Wind was blowing from 17 up to 25mph+ for today Kahoona 9.5 testing session. The 9.5m Kahoona felt really nice in this high wind as normally I would be riding the 7m HP Nemesis in this condition. In the beginning of the session, I was doing wakestyle unhooked tricks and big airs board off tricks. Unhooked wakestyle tricks on the Kahoona 9.5m is nice, fun, predictable and stable just like on the C style kite. Bar pressure is medium (heavier when comparing to bar pressure on the HP Nemesis 10m kite and lighter when comparing to bar pressure Cabrinha Switchblade 10m - about the same bar pressure on the F-One Bandit and North Evo kite). Kitelooping on the Kahoona 9.5m is a little bit slower when comparing to HP Nemesis 10m.
Unhooked wave riding is super easy and the Kahoona does not backstalling. BigAirs and board off tricks are easily to perform with the Kahoona 9.5 as it has great pop and hangtime. Hangtime on the Kahoona is a lot different than Hangtime on the HP Nemesis: on the Kahoona you just go straight up - on the HP Nemesis you go up and also glide!
I dumped the kite in the waves a few times to test the Kahoona relaunch ability as well as the redline safety system. The Kahoona automatically wants to relaunch itself everytime I crashed. This is so far one of the best self relaunching kite. A few times, the Kahoona rolled 3 or 4 times then it just sat on the side windows waiting for me to relaunch.
Overall impression for today: I think the Kahoona 9.5m performs exceptionally well in wind 15mph to 25mph. It does not fluff or shows any sign of canopy flapping in comparison to the Kahoona 11.5m in the 25mph wind. In gusty wind, the kite surged forward with more pulls than the HP Nemesis 10m. The Kahoona 9.5 is ridiculously stable and easy to relaunch, together with NO BACKSTALLING and a nice medium bar pressure making the Kahoona a great first kite for new beginner kiters as well as hardcore wave riders or wakestyle riders.
My only wish is that the Kahoona 10M will be available in the near future because the 10M will be better in low end as well as high end wind and a little lesser bar pressure. Probably the best would be a configuration on the kite to ride with medium or light bar pressure.
