Hey guys! So I recently finished up a review of the Little Cloud Pelican - figured I'd post it here for anyone interested. I know there isn't a ton of information out there on these kites, so maybe this will satisfy some curiosities...

I'll post the text of the review below, but If you want the whole kit and caboodle with pictures visit the link:

http://www.coloradokitesports.com/review-pelican2.html

Have a Great Labor Day weekend!



Intro and Summary

I've spent close to 9 months now on the Pelican 2, a kite from the mind of foil-kite pioneer turned paraglider designer Thomas Bourdeau. I have used the Pelican for literally everything: from foilboarding and snowkiting, to mountain boarding and kite buggying. In my last major review I was not short on praises for another one of Tom's designs: the HQ4 Montana X. I do believe he's outdone himself, though. Compiling lessons learned from all his previous open and closed cell creations - he's rolled them into one dandy of a kite - a true jack-of-all-trades for land, water and snow.


A Brief History of Tom
Perhaps one of the best ways to understand what the Pelican II is, is to understand where it came from. To do that, it might be worth taking a trip down memory lane to review some of Tom's previous creations and see how they've evolved over the years. While the following list is far from comprehensive, I believe it helps give some context as to how we arrived at the Pelican as it stands today.

Matrixx I: The year was 2012, and the 15m Matrixx was the first kite I ever bought brand new. I was blown away. For the money, it offered a lot of performance in a closed-cell market that was still very very small. While I didn't know it at the time, this would be the start of my love affair with Tom Bourdeau designs.

Matrixx II: The Matrixx II saw some big changes over its predecessor, most noticeably a move to lightweight 20D fabrics. The planform changed too, and the result was a very forgiving and pretty grunty kite that excelled in light winds - particularly in the bigger sizes. It was really user-friendly - almost to a fault. Some felt the kite was almost too easy-going and a little bland. Enter the Matrixx III_

Matrixx III: The Matrixx III maintained the light weight of the Matrixx II, but sped the kite back up again. It was thinned down and stretched out (AR ~4.8). The Matrixx III was a bit of a return to the sportiness of the Matrixx I, but with the lightweight fabric benefits of the Matrixx II, and less backstalling and tip-tucking than either of the previous models. It was, and still is, a really great kite; perhaps its only Achilles heal being that as a classical closed-cell foil - it could be a bit of a handful in stronger, gustier winds or in the mountains. I did take the 9m into the mountains a few times. And while I never got hurt, I also never felt completely at home there, either. There was something about the power spikes in the bigger gusts that left me a little unnerved. And wrestling it to the ground on the side of a mountain was a bit daunting. While you could punch the safety if things got out of hand, that just meant you had a big angry pillow flapping around. Less than ideal.
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Pelican I: About the same time as the Matrixx III, Tom started developing a kite for his own company - Little Cloud. Up to that point, Little Cloud specialized in mini-wings and paragliders. The Pelican was one of the first kites to incorporate the concept of variable inlets - predating both the Ozone Hyperlink and the Peter Lynn Nova. It offered a slimmed down airfoil with relatively high Aspect Ratio (5.4 - 6.2), while remaining surprisingly quick and stable. This was a great kite that received relatively little attention, in part due to the small size of the company and Tom's preference to spend most of his time designing better wings rather than promoting stuff.
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Montana X: The Montana X was a crowning achievement in open cell design. Lightweight, super smooth, excellent depower, light bar pressure, almost perfectly aerodynamically neutral, so that you could fly it completely hands off for longs periods of time - it was a dream. Still one of my favorite kites ever, and the best open cell kite I've ever flown. I really had no dislikes for the kite other than it was open cell and therefore not meant for water use. That didn't stop me from using it on the water though, because I liked it so. I actually had a guy from Hawaii - who owned a PL Aero and a Chrono mind you - tell me the 10m Montana was his favorite kite to use on the water. Crazy.
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Empulse: The Empulse was the kite many of us had been waiting for: finally, a closed cell/variable inlet version of the Montana X - hallelujah! Could it be? Yes....and no. The Empulse had an incredible amount to offer: it was thinned down from the Matrixx III with a slightly higher aspect ratio (5.35-5.55); this made it really efficient and gave it a huge wind range. It shared the general wing planform of the Pelican I and Montana X, giving it the signature smooth power, light bar pressure and good turn of the other kites. But it lacked the lift of the Montana or the Matrixx. As a result, the Empulse quickly became a quintessential high-performance backcountry touring kite for me. Between the variable inlets, which dumped air quickly once you landed it; and the lower lift which always left you feeling secure - I rode the heck out of that kite in the winter, pushing deeper into the mountains than ever before. My 1st 14'er summit attempt was made on the 7m Empulse. And to be fair, the kite did have some lift, its just it liked to be going fast before it really came alive. Almost like the difference between a speed wing and a paraglider. So there were admittedly times when I pulled the trigger on the Empulse, expecting the big ear-grinning bump and float I was used to on the Montana and Matrixx - and it just wasn't there in the same way.

