F-ONE Kiteboarding Bandit 9m 2013 Kitesurfing Review

F-ONE Kiteboarding Bandit 9m 2013

Reviews / Kites

F-ONE Kiteboarding 41,428

At A Glance

The new Bandit 6 has been eagerly awaited by many riders around the world, it is one of the most popular kites on the market and the launch always sparks a huge amount of interest. This year there are no major changes to the design from last year, instead a lot of small individual tweaks and improvements have been made to ensure the kite is at it’s best no matter what the conditions are. It is still a 3-strut Delta shape, but more C-Shaped than in previous years and the profile and canopy have been tweaked to increase the wind range and decrease the “flutter” of the trailing edge when the kite is flown around the window. Build quality and attention to detail are very high, this year the kite has been given Kevlar wear patches on the leading edge to resistance to beach launching. There is also plenty of Dacron reinforcement although overall the kite is lighter than last year.

The Bar

The new Monolith Bar is a work of art; machined from a solid piece of aluminium it is CNC cut to shape and then the bar ends are connected to the machined pieces. The aluminium is of a higher grade too, 6061 alloy is charged with magnesium and Silicium to create a highly strong and resistant material. Used in the space program it offers excellent stiffness, resilience and resistance to corrosion. The rest of the bar set up is nice and simple, as usual for the F-One bar systems, the chicken loop is the same, but as Raphael says they have over 50,000 of these loops on the water over the years and when something works well it is often prudent not to change it. The EVA grip is new as well and is very comfortable on the hands whilst being reasonably “sticky” to ensure you hands stay connected when throwing down kite loops.

In The Air

The 9m Bandit 6 looks set to become one of our firm favourites this year, it is such an easy to fly kite. Quite often a kite will take a little getting used to, especially as we are always flying so many different kites. But the Bandit 6 feels like an old friend when you start to fly it around the window. An extension of your arm it behaves exactly as you would expect and should you make a mistake the speed of the kite allows you to correct it very quickly. Unhooked it is very stable and still responsive, boosting huge airs it will put a smile on your face and in the waves it is simply astonishing. The speed with which it manoeuvres when you are on the wave is spectacular. Kiteloops can be as radical as you want to make them, crank the bar for a fast tight one or engage it a little less and get a lot more pull and power from the loop. Once again the speed of the kite can be used to get you out of any trouble. We love the short simple bridle and 4 line set up too, and the simplicity of the bar when you are riding is very welcome. Nothing to get in your way or distract you from the job in hand.

Overall

The best just got better, fantastic in the waves, jumping and for freestyle the Bandit 6 is a real do it all machine without compromise. It could well be our kite of choice for waveriding in 2013.

Videos

This review was in Issue 35 of IKSURFMAG.

For more information visit F-ONE Kiteboarding

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By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!

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