In which I swear a lot

... at the kite, the wind, the boards, and myself.

God, what frustration. The first half hour was fun on the Origin, but then the wind dropped off. Tried to ride the Dialer but it wasn't working... it got more gusty and annoying from then on, hence the mounting frustration and increasing amount of language.

Wind was up and down, really bad on and off. Got to the point of wanting to break things... I wonder how much of it can be blamed on the kite?

Thoughts on the 2014 Switchblade 12...

• New inflate valve is great - easy to use and good flow; even better than the 2011 Sprint. "New" material on the kite is light and brightly coloured - I like that too.
• New bar... hate the mini-5th. Like the below the bar swivel. Like the trim strap knobs. Don't see the point in the adjustable bar ends; and the added mass, when spinning the bar after rotations, means the bar spins a bit further than necessary. Don't like the blue/grey for the LHS either.
• Stable, smooth, and predictable in the air. Turns around the center of the wingtip. Makes a little power in the loops, but isn't brutal. Low-end seems to drop right off suddenly though and becomes useless and backstally... might be the crap wind, but it felt like my 10m XB. Actually, with the close V and the near-the-tip center lines, it felt a lot like an XB; differences being the SB is smoother and more consistent through a loop (but not much), XB makes more power on the strokes and lifts at the apex better, but is stally going around turns. Meh, I know what I mean.
• Range... seemed a bit narrow and abrupt, especially at the bottom. Could work it on the Dialer but felt like I had something wrapped around my fins, just wouldn't get going.
• I think if you chose the sizes carefully, you'd be happy going from an XB to the new SB... wish I'd had a 14 today though.

Got to the point of wanting to tomahawk the kite into the ground and decided to call it a day.

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Weather was reported as 14 to 19 knots, gusts to 25; 23˚C at 55%.
Wind felt like ok-powered to fucking useless. Damned gusty nowhere 20 knots on average...

What I learned today...

• Won't be trading my XBs in any time soon.
• But have an option for the future... maybe.