First impression was yummy crispy. Translucent material so light yet durable. Love the color scheme and bridle colors. Stiffners at the inlets for those low wind days, all in all a quality build! I must mention that I do have a Bego 600 so it wasnt a total surprise (quality) but IMO superior to the FF Blade. Flew it today (maiden) in no more than 5 mph winds and was surprised at the pull thru the power zone for its size. Tomorrow forcasted 20 knot winds at the beach, 15 mph inland, so the Bego v Blade IV 4.9 dual is on! Finally put the rumors to rest on the grunt and lift vs the two kites. Inserted a couple of pics for your viewing pleasure! as usual...................................stoaked

Same colors as mine

15mph is the sweet spot for the Bego in my opinion...love to hear your thought on how it compare with the Blade.

Stacey,

Had the Bego 400 v Blade IV 4.9 dual in 15 to 20 mph winds today. Second time up with the Bego. I have to tell ya, the Bego out lifted and floated the Blade overall except for one jump. I got over 6 feet easy with both kites. The Bego was more stable at zenith, and at the edge of the window. The blade collapsed on me a couple of times when I redirected and reached zenith. I actually overflew the window so Ill take one hit but not two. I might be a semi newby, but I can fly my rags! It must be my flying style and or preference using break input but the Begos are more responsive, stable, and powerful IMO. Round ONE def goes to the Bego for stability, power thru the window, and consistantly higher/floaty jumps. On to round two........................

I got my first opportunity to kite ski with the Bego 400 yesterday. I'll be doing a full review of this kite in the spring after I've boarded with it but on snow it was FAST.

The winds were flaky and I started out with my 2.5 and that was great for the gusts but shoddy for the lulls so I went to the 400.

On the harness when the brake lines go slack it doesn't turn as nice as static flying. Tried shortening the brake lines but that didn't help too much so I just adopted my technique a bit and no problems. I am going to shorten my power rings next time out to see if that helps a little as I think the extra slack in the brake lines pull on the TE when harnessed in.

Any how, the kite had amazing upwind ability. Others were out with a 13m Venom, 10m Frenzy, Quadrfoil X series (5-6 meter it looked) and me with the 400. I got upwind of them all - though I'm not sure how upwind they wanted to go, I wanted to get way up to the untracked stuff and the Bego pulled hard at the edge and if you dab the brakes, it pulls even harder.

When taking long runs across the lake it's amazing how the speed and power just continue to build. The only thing that I can really compare the kite to is a high performance car with a standard transmission. It may sound hokey but you really can feel the kite building its power. Than you hit the brakes a bit to shift, release and more power. Build more speed, hit the brakes and you shift again. It seemed like it could go on like that for a while but I was running out of lake and I was skiing on 6" of dust under about 1/2" of frozen crust so it made turning downwind tricky when fully powered as edges were easily caught and I didn't want to dump at that speed.

I didn't jump with the kite but I could have easily and there were a number of occassions I worked hard to stay on the ground (conditions weren't ideal for jumping due to the crust on the snow and how easily it grabbed your edges).

Normally when I turn at the end of my runs, I hit the brakes a bit to slow the kite through an uploop and then release them as I come through my turn so the kite powers up and off I go. I couldn't do that with the bego because when you hit the brakes the kite powers up hard and even at the top of the window it is still pulling hard and given the conditions I needed the kite to tack more slowly so I went with pull turns on the power lines with loose brakes and that helped.

The kite pulls all over the window - low, high, top - doesn't matter it just either lifts or pulls and it just keeps on going.

The winds were flaky here and there but no inverts or bowties and as long as there is tension on the lines the kite responds well.

More to come later as I continue to get to know the kite but for now, in summary... Bego 400 = serious pull, serious speed and while I didn't jump you can tell the kite has serious pop and will take you where you want to go.

Great first traction session with it.

BRoc,

Sounds like you had a great day out! Nice to see you had the 400 up! It is def an amazing kite for its size. I understand what you mean when applying brake and the extra hp kicks in! I told Da V the other day I have to pay more attention to the 400 than the 4.9 ! Its a quick, grunty little son of a gun and still trying to learn all her dynamics! Also correct about jumping--def a nice jumper--had my highest jump of the day on the 400 today 10'+ easy in 15-25 mph winds (ah it was the new ronstans!!!). How about stability? I have found mine very stable flying inland in semi to gusty conditions? Look forward to you r next review! as usual...............................
stoaked!!

I find the kite to be very stable - especially given its high A/R. I've never had any problems with the "bego flop". It was doing some cartwheeling on me yesterday but not in flight. I was landing it to rest and when I'd launch it, the kite would rotor but I found out when packing up that my right power ring pig tail had slipped over the bridle knot and way up to the top of the bridle so I'm assuming that caused some imbalance to the inputs.

When I flew it static, in gusty winds, I could see that it was subject to inverts more than a lower A/R kite but that's just the nature of high A/R kites and not the bego.

Boarding should be fun with it. I tend to jump more on my ATB than on my skis. I tend to go pretty fast and edge hard on the skis so I'm not as big a fan of sending the kite when I'm carrying that much speed but on a board, it seems like it will be fun.

- Tridude, how are you landing your jumps? The few jumps I did static with the kite pretty much all ended with the kite collapsing after landing and then reopening in the power zone - That's fairly typical for my jumping but I find the technique for the bego to be a little different due to its brake line response. Is your canopy collapsing on landing? Are you pulling the brakes when landing or letting them out??

B,

Only if I let the kite go thru zenith. This is a typical jump sequence for me:
moving kite thru window R to L, nearing edge of window apply R break, kite turns and heads thru power zone meanwhile Im sprinting left, lines load/pop/lift; redirect kite towards zenith as kite climbs lifts I try to redirect towards me or left. If I use this scenario rarely does it collapse. If I let it fly thru zenith it usually happens but a quick break tap and poof, inflation. Reverse process if Im jumping to the right. If I do the launch/rabbit out of the whole I always redirect near zenith and have never noticed a collapse. This is what gave me the idea of redirecting near zenith on a pendilum. With either scenario I only break once at the windows edge (pend) or near zenith (rabbit out of hole jump).Hope this made sense to you and helps. as usual..................................
stoaked