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Poker (L'Atelier)

DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION
Despite the Poker (and its little brother the Joker) being designed as an entry level kite, it is still finished to the highest standard. The sewing is very clean and the seams are perfectly straight, although they are not rolled. The sail is very deep with 23cm long. stand-offs. The lower spreader is one piece with a rubber 0-ring holding it in place. The standoffs have a relatively lightweight fixing into the sail. The classic 3 point bridle is made from Dyneema. The overall impression is of sound construction and an elegant look.

FLIGHT QUALITY
The Poker is a small, nervous type of kite. In medium to strong wind it is fast and pulls, although it still flies fairly well. Its turns are fast and cleanly cut, without any loss of speed. Round turns are tight and the kite recovers well and is immediately back onto a straight line. Even in a 5mph wind you get the feeling that the kite will start to pull from about 10mph. One particular feature of the Poker is that it will recover itself from almost any position without too many wing-wraps.

FREESTYLE
The Poker is easy to stop and will stay fairly still in a stall; although it has some tendency to tip, this is easy to correct. The standard axe is done well although not perfectly flat. A rolling axe is disconcertingly easy. It was nice to see how the kite forgave our errors and recovered itself. As the kite has a deep sail we had to watch it with some tricks; the coin toss and other groundwork were not its strongest suit. The flat spin and turtle were also laborious. For the rest, it was a cinch... yo-yo, axe take-off, half-axel, cascade. There is little doubt that this is a trick kite.

VERDICT
There is a real feeling that the Poker is the product of designers who really know their business. The depth in the kite gives it an interesting quality and importantly makes it forgiving of pilot error. A very able freestyle kite, it is limited in certain figures but excels in all others. It is a perfect starter kite that is able to trick as well as fly "normally".