Hi there,

I've been a very happy owner of an Ozone Flow 3m, scudding all over the place, and am looking to get my next one and move up the excitement level. I'm looking for something that is going to help product more lift as I really want to get into jumping.

I've been keeping an eye on the Flexifoil Blade 4.9 either IV or V as it can be adjusted to more traction or lift and also is remarked as being quite stable (yet insane) kite. Recently however I started reading up on the Cirrus Pro 5m which at about half the price sounds like it could be a great contender.

Does anyone have any advice on which way to go? Invest for the future with the blade, get just as much fun with cirrus at a fraction of the price or another Option C?

Cheers

You have LOTS of options with where to go. If you are looking at jumping, and possibly landboarding, the blade is an excellent choice. However, these kites are very wicked and dangerous if you arent ready for them. Just bear that in mind and be careful if you go with that kite.

Again, there are tons of options on what to go with. You can narrow your options by sticking with one specific discipline (kitebuggy, landboarding, kitesurfing, etc). One way to add to your excitement level is to just add either a board or buggy. Opens up a whole world of possibilities. Really depends on what you want to do with it...

Best of luck.

I took the path of 3m beamer, 5m Pansh Blaze, then got a 5m HQ Crossfire. Each step was eye opening. It was a good progression for me. I later added a 6.5m Blade and it is a spectacular kite and has the handling to easily help you learn to jump. Even the blades are tame if you get used to them in lower winds. The adrenaline (and risk of injury or death) kicks up fast with stronger winds though. Be respectful of their power and potential. Then I got into buggying and sold every kite I had and re-quivered with low-lift kites that wouldn't pull me out of the buggy. Realize you probably won't just get a couple kites and be done with it. If you stay in this, there will always be one or two more kites you "need".

if you have a place for board or buggy, i would add that first... i say that as someone who hasn't yet done either and has stuck firm to the static jump path. I've got my reasons for that, never mind posting them here.

the board / buggy will open up the sport for you a lot more than a blade will, at around the same cost. the 3m flow is a great kite for exploring either buggy or board. basically if you're young and quick and on the skinny side go for a board, if older / slower / maybe a bit heavier than before go buggy, but there are lots of exceptions. time spent on whatever mix you go for will tell you what's next on the purchase list, and yes there's not much end to that.

if however you don't have a good place to board / buggy then maybe go for the cirrus, the blade is good if you can find one for a good price, but the cirrus will teach you most of what the blade has to offer.

being wise about your winds and kite size is in the end more important than what brand you go for. you want to go for a nice progression towards your eventual goal. If you're unfocused with regard to the long term then go for exploring kite sizes / types / winds / flying sites rather than spending lots of bucks on a spendy kite.

just my two cents...

tight lines... :D

dont know much about the cirrus 5m--blades are great fun, but as everyone said can be dangerous in gusty/ too much wind--believe me, ive flown all sizes of blades in all conditions--you can have a seriously adrenalized time, just be careful.......

Although I've never flown it, another option that I know many people love for jumping is the twister II 5.6m. Not too expensive either compared to the blade. I have the same kite in the 4.1m version and I love it.

The blade IV's were great kites. If you can find a 4.9 B IV somewhere I'd grab it since the V's just don't seem deserving of the Blade name in my opinion. Flexi team riders kept their iv's due to the less than satisfactory performance of the v. I doubt you'll see many iv's on the market for quite a while. If you get one just make sure to start with the AoA in the lowest lift setting and go out in resonable winds. Fly safe

I know dylanj423 was selling a blade 4.9 for 325. I'm not sure if that's still for sale but you could send him a U2U.

I personally got into this looking only to static jump, but personally I've decided to move on to boarding soon, I just need to figure out how well the kites I have handle static first. Trancein1's been a great help on getting me started. I've decided to move on to boarding soon because I personally don't have much room to buggy around these parts.

I was looking forward to buying a blade in the beginning but learned that the winds around here are never stable and always changing, so I prefer using de-power kites. Although i do love my Comp-XL for jumping at times.

Sad thing for me is out of all my friends I'm actually the only person looking forward for the first snowfall this year.

Wow - cheers for the feedback all. I am actually really surprised how much responses I got! Cheers PKF people! I will have to take a look at the twister as well - cheers power.

I was doing some more exploring around and think I'm going to discount the cirrus. I think overall it sounds a pretty good kite for its money but here is my thinking:

1. Send an email to cirrus themselves asking for some advice on 4 or 5 mtr and which may be best in their opinion. NEVER GOT ANY RESPONSE (kind of poor for their sales team).
2. From some other forums it sounds like you'll still get more fun out of a blade. See here: http://forum.kitecrowd.com/showthread.php?t=167829
3. Sounds like the blade could be a little more versatile if I wanted to look to poke a toe into landboarding.
4. New it comes in ~£150. However I could get a used Blade III for ~£100 or Blade IV for ~£200. If I spend a little more time saving I could get what I really want for only a little more cash. Add on to the fact that I need to get kite killers and perhaps new flying lines and then there isn't much between new cirrus & used blade.

So my dilema has now shifted somewhat - do I go for a blade III or Blade IV 4.9 mtr? From all of the reading online it seems to be that the big difference is Blade IV has the AAA bridle adjuster (something that can't be retrofitted onto a 4.9 Blade III). It sounds like it really helps to use the kite for a wider range of wind conditions but also change behaviour depending on jumping or boarding.

What are others opninions of Blade III vs IV? Can anyone speak from experience on how different/similar the two are? If I get a Blade III am I going to be kicking myself and wishing I went for the (I assume) more versatile IV?

BLADE for jumping, the cirrus pro range are more traction imo, i have a 6m pro and my lil Ace 4.5 jumps better, the BLADE is made for lift so i would suggest the blade.

and if your skint go for a pansh ace 4.5 :D 100 dollars or pounds.

good to hear the cirrus feedback... even on low lift the blade can be plenty lifty.

get what you really want.... my blade remains my best kite purchase by far.

the odd thing about my blade is that it doesn't fly all that well on the higher lift setting, needs lots of wind and if I'm in the upper part of it's wind range anyways it can be a lot of power to deal with... Although less of a problem with the 4.9 than the 6.5 as the smaller kite has a bigger wind range to begin with.

you can get lift two ways... by flying it hard and fast on the lower lift settings or by flying it on the slower / gruntier high lift settings, more fun for me on the lower lift settings... In other words you can get lift by flying it fast on the low AoA or flying slower on the higher lift settings. Speed gives lift or AoA gives lift, but high kite speeds and high AoA don't really go together.

FWIW, it seems from what I've read that the III's fly more like the IV's on the higher lift settings, but not as fast and quick as the IV's on the lower settings, tho it would be much better for ya to hear that somebody who has flown both, which I have not...

forever a fan of the blade 4.9...you will not look back.

Thanks all for your help on this. I waited for the christmas rush to be over and just picked myself up a Blade IV 4.9 2nd hand. The seller also threw in a simple harness as well. I chose this over the cirrus pro as alot of the reviews & pieces of advice posted mentioned that the AAA adjuster help makes the kite more versatile in a larger set of wind conditions.

Luckily a mate of mine also just bought a landboard so between us I think have covered some of the advice mentioned here. Not arrived yet - should be here in a couple of days. Lets just hope wind this weekend is good!

Cheers