Primadonna2 First Impressions

I was up at stupid o'clock this morning to catch the low-tide for a landboard session. I did toy with the idea of the hitting the water, but the frost on the car soon saw to that idea.
Arrived with it blowing about 18mph, cross-on, so the 13m was the first out of the bag.
Nice to see the new V-shaped nose line pre-fitted with the knots in the right places and conveniently tagged for high/low wind options. Setting up the old nose-lines just right was a bit of a faff.
Rigged the kite in low wind mode, with the new CBS Evo bar. Not much new here from the old 3+1 except the higher 'V' in the front lines. One nice touch is the small loops spliced into the centre line for the 5th to pass through. The higher V is supposed to help stabilise the new swept-tip designs, and once in the air you can see how - it's almost semi-sle like the way the LE is held by the two V's of the 5th and front lines.
First thing I noticed about the new kite is that it's not so easy to self-launch. Being one of the first on the beach, i was short of helpers and the combination of a swept-tip with a nearby spar, meant folding over quite a bit of kite and deploying a considerable amount of sand before she would sit still.
Once in the air, the first thing anyone from the old kites would notice is the depower. There's bags of it, yet the power delivery as you pull the bar in is very linear indeed. I'd tried a few of the early bow designs and disliked the on/off delivery, so this was very welcome.
Turning speed is not as aggressive as I'd been led to believe. There's been a lot of emphasis on the PD2 being tuned for faster turning, and I was expecting it to be a bit manic if anything. It is quicker than the old kite for sure when you crank it, but moves around very smoothly on small inputs. I found it to be a good balance, and with the light, but informative bar pressure, it was easy to tell what the kite was up to without having to keep a watchful eye on it.
Looping the kite gives a C kite type surge of forward momentum and it pulls cleanly through the loop. This kite doesn't pivot-turn like some of the bows. I personally like this, having flown C kites almost exclusively.

Boosting is easy, and big. The upward pull is less dramatic than the PD1 - more akin to say a flysurfer psycho3 or speed2, but you go higher and the float is very controllable. It took a few jumps to get dialled in, but being able to feather the power so finely proved very useful, especially in rotations where any under/over rotation could be adjusted for by being altering your hangtime at the bar. This a confidence building kite - the wind picked up to 25mph+ and I was quite happy going huge and enjoying the view!

After a while, I came in and swapped over to the 9. My 9 is earlier kite, and has already been used for magazine tests, including the recent KiteWorld review. A couple of small differences, namely the lack of a pump leash point (however, there is an additional 5th line attachment here, which works just as well), no size printed on the wingtips and no tags on the pigtails/5th line.
This was of little concern as I already knew which knots did what from the 13 and this simply reinforced the fact that the tags are a top feature, especially for beginners.

**(see footnote) My time on the 9 was short as the tide raced in and covered the beach. Much the same as the 13, except naturally smaller and faster. I did, however struggle to get big jumps fully dialled on this kite. The 9 is a very fast flying kite, it really does zip through the window, and this made redirection timing a little difficult. Moving my hand closer in on the bar helped a little (although the 9 has the same quick but progressive turning of it larger cousin) but I think I need to redirect later as the kite tended to zip forward in the window during the last few feet of landing and I'd end up coming in pretty hot.
I think the 9 will feel a bit more natural on the water and some more time at the bar will get my timing sorted.

Both kites are super-smooth, and extremely stable. You can ride straight at these kites and they'll happily follow you downwind. If I had any wave-riding ability, I'm sure these would be fab. Both are also very forgiving of mistakes. You can swing underneath, go into transitions too fast and leave the kite behind and it doesn't seem to upset it all.
Unhooked, is again an improvement on the old model. It felt more natural at all levels of depower trim. Someone more into wakestyle would probably be able to give a more in-depth analysis, but my talent ran out during an unhooked front loop with grab, which ended with both me and the kite hitting the beach! Thankfully the 5th line relaunch on the CBS is just as good as ever.

These kites certainly deliver when you send them, but the silky handling really does boost your confidence level. Some will no doubt argue that the raw edge has been lost, but these kite perform better than the old ones with improved handling and safety - in any other world that would certainly be called progress.

The Primadonna continues to occupy the role of 'a kite for all things'. It has a definite c kite feel, coupled with the improved depower from bows. This kite would be a faithful companion on land, snow and water - freestyle, freeride and waves. I'd also recommend it for beginners - esp. the 13. This is a kite you could happily learn on, yet you'd never need to sell irrespective of how good you got.

I need more time on the 9 for sure, but the 13m is definitely promoted to the position of my favourite kite.

I'll be out again tomorrow for the racekites.com meet. Hopefully I'll get the 10m WildThing2 out for a fly. The wife should be out tomorrow too, so the next report should include some pictures!

** I'm now fairly certain I had the front pigtails on the high wind setting whilst flying the 9m. Would certainly explain it being fast and flat through the window. Maybe those tags aren't just for beginners. Doh!