Manufacturer:

Flysurfer

Model:

Rookie2

Sizes:

4 & 9 M

Type Of Kite:

Open Fixed Bridle Foil

Introduction:

The Rookie2 is one of the few Flysurfer open foiled kite that is intended for land and snow use. It comes in Four sizes - 2,4,6 and 9 meters. The kite can also be flown on handles.

Packaging, Style + Construction:

The kite is one of the first kites to come with the new flysurfer bag which, if you read all my reviews about flysurfer you will find that I don’t like it. The only thing that had changed was the colour and an additional extra pocket. The bag is one of the main things that I dislike about this brand. They are uncomfortable and impractical. The bag has a pocket on each of the sides of the bag and a small key pocket on the front flap. There is a full length zip that expands the bag out to make it easier to get your kite away and a set of net vents that are really too small to do anything ample. There are a few bits of webbing that allow you to attach your snowboard/kiteboard to your back. Your board then slips into a nose pouch to stop it from falling down.  This is fine but the problem comes when you place the bag on your back.

Lugging this bag around is damn uncomfortable. You can feel everything that’s in your bag sticking into your back whilst the straps cut into your shoulders. Not good for those long hikes.

The worst thing is if you store the bag away. The zips on the bag react with the atmosphere and produce a white powder that stops the zip from working. I am so glad they didn’t use the same zip on the kite as well.

The build quality itself is the usual bomb proof design. The kite is open celled instead of the usual closed celled foils that flysurfer produce. Each cell opening has a stiffener that keeps the cell open in light winds. The cells themselves are massive and aid in the kites low wind ability.

The material is light and somewhat different from the usual material that is used. Somewhat waxier but still feels crispy instead of soft. It’s though a coating has been added.

The bar is the usual flysurfer bar used on the Psycho2’s and Spirits/Voodoos for the 6 and 9 meter sizes but the 4 meter has a smaller pulley bar. And when I say small I mean “small”, this thing is dinky and the pulleys on the bar help increase the speed of turn for such as small kite.

The kite is 4 lines and is supplied on 18 meter lines so you have to buy the 5 meter extension if you want to fly on longer lines. I personally don’t like this as for the price you pay for these kites, though the rookie2 is a budget kite and is relatively cheap, you should get at least a full length line set.

Buying the extension is a must. The kite fly’s so much better especially the 4 meter. On 18 meter lines the 4 meter is too quick but extensions slow it down enough to be more fun.

Setup and Flying:

The rookie2’s have the quickest land to air time I have experienced with a kite. It was up in literally seconds. It is so easy due to no pulleys to tangle up the lines. This must be the same with the Extacys models they use the same speed system.

The first kite to go up was the rookie2 4 meter in a gusty field at the back of my parent’s house when I was visiting them to pick up the kite. What a lovely little kite. Conditions were around 15mph and there was enough pull in the kite to landboard. Nice and stable and very quick. The bar pressure was high due to the pully bar but everything else was great. Stability, speed, upwind ability was one of the best kites I have tried. You can really dig in and literally go back to where you started in one go. Jumping ability is ok for a small but the bar really lets it down as the kite is far too responsive which can cause over redirects and unwanted face plants.

Landing the kite was excellent but it did tend to sit on its back end and bounce a lot. Nothing a good stake will hold. The solution is to grab a back leader and pull in a few meters to flag out the kite. The kite will lay there with zero pull. This feature is called PS or Pull Stop by flysurfer but I couldn’t find it listed as a feature for the Rookie2 in its manual.

I did find that the kite had a bit too much back stall. When the wind drop it would backstall into the centre of the window which can be interesting when the wind picks back up and the kite surges forward!

The 4 meter would be a perfect kite if they dropped the pully bar and put it on a normal depower bar.

With this in mind I decided to buy the 9 meter.

What I expected was the same as the 4 meter but benefits of a bigger size.

On receiving the kite it had identical feature in everyway but came supplied with a normal flysurfer depower bar.

The first flights were in the high 20mph mark. Not a good idea but was a good test of its safety. Basically I had no way of keeping on the ground even fully de-powered. I was being very careful so decided to put the kite down and put up something smaller. I pulled the safety and the kite came straight down and sat on it’s TE and wouldn’t stop bouncing. The rest pull in those conditions was massive for this size. The kite was slowly dragging me with each bounce towards the cliff and I weigh in at 85kg! Luckily enough the pull stop feature worked a treat.

The next flight was in a comfortable 15 mph and I totally enjoyed myself. The 9 meter kite was quick and responsive and went up wind well. Again the kite had quite a bit of back stall but no where near as much as the 4. I soon got used to this.

In light winds in around 10 mph the kite can still pull and landboarding is achievable. A few loops of the kite to get a bit of apparent wind then you can just work the kite normally.

All was going well until I took the kite to the Skypark at Monkey Tree in Cornwall. The kite was really let down by its stability in inland conditions. Get the 9 meter on the beach its fine and rarely luffs. Get it inland in gusty conditions and the kite becomes such a handful that I found it became dangerous. Head height lofting coupled with re-inflation in the power zone is not. The 9 meter is so different in stability to the 4 meter that I wonder if the 6 has the same problem. There is a small mod that can be done that will increase stability but the difference is marginal.

Both Rookies don't use pulleys instead they use 2 rings positioned right up against the canopy to control the angle of attack. To the delight of all previous flysurfer owners this results in no bridle tangles no matter how much you scrunch up your kite. Give it a shake and the bridles come loose. I find that the bridles used in the flysurfer range lack stiffness to stop them tangling when you have speed packed the kite (in other words rolled it in a ball and chucked it in the bag to get out the rain). Pack the kite correctly and no problems.

Jumping:

The jumps from the kite are nice and smooth and are sufficient enough for the average user. People wanting more lift should go for one of flysurfer closed foil kites such as the Spirit or Extasy.

Final Summary:

For the 9 meter I rate it highly on its ease and simplicity of setup and flying but the safety and stability are it’s main down fall. I would say inland the 9 meter is too dangerous to be flown when the conditions change. One session I had constant luffing and lofting that resulted in me pulling the safety whilst I was in the air before I smashed into the ever nearing wall of the Skypark boundary. The pull on the safety is far too much in anything above 15mph. All in all I enjoyed my experience with the Rookie2 9 meter but more lift, stability and less rest pull would make this an awesome piece of kit. I later swapped the kite for an older model, a Spirit 10 meter and the stability was far better along with much more depower. Only thing that the Rookie had over the Spirit was more low end and quicker turning speed which made jumping a little more easier but not to the same height as the Spirit.

The 4 meter is such a different kite. I have flown this little thing in over 30 mph conditions and it defiantly is a high wind weapon. But due to it being so quick it can become a handful in a blink of an eye.

How can flysurfer make a small kite that is so good but make the same kite bigger that it becomes dangerous when the conditions become testing? It’s such a shame.

For the 9 meter… if you fly on a beach with nice constant winds then yes. Inland, then a big no no. How flysurfer can sell this as a snow kite with those mountainous gusty conditions I don’t know.

The 4 meter on the other hand ….. Very pleased.

Reviewer:

DaZZa-S