Pelican Mk2: And this ultimately leads us to the Pelican V2. The Pelican II feels like the culmination of everything Tom learned from these previous kites. Not to mention his work on paragliders (for some designer insights, watch Cross Country's interview with Tom). It retains the speed and easy handling of the Empulse, but with a more playful lift and glide similar to the Montana. Compared to the Pelican MKI, Tom had smoothed out the power delivery, while adjusting the profile and planform to get better efficiency with less AR - no small feat. The result is a kite that is more stable with an increased lower range, and more lift than the V1. The power and lift delivery are very smooth though - which, when combined with the variable inlet design - keep it from being overwhelming in the mountains. It would appear the lift was designed with a mindful eye on maintaining the backcountry usability of the Empulse and Pelican I, all with the seeming mission statement of: "Design a kite competent at all kite disciplines, that is safe, effective and fun".


Characteristics
The Little Cloud Pelican Mk2 sits comfortably in the class of moderate Aspect Ratio, adaptive valve foil kites such as the Ozone Hyperlink and Peter Lynn Nova. With an AR ranging from 5.3-5.7, the Pelican is slightly more elongated than either the Hyperlink (4.56-5.07) or the Nova, perhaps more comparable to the Flysurfer Soul (5.0 - 5.8). As mentioned, it has adaptive valves or variable inlets, simply meaning that the inlet socks can be rolled up and disabled for land use - making it more like an open cell foil. This has some distinctive benefits that lend it to truly being an all-in-one kite: a kite that is as happy touring in the mountains as it foilboarding on the water. In fact, if mountain kiting is something you plan on doing, this should be a deciding factor when debating between a pure closed cell kite or a variable inlet kite like the Pelican. It really is going to be more safe.

__As Tom mentions on his website: "The goal of the PelicanMk2 is to offer a maximum of performance and fun without any compromise on the ease of use and forgiveness." I think this succinctly sums up what the Pelican is all about. It is a very versatile, very easy-to-use and forgiving kite that does not skimp on performance.

Due in part to the moderate Aspect Ratio, the design is quite efficient; yet still offers excellent stability. It has perhaps the best depower and widest useable range of any of his kite designs to date, and is a joy to fly. The ease-of-use philosophy extends beyond just handling and performance though, into broader ideals such maintenance free bridles and batten-free leading edges that allow you to easily stow the kite without worrying about damaging the leading edge.

The bar pressure is slightly higher than some of his previous designs (which have historically been some of the lowest bar pressures in the market), but not excessively so. The Pelican retains Tom's signature high-arch profile which creates a quick turning kite that carves a powered line through the turn. Even though the Mk2 uses a more robust material selection than its predecessor, the weights were kept almost identical through judicious design. This keeps them them some of the lightest twin skin kites on the market, comparing favorably to other ultralight variants.


Build Quality and Materials

In a word, build quality is excellent. Stitching looks great, and the attention to weight savings is obvious throughout the build. Appropriate reinforcements exist in the right places. Tom uses mix of 20D and 30D Dodko fabrics - the same material used on his best performing paragliders such as the Urubu. The Dokdo fabric has a very distinctive, silky - almost slippery feel to it. You kinda want to rub it all over your face. Or sleep in it. Regardless of your proclivities towards the fabric, it certainly makes for good paraglider and kite wings.

