Ok.... play this,


and THEN read this:



The Vip is one word..... [Evil! retract that].... Awesome!

It flies awesome..... it has smooth(ish) power delivery.... it is, however, a tank..... a very, very, very, angry tank....

This kite.... feels like an evil entity... hovering out there. The twister, the phantom, charger, toxic.... they are all like your cool cousins.....they are great to hang out with.... if you want them to toss you around, they'll do it with a smile on their face.... Good times!!! the blade tho.....

my winds were gusty. They were choppy. punchy. Not good Blade weather! But, i wanted to fly it! When i took to the field, winds were 15, gusting to 23.... little hairy, but... i have hooj, well you get the idea....

This kite, on normal setting, cuts upwind like no other kite ive flown. Within 3 runs, i was halfway upwind my field (if that makes sense lol).... with the crazy winds, my downwind runs were s**t nuts fast! the park and ride, was pretty amazing... set it at 15 degrees... and gone!!!

the gusts made this session absolutely nuts... random lofts, jumps that went too big.... lol crazy!

All the while... this evil, black, ominous entity hovers overhead, waiting for the go-ahead, to go berserk! and if you dont give it that go-ahead... after a while, it goes on its own! Ahhhh!




To sum it up... the ViP is a wicked awesome kite! Well built, awesome design.... unreal power. fairly nimble for an 8.5m fb kite. really stable. unreal lift. UNREAL!!!

top notch kite... for the very experienced flier!!!!

extremely dangerous in the hands of a newbie... but if you are like me, and you like to have the living hell scared out of you from time to time (in a good way)... this is your baby! I love it, and once im more familiar with it.... it will be my goto fb jumper for those 15-20mph days


Im all sorts of "stoke-shaken" right now.... ive taunted the beast, i still need to master it.... it'll be an awesome ride!!!!

nice first impressions/review..........what knot on your AAA were you using? Like your for "experienced" pilots comment. These kites can put you in a world of hurt real quick. Were you stropped or flying Bill Kazmire style? Agree on the stability. For a higher AR kite, blades are very stable and go upwind well. Look forward to further reviews and be careful with this beast.......................

Quote:

Originally posted by Drewculous The Vip is one word..... Evil! It flies awesome..... it has smooth(ish) power delivery.... it is, however, a tank..... a very, very, very, angry tank....

I really need to get on some meds.....



Nice first impression/SOTP review... would love to see a head-to-head-to-head review of a Blade IV, V, and VIP.

ATB,
Sam

with a bit of good fortune hopefully we can fly your 8.5m VIP and my 8.5m B3 @ JIBE next spring for a side by side....................nice to have a couple Blades back in the quiver (picked up a mint 6.6 B3 as well)..................

I always loved that bit of music ... but man, that's like a middle-ages death metal song - check out the English translation of the lyrics!

Nice bro!

I have not had the opportunity to launch my VIP yet, but first impressions on the ground are, in a word, epic. The construction of this kite is better than any fb I have had in my hands to date. What really caught my eye were the bridals. Nice and thin in comparison to what I have seen before. This thing is going to be fast. The AR on this thing is, we will just say I now know why it is named the Blade. AAA is straight forward. I LOVE the mesh over the intakes! Will be VERY nice in the grass fields I fly in most of the time. Even the bag is top notch. Padded shoulder straps, waist buckle, and very well put together. Not as much extra space in the bag as in the PL bags I usually carry with me but who needs extra space when a Blade is in the bag? Styling on the kite: seriously? You want me to comment on it? Really??? Look at the thing, it's beautiful!

I also got a set of Pro Link handles and Flexi lines. The pro links are hands down the nicest handles I have had my mitts on so far. Sturdy, a bit heavy, but definitely up to the task of controlling the Blade. (I use the word controlling loosely)

So far, so epic! I can't wait to get this thing in the air.

It was on the normal setting.... still reeling from it, lol!
No strop in Nebraska! I got spanked once by my twister.... I swore off strops in gusty winds and lofty kites.... had I been stropped, my 10' lofts wouldve been deadly........

I really like that kite, it'll be interesting to compare models at jibe. I get the feeling this thing will scream in the bug!

did it again... winds were 17-20ish, gusting 25mph

dropped the vip to "low AoA" setting...

wind is screaming..... the temp is holding steady at 48F.... intermittent rain..... its go time.

check me off for getting my first real jumps with this kite today.... absolutely effortless 10'ers, minimal effort 15'ers...... and broke my pb speed on my atb at 31mph...

I would like to retract my statement of calling this kite evil... it is just good at its job, and doesnt put up with BS! Today i felt comfy with this kite. the gusts still threw me around, but ill be damned if i didnt feel "safe" under this kite! the bigger canopy made landings softer, and i felt like i was in control the whole time. This is a great kite... if you think the 6.5 blade is king.... it's only because you havent flown a ViP yet.

Its not a newbie kite as said before, but if you want to push your limits, this kite will reward you beyond belief.... ive got "shakey-stoked syndrome" so bad right now, and i just cant quit laughing :puzzled:

Bobby was right.... Blade is King... he just forgot the ViP part!