12M Answer vs. 12M Waroo

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12M Answer vs. 12M Waroo

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bugaboo
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Joined: 03 May 2006
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Location: New York City

PostPosted Wed May 03, 2006 2:47 am Post subject Reply with quoteFind all posts by %s
I had an opportunity to compare my newly purchased Caution Answer 12M against the Best Waroo 12M in the best and worst conditions - Aruba's Fisherman Huts... Probably the gustiest place I can imagine riding. On a tyipcal day, gusts range from 10 - 35 mph. The perfect testing ground with which to test the Answer against the Waroo. I'm just over 200 lbs and was riding a 135cm board with both kites.

You've seen the other reviews comparing the Answer vs. the Ion, Sonic, etc. Here are my observations from flying both the Answer and the Waroo side-by-side for more than an hour each.

Bar pressure -- definitely lighter pressure on the Waroo. I am prone to getting tendonitis and the Waroo had very light bar pressure. Very easy to hold the bar in the power zone with one hand at the center of the bar without arm and hand fatigue. The pressure is almost as light as the Sonic. Certainly lighter than the pully enabled flat kites on the market -- Crossbow, Switchblade, Shockwave, etc. The Answer has bar pressure similar to a C kite but, if riding with the stopper balls completely spread, requires the user to pull the bar 60% in to power up. This can be remedied by adjusting the stopper balls or moving the lines to closer knots on the back lines.

Depowerability -- goes to the Waroo. Both kites dump wind well but in extremely strong gusts where I felt more comfortable having more depower, the Waroo was a better choice. However, the kites dump power differently. The Waroo backwinds slightly and the fabric just beyond the leading edge flutters violently whilst still generating enough pull to keep me on plane. The Answer holds it's shape better but in hard gusts doesn't depower like the Waroo. I was still forced to edge slightly harder to avoid getting pulled off my edge but not like a C kite that has very limited depowerability.

Neutral position flying -- one thing I observed that hasn't been mentioned in previous reviews is how the kites fly in very gusty conditions when directly overhead and the user standing still. My experience with C kites in conditions that fluctuate from 5 or 10 mph to 25-30 mph fluctuations are that, when a gust suddenly stops and the wind speed reaches almost 0, many times C kites will belly up, the lines will slack and kite will fall towards the water upside down where just before it reaches the water line it will power up and if not flown back to neutral, will slame into the water. The Answer, although much less so than a C kite, is still more prone to this behavior than the Waroo if the user is not paying attention and continuing to fly the kite around between 10 and 2 in the wind window. The Waroo, however, did not have this behavior. Instead it would sit back in the wind window until wind speed came back up.

Becuase of this, in my opinion, the Waroo is a much better kite to teach on or for newer kiters because it holds its shape and falls back, away from the user, in the wind window rather than hindenberging out of the sky.

One side bar, I also observed a Crossbow and Waroo flown side by side by separate people and there was one instance in which the Crossbow behaved as if someone swung a bat and batted the kite down, out of the sky. The wind created negative lift and brought the kite slamming down but still right-side-up. While at the same time, the Waroo again sat back in the wind window, the fabric just beyond the leading edge fluttered violently but it maintained it's position in the sky and did not require a relaunch.

Besides the occasional hindenberg in very gusty conditions, I felt the Answer is a better made kite, depowers enough to give you a feeling of complete confidence in even the gustiest conditions and holds it shape/profile better than the Waroo.

I found no problem relaunching either kites. Both rolled over and relaunched with a little swimming towards the kite.

Inverting -- both kites will invert if rolled over by surf. I didn't have a problem with inverting on either kites on the flat water. However, both kites relaunch and fly just as well with lines inverted. It's annoying to look at but the useability of the kites is still good enough to get you back to shore and upwind where you can then fix the issue.

In summary, I would choose the Waroo for beginners that want a more predictable kite in gusty conditions and the Answer for more advanced riders that are looking for characterstics of a C kite with added depowerability and safety features.

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