____Bridles and mixers are what you'd expect from a high end kite: Ronstan orbit pulleys and unsheathed Liros bridle lines that offer minimum weight and drag. __ Actual kite weights range from a miniscule 1.28 kg for the 7m up to 1.89 kg for the 13m. _These kites pack up super small and are ideal for backcountry skin-ups or traveling: the combined weight for all 3 kites is under 5 kg and could easily fit in a cary-on luggage.


The variable inlets are made_variable_through a really simple system of rolling up the inlet socks and securing them with four Velcro tabs. Keeping with Toms KISS mentality, this is probably the simplest and lightest system on the market. Depending on how anal you are about rolling them up, it can be done very quickly. For me this is more of a seasonal event, so I'll typically take my time to make some nice tight folds in the fall, leaving things looking pretty all winter long.

The inlets are screened, which I've grown to appreciate more and more. It seems to have minimal affects on inflation and really does do a legitimate job of keeping snow out of the kite when you are flying in a snowstorm. I've had multi-hour sessions in snowing conditions, where I never had to stop to empty the kite. The screens will also keep a fair amount of sand out if you find yourself using it on a sandy beach.

_The dirt-outs are positioned on the side of wingtips - running fore/aft, rather than on the trailing edge. This actually makes a lot of sense, because as anyone knows who's had to drain a waterlogged kite, you typically get the kite up and park at the side of the wind window to let it drain.

_Tom has always preferred achieving better performance through extensive testing and aerodynamic detail, rather than gimmicks and added complexity. The Pelican 2 holds true to that belief. The kite does not use any sort of leading edge stiffeners, which from a maintenance & durability perspective is a real benefit (not to mention weight savings). There is less chance for abrasion, stress points and stiffener deformation, and it keeps the pack-up simple and straightforward. If you find yourself unexpectedly stuck in the middle of a winter maelstrom - which I have - the last thing you really want to deal with is executing the perfect accordion fold. To the contrary: you want to be able to stuff the kite and get the hell out of there as fast as possible. You can do that with the Pelican, and it will fly absolutely exactly the same the next time you pull it out.

___As mentioned, the lack of stiffeners is deliberate and adds some inherent stability to the kite. As you depower the kite and it shoots forward - it loses some internal pressure as it approaches the edge of the wind window. This in turn causes a deformation along leading edge that keeps the kite from overshooting. Inherent stability through simplicity: exactly the sort of thing Tom likes.

_Tom spends a lot of time with each design tweaking the lines to ensure perfect sail tension across the wing - this is equally evident on the Pelican as it is on his paragliders. His designs really are art in motion and just plain look pretty in the sky. The pride Tom takes in his products is as evident in his kites as it is in every other flying product he creates. He really does want his customers to be proud of their equipment.

The Pack (or The Sack)
The Pelican is shipped with a simple stuff sack that will be immediately recognizable to anyone from a paragliding background. At first I wasn't sure how I was going to like it - but its really grown on me. If you open the zipper/deflate valve on the kite, grab both wingtips, and start stuffing it into the sack - almost like a sleeping bag - I've found that the it stows really quick. What's more, I've found that the kite comes out even quicker, and surprisingly with less tangled lines than if I were to roll the kite tightly (watch the video for an example). It ends up being a great way to stash your kite - even if you just want to take a quick break and get it out of the sun and wind for a bit.

Back in the early days, I think we all felt that every kite needed to come with a bombproof technical bag or it was missing something. As the sport has evolved though - and now that most people already have one kite (or three) - I'm glad to see companies saving the money and offering simpler solutions. Let's face it, most folks don't need an expedition pack. I personally decided to get a dedicated 50L ski-specific bag [Gregory Alpinisto - highly recommend!] that's designed for A-framing my skis to it for more technical tours, and can easily fit 2 Pelican kites. Otherwise - my Pelican birds spend most of their days loosely nestled in their little Pelican sack. And they are very happy there.


