Up for sale is a Flexifoil Blade III 8.5M - ready to fly. I'm only selling as it is simply too much kite for me. I either don't have the skills to hold it down, or I'm just too small. It is my favorite color scheme of all the Blades, yellow and charcoal grey. It is in very nice condition with no tears of any sort. It has had a professional repair on a seam where about 2 inches of stitching came loose. It is in no way noticeable. It is quite clean, but shows a few light dirt marks if you look at it under the right lighting. The 27M lines show a little age, but should have many years left. Includes PKS handles with adjustable rear lines. There is also a removable strop line. Asking $400 shipped.

Update - price lowered to $375 shipped.
Update - price lowered to $350 shipped.

this one goes from hardly flying to yanking you off your feet in a hurry in our light wind doesn't jadog? :D

Great kite. I bought it from redsky in london (famed buggy pilot and video maker) and sold to jadog. I assume this is the one.

Someone was recently looking for a kite for a good workout in 5-7 mph. Can't remember who, but this will work.

a legendary kite.

Yes, Sean, this is the kite I bought from you. If you are looking for a light wind Blade to add to your quiver, this is it!

Image of backpack added. Price lowered to $375 shipped!

Quote: Originally posted by ssayre

Someone was recently looking for a kite for a good workout in 5-7 mph. Can't remember who, but this will work.

You are probably thinking about brockrock1000 in this thread:

Flexifoil Rage 6.0

ATB,
Sam

Still available. Price lowered to $350!

That is one of the best Blades ever made
I'm keeping mine!

How can I tell if I am ready for a kite like this?

The price is really tempting and I've been looking at other Blades like the 4.9 and the 6.5. I weigh 200 lbs, and I've been jumping routinely in 10-20 mph winds with a Prism Tensor 5.0. I wanted to get something with more lift.

Should I just take the plunge and be extremely careful with wind speed?

u really don't jump w/ a 5m tensor at 200# in 10-20...its more like unweighting or getting lifted
i don't mean to offend...this is a whole different beast...truly a bigboy kite not for the faint of heart
in the right wind this will take you above the tree line...be careful what you wish for

imo

Quote: Originally posted by Wookiiiee

How can I tell if I am ready for a kite like this? The price is really tempting and I've been looking at other Blades like the 4.9 and the 6.5. I weigh 200 lbs, and I've been jumping routinely in 10-20 mph winds with a Prism Tensor 5.0. I wanted to get something with more lift. Should I just take the plunge and be extremely careful with wind speed?

In my opinion, a kite like this is really great for traction, not so great for static flying. 8.5 meters of double skin fabric is pretty heavy, so you need a fair breeze just to get it flying, say 8mph for example. However, it's a huge lifty kite so it's going to be yanking your arms off at 15 and trying to lift you whether you like it or not. That means you've got a kite with a wind range of 8-15 which limits the days you can fly it pretty hard. If you are in a buggy you can cope with all that pulling just fine. Those figures are just my estimates to show you the narrowness of the range, I don't know the real numbers off the top of my head.

For jumping, I don't know. The only people I have ever seen use a kite like this are buggy jumpers and they tend to go high, probably higher than you would like.

I had all sorts of trouble trying to learn to jump both static and in motion with my 9m Blade II. It turned way to slow for me to ever get my timing and redirect with it. In the right hands it is an amazing kite but not ideal for learning to jump in my experience.

It is a gentle giant in smooth winds below about 10mph. With 10mph winds I have to hold back on speed or apparent wind becomes too much for me. I am sure the 8.5 III is a bit faster and a bit more range but ???

Quote:

posted on 4-22-2017 at 11:46 AM u really don't jump w/ a 5m tensor at 200# in 10-20...its more like unweighting or getting lifted i don't mean to offend...this is a whole different beast...truly a bigboy kite not for the faint of heart in the right wind this will take you above the tree line...be careful what you wish for imo

Not offended. I've been practicing for 8 months, usually twice a week. On a stronger day I can usually get about 10 feet vertical (which I know might not count as jumping for the more experienced kiters on this forum) and a soft landing with good positioning and a lot of running speed. It takes a huge amount of physical effort and I can't consistently do it, which is why I'm interested in a "big boy" kite that can get more lift.

You are correct that I am not interested in clearing tree lines.

Wook...if your getting 10ft up w/ that kite your doing great and are well on your way to stratospheric situations
and not many here are doing that...particularly static

Have you ever thought of landboarding? The ones I've seen are essentially riding for a while, then doing some massive jump and floating around while turning, then going back the other way. Sounds a lot like what you are doing so maybe you'd enjoy it. At the very least, you could study the kites they are using and the way they are doing jumps to make sure you are doing it as good and safe as possible.

I'm no expert at jumping, but I think the kites they are using are LEI kites or lately big depower foils like flysurfers. Anyway, IMHO this is a great kite for somebody but not for you right now.

wook what is your location? I used to own this kite and you would need good clean beach winds to think about jumping with it. You still need hooj balls with clean wind.

I'm the one who had this shipped from across the pond.

Quote: Originally posted by ssayre

I'm the one who had this shipped from across the pond.

And I'm friends with Red Sky, who I'm assuming is the old owner? Seems like the kind of kite he'd have since he's absolutely fearless.

hopefully I will be the new owner once Jdaog gets back from his trip....waiting sucks......

You've all properly scared me off. I'm in Virginia, without clean beach winds or wide open enough flying locations to risk it. I still need to find my big boy kite though.

purchased another kite, this is up for grabs...

Wookiiiee, I also have a 5M Blade II that is also up for sale. It is the same color scheme as the 8.5. It may be more in line for what you are looking although if you are already making 10ft jumps, I would say you could easily go for this 8.5.

Still for sale!