Manufacturer:

Flysurfer

Model:

Voodoo/Spirit

Sizes:

10M Reviewed - 4,7,10,14M Available

Type Of Kite:

Closed cell bridled depower foil (water re-launchable)

Introduction:

The Spirit is a freeride kite, which can be changed to a freestyler, wakestyler, waverider and even to a beginner kite, because of his many trim options. I bought this kite in place of my Rookie which was far too unstable for me and I needed a kite that wasn’t going to luff every 5 seconds inland and to sit nicely under my 13 meter Psycho 2. (The Voodoo and Spirit are almost the identical in characteristics, the only difference is that the spirit has a different paint job and is built with a heavier fabric.

Packaging, Style + Construction:

The spirit comes with the usual flysurfer bag which I don’t rate too highly because it’s really uncomfortable to wear for any length of time due to the lack of back padding. It comes with 2 side pockets which are way too small to be any use really. Just big enough to get a small bottle of water in one side and your mobile phone and keys along with a spare pair of socks in the other. The main compartment has a zipper the full length of the bag which allows you to get the kite back in very easily. The Bag is big enough for 2 kites. I would say you would be able to get a 7 and 14 in the same bag with careful packing. The zips of the bag corrode over time and can stick and seize. I’m glade they didn’t use the same zips for the deflation pockets on the kite itself.

Setup and Flying:

The kite is setup on 3 lines, 2 back lines and one main line. This setup is far better than the newer 4 and 5 line flysurfers as tangles are reduced and laying out 3 lines is so much quicker than 4 or 5.

The kite is flysurfers usual bomb proof quality. The first thing you notice is how wide the kite is. It reminds me of the frenzys but with more of a curved front. I also noticed how wide the air intakes are and how easy it was to inflate the canopy ready for launch.

After pre-inflation that was quick and simple it was time to hook into the bar. The bar hasn’t really changed throughout the flysurfer range. It has the usual rotary leash and chicken loop. The chicken loop is ok for the normal wind range of the kite but trying to fly the kite in low winds will cause the chicken loop to sometimes pop off. This can be extremely annoying.

Flying the kite puts a smile on everyone’s face. It has massive of depower and grunt. The low end is quite poor. It won’t get off the ground until the wind gets around 12mph but once it starts to fly it starts to pull. The turning is smooth and the power stays on throughout the turns. The speed of the turn is nice… just right.. not too fast and not too slow. The characteristics of the kite seem quite chilled out.

I was amazed at the high end of this kite. I weigh in at 85kg and flew the kite in a constant 30mph and felt like I could take even more.

Getting upwind couldn’t be easier like all flysurfer kites.

The next thing I found absolutely amazed me. I took the kite out on quite a bad wind day. Very turbulent and gusty along with a mate who had a Peter lynn Gurellia 2. What I can remember is that my mate who was flying the arc had his luff and fall out the sky a number of times. The spirit was rock solid and just seemed to lap up the conditions.

Jumping:

The kite jumps well when the wind gets into it’s top range (which is above 20mph) but I found it hard to really achieve any height below that range with the kite no matter what WAC setting it was on. I was talking about this to another Spirit owner of the 7 and the 10 meter sizes and found that the 7 was a total different beast. Quicker, more stable and lifter. The 14 on the other hand was not liked as much as the other sizes due to its sluggishness characteristics. This stands the same for the pulses. 7 meter is the best of the lot closely followed by the 10. The 13 is more for heavier riders around the 90kg mark. I found the float from the kite was massive and resulted in soft landings all the time.

Final Summary:

A top kite for the turbulent stuff. Depowers great and handles well with jumps getting good in the higher range. Then I found out something. I checked the speed system and found that the rigging of one of the pulleys was wrong and one of the bridle lines connecting to this pulley was on the way out due to it being over stretched. On replacement and re-rigging I found that the kite had a bit more to offer but didn’t have time to fully test before I sold the kite for a newer flysurfer model. My view is if the kite flew like this when it wasn’t rigged incorrectly with stretched bridles just think what it would fly like when everything is correct!

Landing the kite was easy and there was a small amount of pull at leash. To kill all the pull you just grab one of the back lines and reel in around 2 meters to flag out the kite like a peter lynn arc.

I think this kite would really suit a snow kiter and was backed up when a pro had a blast. Get some speed up on the kite and it really starts to come into it’s own.

Reviewer:

daZZa-S