Safety, Launch and Relaunch
_Safety and relaunch in modern kites has become so good, and so ubiquitous, that is seems hardly worth mentioning any more. Suffice to say, the Pelican safety works well, and I've found it to be very good at re-launching from water. The kites use a standard front-line-flagout type safety system, meaning that it's compatible with a vast array of bars on the market.

_For an example of the 13m Pelican relaunching in real-world conditions, I'll include a video. __Aside from that, I don't think I'm going to spend a lot of time on this - other to say the safety and relaunch is good.
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Speed
While not a race-specific kite, the Pelican is very efficient and develops speed quite nicely. This has a lot to do with the type of airfoil Tom chose, which comes straight from his paragliders - an airfoil with good positive momentum that likes to bite into the wind. This translates into a kite that is trying to pull you more forward more than push you downwind, and contributes to the speed and efficiency of the kite. While I haven't heard of the Pelican being used in any races, I would say the speed is on par or perhaps better than the Montana X, which has been used - and has received podium finishes - in at least a couple snowkite races that I am aware of.

Handling and Performance

As noted previously, the Pelican V2 takes the best attributes of former designs and lumps them into one kite. It has the speed, efficiency, and easy handling qualities of Empulse, but with the lift of the Montana. The variable inlets means that while it is perfectly at home foilboarding and twin-tipping on the water, it does a really good job in the mountains. It has enough lift and maneuverability to be fun on a mountain board, and enough speed to be fun in a buggy.
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Depower is excellent, with no tendency to frontal collapse when sheeted out. Power is smooth and linear. At the side of the wind window, the kite drops slowly. You kind of forget how beneficial this attribute is, until you start learning a new discipline like foilboarding. It is so nice to have a kite that just kind of hangs out and waits for you, without immediately dropping to the water. In my humble estimation, not only are foil kites easier to relaunch in light winds, but you're doing it less often, because foil kites prefer to stay in the sky much more than most inflatables. This, to me, has proved invaluable as I've started down the road to learning how to foilboard. I wouldn't give up my foil kites for the world.

I've always liked kites with light bar pressure, as it leaves you less fatigued when you are going hard all day. The Pelican has slightly higher bar pressure than some of the previous designs, but it is still lighter than just about any other kite brand I've tried. I actually can't think of another kite - other than one of Toms designs - that has a lighter bar pressure. So I think most riders are going to find the bar pressure to be pretty light.

The turn rate for the Pelican is quite good - about what you would expect from a moderate AR kite nowdays. The 7m is quite quick and snappy - a lot of fun to throw around. With the higher arc profile shape, turns are generally more of a carve with continuous power. Typically the kite will not pinwheel or pivot-turn, although if you trim the backlines in aggressively - or if you use heavy over-the-bar steering - you can get some really quick spins with a nice shoot-out once you push the bar forward. This can be handy in some situations.

Things like back stalling and tip-tucking are essentially non-existant. Perhaps in a real aggressive, over-the-bar steering situation you may get a little bit of tip tuck, but it will be gone as soon as you push the bar forward and let the kite fly again. In regards to power and efficiency, the Pelican has a slightly lower aspect ratio than the Pelican I, however it has a little more grunt per size, and I find it to be a little more efficient.

Lift on the Pelican is not explosive, but it is abundant. When you pull in the bar, having any reputable amount of wind or forward speed, you are going to be sent on an elevator ride. Both the ride up and the ride down feel extended, and the feeling that you are attached to a paraglider wing is hard to escape. The lift becomes more and more assertive with each smaller size, as one might expect. Perhaps most surprising was how well the smaller sizes glide and how soft the landings were, even on the 7m. They definitely have a paraglider/mini-wing vibe to them.

_Here in Colorado, I find myself spending most of my time on the 13m. The kite loves to float. The 10m is an absolute blast when the conditions get a little stronger and I can finally pull it out. It is such a fun combination of turning speed and a little more dynamic lift and float - a really, really fun size.

