oooh placed the order for a crispy new manta yesterday.......

ahhhhh. should be here by the weekend.

can't wait.

Good news, have to meet up so we can swap kites for a while.

:shock:

yep with daylight savings coming we might be able to hook up during the evening on one of my wellingtron trips.

..... ... . . . .

when the wind is glorious i may just do a day trip down to the glorious that is himatangi.

oooh.

manta turned up today. nice 13knot onshore westerly coming in low tide 2.20. ooh theres gona be some manta action today.

Pictures pictures pictures!!!! i dont care if you have to get some random sea lion to take em you better get some lol.

And you better jump with it. the 10m manta 1 that i flew last year i flew with a broken wrist and still managed to jump.... so same story goes for you just dont break your wrist

So how did it go??? you pleased with it, altho I think that might be a stupid question.
I managed to get out on the water yesterday on the Speed, not ideal wind, but enough to let me know I have not made a mistake in buying it.
Just to give you an idea I was kiting with a guy that was on a 17m LEI C kite so that gives you some idea how powerfull these kites are....

well im sorta pleased. i need a few more sessions to get used to it.

yesterday was 12-15 knots. so ideall conditions to try out the beast. the write ups are true its a very forgiving kite. it needs speed to generate power and lift. so you can troll around sedately if you wish. power delivery is smooth and the lift is interesting. rather than being torn from the ground like the frenzy you sorta take off like a plane. as the kite speeds up the power steems in. more speed, more power, more power more speed and so on.

I've realised that i need to step up my game and be more agreesive and commited to get the true worth out of the manta. the frenzy i think allows you to be lazy and cooze around and jump into the air with much piloting skill.

There were moments where i managed to time things right so some nice floaty jumps and i could see the glory of the manta.


I went out again today but the wind was all over the place. its was sitting around 18knots but droping to 12 then gusting to 23knots. so i launched and did some scudding/pendulums with a bit of boarding but chicken out of any real action. i'll put a few lighter wind days in first before i tackle that gusty crud.



so its like sweeet new kite. i can see the glory but am not yet good enough to extract it. bugger i'll have to step up.

ps. as stated this thing loves to go fast so i'm sure i'll be knocking on the door of my top speed PB when i'm next at a long enough beach.

Sounds like fun, always takes time to get used to a new kite, I'm going thro the same thing myself at the moment, but patience is always rewarded.
Every kite has its own qualities, you just have to spend time finding them.
On the plus side, you don't hate it so that's a good start.

no i definatly don't hate it.

i instantly see some great advantages over the frenzy.

*its better it gusty conditions.
*will have a much bigger wind range. on the second day out i put it up in 20 knots plus. the frenzy would eat me for breakfast at those winds.
*its going to be better doing speed runs.
* its way faster easier to re-direct.
* when i dial the jumps they will be soooo floaty

disadvantages.
its wont be as good in low winds as i would have liked..... on the plus side it will be fantastic in the sweet 12-18knot winds.


ps its got some form of water proofing on it which is cool. i dunmped it in the wet beach a couple of times and expected it to fly llike shize but no it was sweet as bud.

Well I'm looking forward to seeing it soon. let me know when your on your next road trip down this way, you can have a go on the Speed as well.
Kiting in light wind is bollocks anyway, so I would not put that down as too much of a disadvantage....

community.flexifoil.com/showthread.php?p=1827426#post1827426

theres a pick there of me floating about on my hill. ahhh its a nice feeeling just foating around above the earth. the manta is such a supreme floating machine.

i see its true glory on the hill. maybe next year i'll get to experience some snow kiting with it..... i'll have to learn to snowboard again its been years.

had a lunch time session at the beach.
16-18knots with some gusting to 22.
started off abit faggoty with the trim adjuster in then i thought stuff it full power.

ohhhh i'm getting to gripps with this beast. its definatly a different fish. even in this wind i could trundle walking speed an float inches off the floor. still being abit chicken i didn't go for any massive jumps but was getting some nice floaty longish airs. A couple of times i committed abit more and found myself around over head height. with the sand being abit soft and mushy i ditched the board for those ones and landed like superman.

i did bit of high speed skudding and pendulums aswell, float, float float.

at one point i was sorta doing these nice floaty moon walks back to my board. i did abit of a redirect and found myself floating above the earth like on a zip wire. touching down right by my board nice.....

now i just need to man up charge into a jump at 30kph slam the kite way back and see what happens. i think i might let out a bit of wee if i do tho.


ps this dixie 14m frenzy is in the house.... waiting to give that a poke in lighter winds... today was supposed to be 12 knots nope.... maybe tomorrow,...

had another lunch time session on the manta.

man its murphies law. i said i hardly have high wind days,.....
but today the wind was up again it was gusting over 20knots lulls as low as 9knots..... hmmm.
needless to say it wasn't the most ideal conditions. at one point i had the manta low and at the edge of the window and it was pulling me down the beach,,,.. standing that is. not on the board. maybe a little overpowered.

i'm waiting for a nice clean 15 knots so i can really get to grips with this beast.


i do say that when you adjust the trim strap on this kite it does depower it nicely and remain usable. Both the venom and the frenzy rear lines went too slack and the kites performed like crap with the trim strap trimmed.

bit of a moan.
yourd think 3 lines would tangle less than 4 wouldn't you?

well i've had more bridle, line tangles on the manta than i ever had on the frenzy.... bizzare. the frenzy bridle alot more complicated but less tangles......