheddar for deluxe or lotus, the regular fabric is still pretty amazing. The 10m regular is extremely versatile between 10-30 mph, and even more if just static flying or buggying. If you really just want sick low wind power, just quit f*#cking around and go get the 21m lotus

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This is one of the most predictable, powerful, smooth, floaty kites I have ever seen, and everyone who flies one loves them. I honestly think that Flysurfer has made the 2 kite quiver possible with this kite (8 + 12 for land, 10 + 15 for water), which makes the cost a little more palatable.