|
Some months ago, on the power kiting mailing list, the question came up about what the best power kite was. I threw in my limited knowledge 2 cents and said something along the lines of... 'I dunno about Jojo, I've never flown one, I tend to really get down with Blades and Quadrafoil Comps'. Shortly after my post, I received an e-mail offering a demo weekend for Jojo/Libre to come to Corpus Christi. I was blown away with the fact that they were going to send an actual rep into the area with toys for us to play with and I jumped on the opportunity. Friday I got a call from Lukas, their Team Pilot and the guy touring the country in a little Dodge van/RV conversion. He was here! and I took the afternoon off from work to greet him properly <g>.
Friday at the beach- Rain was the order for the afternoon. Ugly nasty drizzle. So, in the comfort of Lukes RV, we watched movies, he preached a bunch of lines at me, (boy this guy is overtalking these kites something fierce... next he's gonna tell me they'll feed my cat on the weekends if I leave town!) Finally the rain cleared, the sun came out, and the light winds slowly picked up. Because I had only ever ridden Peter Lynn buggies, I told him I wanted to try the 3.5 RS.
Libre Full Race- Because I had only ever ridden in PL comps and bigfoots I wasn't ready for the extreme comfort I was ambushed by when I let myself slide into the seat of the Libre Full Race Buggy. Comfort not only physical, but mental as well. As I cruised down the beach I felt total ease settle over me. I knew instinctively that I wasn't going to wreck this thing, I wasn't going to get sideways and roll it, I wasn't going to get pulled out of it over the back wheels. It gave me the confidence to try things and attain speeds I hadn't felt comfortable with before. By comparison, the PL buggies (the comp and the Bigfoot) are toys. The Libre buggy is of course more than twice the average price of a PL Comp, but it's hardcore! it's rock solid, mean, stout. You aren't going to be bending frames, replacing forks, wearing out the seat. After 20 seconds in it, I knew, my next buggy was going to be a Libre, hands down.
Jojo Kites- I haven't heard a lot about Jojo (or Yoyo, as Lukas, our Canadian tour guide called them) and I was a bit skeptical at first. How could something better than what we commonly see be out there and not commonly seen? After touring through some European magazines waiting for the rain to stop, I came to the conclusion that it was only in America/England that these things were not taking off. the rest of Europe is dominated by Jojo, a continent with twice as many (or more) buggiers as the AKA has members. At first I wasn't overly impressed with the kites. I wasn't down on them, but I didn't understand what was so much better about them. Seemed like just another foil to me. Then the wind picked up and Lukas and I did a series of races down the beach. Me with my blade 3.3, him with his Jojo 3.5 RS. Now the RS series is not their top of the line series, but still more than a blade could come close to. Down wind abilities between the 2 were about the same, but where the real difference came was in the up-wind racing. We ran the first run with him on the Libre/Jojo, me on the comp/blade. he absolutely blew me away on the up wind. he was a speck on the horizon in our short race down the beach. He waited for me at the other end, gave me a few pointers (he's an awesome rider, I could only wish to be that good.) and we headed back down wind. I held a bit better, but he still left me badly. Then we changed buggies. I hopped on the Libre, and he on the comp. Well, he had to reign in the Jojo, so as not to launch himself head first into the packed sand, but he still blew me away, both up and down wind. Finally, we switched kites. Now I had my hands on the Jojo, and he was looking a bit sheepish with my blade in his paws. He trailed me for a bit on the up wind, giving me some pointers on how to maximize the Jojo, and all of a sudden we fell in synch and away I went. shot like a rocket down the beach leaving ol Luke in my sand spray! YEAH! On the way back it took me a bit to get the hang of the kite for down wind and he got a bit of a lead, but as I sorted it out I fell in nicely behind him and we came back about even.
over the course of the weekend I flew the RM 6, RM5, RM 8, RS3.5 and even their waterfoil 10! (I'm not going to be taking up kite surfing just yet, I swallowed enough salt water to start my own fish tank.) and I came to the conclusion that once you learn these kites, you will not be beaten by another kite, only another flier. They are just incredible. As far as quality? well, these same kites that I flew have traveled the country being flown by everyone and his brother and I think one of them had a very small tear. The rest were practically brand new. Wonderful craftsmanship, incredible performance, competitive pricing, yep, when I do my next major buggy engine purchase (early 2001) I'll be buying Jojo without a doubt. Even if they were more expensive, which they are not.
Thanks Luke, and thanks Jojo for an incredible weekend!
PS. Lukas is a great guy! if you have a chance to meet him you won't be disappointed. He and the rest of the Jojo/Libre team will be at the Galveston Dead Bird Buggy Blast, I'd suggest to everyone who can, MAKE IT! I'll see you there : )
|