By the time I finally get to use the 7m, the wind conditions here are most often quite terrible, being raucus and gusty. With that said, the 7m is incredibly fun to throw around. I had some really fun sessions up in the mountains this winter with the 7m, in some fairly bad conditions with swirling winds and snow-nadoes going by. In these conditions, you will need to be prepared for the kite getting punched, although I found with the smooth power of the kite, re-openings remained maneagable and uneventful: just get your skis pointed downwind, push the bar out and ride out the surge. The kite depowers very well, so this does not feel overwhelming. Its better in these conditions if you can keep the kite further back in the wind window and take advantage of its nice tight turns. It has some great lift in its appropriate wind range, but can also dump power quickly. At the end of the day, I found the snow conditions on the high-wind days to be more problematic than the kite itself - since the surface was highly sastrugi'd and hard, and difficult to hold a consistent edge on leading me to be a bit off-balance.


_While the Pelican has more lift than the Empulse, it does not feel overwhelming or out of place in the mountains. It is inevitable that you will suffer collapses in rotoring winds in the hills - particularly when the kite is parked and fully depowered as you descend a slope. I've found the Pelican recovers from these situations quite well, with power that doesn't spike or surge severely, so I feel safe riding it out without needing to throw the safety. Which is a big deal.


Adaptive Valves - are they worth it?
_When the idea of adaptive valves first came out, I wasn't sure if it was a gimmick. After using them for a couple seasons now, I am a huge believer. When you are in the mountains, it really does matter that your kite will deflate quickly and have less of a chance for accidental relaunch. A normal closed-cell kite stays highly inflated, creating this massive wind wall when it lands - acting like a huge spinnaker sail. In the higher winds, this can be really problematic. Add to that the fact that the kite is sitting upright - almost on the verge of relaunch - and you have a disaster waiting to happen. I was legitimately amazed the first time I started using adaptive inlets at just how effective it is in significantly improving the deflation rate of the kite and keeping it low-profile once on the ground. It really works, and for me personally, there is no going back.

Light Wind
The benefits of Tom's attention to weight becomes obvious in lighter winds. All sizes will launch and stay airborne in sub 5 knots. The benefits of this really shine in inland kiting and foilboarding - where summer winds tend to be light and variable. These kites allow you to ride out the lulls when other kites are hindenburging and getting stuck on the water.

Inflation in light winds is good - even better in open-cell mode. You will get slightly better inflation with the kite in the open cell configuration, at the cost of the kite not staying quite as rigid in really weak winds. If winds are really light, it does pay to pre-inflate the kite a little bit to ensure a good launch, unless you are just trying to prove a point.

__The Pelican is an efficient kite and likes to go upwind. Like most foil kites, power gets better as you gain a little more speed, so if you are twin tipping, its best to give a little ground and gain some board speed first, then start heading upwind.

__Users might find it odd that the largest size available is a 13m. Its clear Tom is targeting the Pelican for foil-boarders and mountain-riders, where a 13m kite is really about as big as you need. If you do lots of riding on the flats in the winter, or if you plan on using the kite for twin-tipping on light summer days - you will want another larger kite in your quiver.

_With that said, I've been really impressed how well the 13 has done in lighter winds - the usable range on the 13m is massive. It is hands down my most used size. The 13 was the largest - and only - kite I used for light-wind mountain days this last winter, once I received it. The 13 seems to be a really nice size for this: big enough to power the hill, but small enough to keep the turn radius tight so you're not dragging tips on the steeper slopes. And it keeps the pack weight light.

Initially, I just assumed that the power of the 13m Pelican was more or less equivalent to that of my 12m Montana - which also does quite well as as a light wind mountain kite. Recently I pulled my Montana back out to do a side-by-side comparison to verify my suspicions, only to find the difference was more noticeable than I had expected. So much so, that I switched kites several times, just to confirm that I wasn't hitting the 12m in a bit of a lull. Each time though, the Pelican showed itself to have consistently more power and lift. Where the Montana was generating kind of a bland hop that seemed a bit forced, as soon as I switched back over to the Pelican there was a clear increase in power and kite was developing some nice lift and float. This was a pleasant surprise, I think most people will be quite happy with the performance and power generation of the kite.

