nice pics Scott--Cocoa right?

I'm still wondering how to order Combats in North America . Who is selling them ?

tridude-No that's not Cocoa!!!! It's Cocoa Beach.

City of Cocoa is on the mainland and is not affiliated at all with the City of Cocoa Beach!!! City of Cocoa is ghetto and has lots of meth head/crack addict types. Cocoa Beach just has crazy kite and surf junkies.

Well, this afternoon the wind picked up to 15+ out of the SE with 2-3 foot waves. I did it and went surfing with the Combat. Unfortunately my photographer was at her house so no pictures. I don't recommend the Combat for water use. It was fun and I would use it again for something different. It just did not have the grunt the Blade IV 4.9 has.
On flat smooth water where it's high speed would come into play then it might be a different story. I did get some fun jumps and a couple waves with it. All in all it flew and handled the higher wind nicely. I did find even in higher wind if you detension the lines quickly it will bowtie/flip easily. This trait is the one bad habit that is going to put me off this kite. It's always the lower to the ground wingtip that folds in. It happened one time after I landed from a jump about 20-30 yards from shore. I thought well this sucks I'm going to have to swim in and hopefully get close enough to shore to let go of the handles and hope the kite sails through the air far enough to land on the sand.

I still hope to get at least one good ATB board session in before I mail the kite out.

Scott

Quote:

Originally posted by Bladerunner I'm still wondering how to order Combats in North America . Who is selling them ?

you can order them direct from PKD UK, they handle all the distribution for PKD German.

Who's next on the Combat tour?

I got a chance to ride the kite for a few hours this morning on my ATB in about 15mph wind. I don't like the kite. :o

It was very very fast but had a tendancy to bowtie if you let up on the line tension quickly. I ended up doing a 15' plus long knee slide when it bowtied. I also got lofted a couple of feet up while trying to quickly stop. Then crashed when I hit the soft sand.

The kite is probably much better suited to buggy riding than ATB riding.

It is fast. I got going as fast as I wanted to go on the ATB and I felt like I was still accelerating. It felt like I was on the verge of speed wobbles. I guess I'm old and just want to cruise at a non breakneck speed.

It is a sweet looking kite in the air. If I had some spare money I would get one of these for high speed runs and for something different to fly.

Scott

Hey Scott, I believe I'm next on the list...after me, I think it goes back to Pablo.

I'm not really a speed junky myself but I am curious to see how well it goes upwind.

I'll u2u my address.

Thanks.

As far as I can tell it goes up wind very very well. Maybe to well.

Scott

Kite is on it's way to lunchbox. Should be there by the end of the week.

Have fun.
Scott

Hey,

If you're interested in a Combat contact me directly, any information that you send to PKD UK will be sent to me, so it's better to just contact me for information.

Life has been a bit busy for us, but we are still looking forward to warm, windy days.

Scott GREAT picture


Davinch
Elkiter
Deadhead
Sthrasher
Speleopower
Lunchbox

looks like it should be home soon, BigSiler if life frees up for you and you are wanting to give the 5M a try just contact me and we will see what we can work out. I have had a lot of inquiries about the 5M, so it will be nice to get it back.

Got a little slip from the Post Office yesterday...I'm going to try to pick it up this afternoon or Sat and then it's off to the beach to try it.

I'll let everyone know how it goes!

lunchbox-Were you able to make it to the post office???

Hey Scott,

Yep, picked it up at the Post Office on Sat morning and took it to the beach with me that afternoon.

...but the wind was blowing about 14-18mph so I couldn't resist trying my instructor's new Synergy and then flying my Venom. Had an incredible session but was I soo beat that I didn't even have the energy to static fly the Combat. Today's Mother's Day so any type of flying is out, so it looks like the first wind it's gonna see is the inland park...we'll see how it does!

Thanks.

Pete

Bummer 14-18 was good wind for it. Glad it arrived safe and sound.

Scott

Any news on how the kite flys???

Scott

Hey Scott,

Just got back from the beach. Light wind day (6-10mph). Had a good amount of time on the kite today. Mostly static flying and landboarding. Unfortunately the tide was kinda high and the wind was cross-shore...had several 150yd downwinders. A few days before that, I was able to fly the kite in my inland park, also in light conditions.

....best word that I would use to describe the kite....

IMPRESSIVE!!!

I really liked flying the kite. I loved the power and the forward drive it provides at the edge of the window. I was also impressed with it's stability (as far as race kites go). I got it to bow tie a few times but I can chalk that up to lumpy wind and in other instances, my ability as a flyer. But having said that, I got the feel after just a little while of where the kite likes to be and where it doesn't. I was really amazed when I turned the kite that the whole kite remained solid...no wing tip tucks. It also looked beautiful in the sky...soo long and narrow,,,kinda reminded me of the sea bird (albatross??)with the 12ft wing span that spends the majority, if not it's whole life, just flying the thermals! This is my first experience flying a race kite but I think that PKD definitely has a winner on it's hands. Now if only I could have test drove the Yakuza alongside it! I'm going to try to fly it on Sunday in the buggy and then ship it off to Pablo on Monday...I would love to keep it another week but that would be pushing it and I don't want to take advantage of Pablo's generosity!

One more thing....and this is the same with my Reactor,,,it definitely likes to be looped when you're at the edge and want to bring it back to the center.

Should have taken some pics....my buddy had his 4.9 Blade IV up alongside it...it was quite the sight to see them hovering in the sky together!

Cool! Glad you liked it more than me. I found it lacking in power at the edge of the window and the bow tie was annoying. Did you get a chance to fly the Blade IV 4.9 and the Combat back to back?

Maybe some more time on it would help. When I was surfing with it the lack of power at the window edge was very noticable. The Blade IV 4.9 has a lot more power at the edge-maybe more lifty.

Good job. Wish you had the picks of it and the Blade together.

Later-Scott

Hey Scott,

Yep, got to fly them back to back. Blade was definitely faster turning, a tad more lift, flew to the edge as far as the combat but, I thought, was not quite as powerful as the combat (at least through the center)...my friend concurred.

Would really have liked to have flown it in 12-16mph and will an onshore or offshore wind. That would have been sweet!

Pete

It for sure didn't have the "power" of the Blade that I am positive of. I could not really get going on the water very well. It let off the power big time near the edges of the window (narrow power band-like on some motorcycles). Which is good for speed I guess-I'm not a speed rider.

I got to ride it in light wind below 12mph and higher wind 15-20ish mph wind. In higher wind it was better for sure.

All in all it was a nice kite but would rather have a Blade. It's look in the air was striking and I wouldn't mind having something like this in my quiver for showing off with. I would try and somehow dye the bridle lines and my kitelines black.

Glad it was a success for you.

I hear that there is a small tear on the back of the wing, this really could have happened anywhere, and even in shipping, this very well could have affected the performance of the kite as well.

It should be back to me soon, I look forward to flying it again.

Sounds like everyone had fun with it

Thanks Pablo. I know I did. It was my first time with a race kite. It was fast and sweet.Imo.