First REAL Synergy 15 Session

Well, today was the day alright. We had a 2 foot south swell at 18 seconds mixed with 4-7 foot NW swell at 15 seconds, and the forecast was for winds to ramp-up into the 20's. It did not disappoint!

I was the first on the water at about 2:00 PM with mid teen winds gusting to high teens. Right away I had plenty of power to get upwind and ride the sets pushing 1.5x overhead. Throwing the kite for the bottom turn and snapping it back is smooth as butter, with the kite obviously resisting luffing and stalling far better than my Venom 16. Compared to the Venom, this kite is basically just more agile in every respect. Turning and acceleration felt like a full size smaller, and today I definitely noticed the impact of the VPC. Like the Scorpion, power build-up and maintenance through sharp turns is just obviously smoother than with the non-VPC models.

After about 45 minutes the wind came on stronger--now averaging about 20 and gusting to the upper 20's. And, though it was clearly gusty, control wasn't an issue with my long throw bar. This is definitely an ARC kite. With the power fully on now, I reverted to my favorite riding style: big airs and basically stalling the kite and forgetting about it while carving-out deep and sharp turns on the big sets and letting the wave drive my board rather than the wind. The mixed swell popped up some great rights and lefts and with only about 4 other kiters out it was "all you can eat" day. What a blast! BTW, you CAN stall this kite to achieve the above-mentioned riding style, but unless you have a long-throw it will be TOO stally as the kite likes looser lines to generate power from lift. One thing that is noticeably better with the Synergy than the Venom is how quickly it recovers from stall. I was able to carve right/left turns by stalling and re-accelerating the kite in a manner quite similar to my V10. No small feat.

I did many medium sized jumps into the critical part of the wave and was amazed at how quickly I was comfortable, consistent, controlled, and most impressively accurate in picking out exactly where I wanted to land and then sticking it right into carving the wave. Towards the end of my session I got over-powered on a port tack doing about mach 10 and decided "what the hell?" Flicked the kite back the other way full-force against the loaded board, let it accelerate with the bar all the way out, and pulled in tight right as I hit lift-off . . . . OH MY! Talk about airtime? This kite is the real deal. I'm not going to throw out numbers, but that was bar-none the highest, biggest hangtime, and greatest distance jump of my entire kitesurfing career. It's going to be a great spring and summer :-).

Cheers,

Gideon