Stability
Stability is as-good, or better than all previous designs. The V2 has slightly reduced aspect ratio than the Pelican Mk1, so one would assume it would be a bit more stable, which it is. One of Tom's chief design challenges on the Mk2 was to reduce the AR of the kite but still maintain or improve the efficiency, which amazingly he did.

The closed cell nature of the Pelican - even when flown in the open cell mode - gives the kite a little more rigidity than a full open-cell kite, and as a result the stability is also better than the Montana. Flying the kite in closed cell mode will give the kite some additional rigidity and collapse protection.

_Perhaps the best testament I can give to the stability of the kite is the fact that the 7m Pelican was the only kite I used last winter for high wind days in the mountains - or anywhere else for that matter. The season before, my 7m Empulse had been my highwind kite and the season before that, a 5.5m Apex. Given the higher lift of the Pelican II, I had some reservations as to whether it was still going to work. But the fact that I never pulled out my Empulse last winter, I think speaks to feeling of security I had.

Conclusion
Kite designs have come a long ways in the last 10 years. There really aren't any bad designs out there any more, and I believe we are starting to enter a time of niche kites - where designs are optimized for specific sectors or disciplines. In an era where that is true, the Pelican stands out - perhaps in it's own niche - as one of the better all-around kites on the market. Its the Feng Shui of modern kites: an aesthetically pleasing mix of simplicity harmonizing with performance - via earth wind, and water.

The French Alps-roots of the kite our obvious - the kite really finds its groove with the guy who wants to start the day with a backcountry tour in the mountains, maybe fly off some pistes, then come back down to the valley for some foil boarding and an espresso. For this guy, a set of 3 Pelican kites is probably all he'll ever need.

Tom is a big believer that when you feel secure, you are going to have more fun. The Pelican Mk2 seems to have explored and defined the boundaries of what that means - trying to deliver as much lift as possible, while still maintaining the feeling of safety - and therefore enjoy-ability - in the mountains.

Design optimization will always include trade-offs: maximizing certain things at the cost to others. So, will there will be other kites out there with better shear-boost-to-the-moon potential? Sure. But I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with them in the mountains. And will there be a kites out there that offer better pure VMG? Yes, but I don't know if I'd be willing to pay the cost - in stability or actual dollars - to achieve that. Or if I even really need it. The Pelican is a pretty fast, efficient kite in its own right. Actually, I would love to see this kite compete in something such as VAKE - I think you might be surprised at just how well it would do, where a lightweight, more forgiving kite that can handle a host of different conditions, might actually be better in the long run than a more finicky, flat-out performance rig.


So who is this kite going to appeal to most? At the end of the day, I'm not sure its even about performance. With so many good brands out there now, its almost more about identity and personal values. I personally have always had a bit of a soft spot for small companies and the underdog. That's not to say I will support a company that makes crappy products just because they are small. But when you get a real artisan, who pours his heart and soul into making something special, and who is delivering excellent products - I want to support that guy. The guy who is more interested in making something unique and personal, and growing a family of individuals who are as enamored with his products as he is - that's something I can get into.

Read through Little Cloud's Philosophy and you will quickly realize that making kites and paragliders is much more than a business for Tom. It really is about cultivating a community, a small family of like-minded flyers, who prefer to stay away from the hype and focus on the simple joy of flight. He wants to take us back to that child-like essence and simple fascination we all had growing up. Visit any flying site where Little Clouds are gathering, or stop by a Little Cloud forum, it won't take long to realize that the enthusiasm and love-of-product is real. There are a lot of really happy Little Cloud pilots out there doing a lot of Happy Flying. Count me in that group.

I like promoting great people - people that are humble, and forward thinking, and kind - who are making great products. I love everything that Little Cloud stands for: fair prices, quality equipment, minimum ego and maximum fun. In an age of lots of negativity, I'm personally ready to promote people with positive messages and I'd love to see a return of focus on good people and good things. Tom is one of those good people, and the Little Cloud Pelican is one of those good things. If any of that resonates with you and sounds like something you'd like to be part of, I encourage you to support Tom and his Little Cloud products. I know he, and I, would love to have you be part of the Little Cloud Family.

Happy Flying!
Nate