Canadian force

A nice surprise from the Canadian company Concept'Air - Quebec, have designed a new series of six elliptical four line foils, the Traction EX series and we selected the EX 2.8 m to examine in detail.

The EX kites are sold complete and ready to fly, the lines are set to the right length and are attached to the kite and the handles. The handles are identified by different colours and are of good quality. As soon as the kite is out of the bag, connoisseurs will recognise the hand of Concept'Air.

Bambridge ripstop nylon, double stitched, first rate finishing and reinforcements in all relevant points.The elliptical shape of the EX 2.8 is esthetically pleasing. The bridle appears thin, but it didn't stretch during the test, and we were not gentle. The EX is equipped with a system that allows one to instantly change the incidence of the wing and so modulate the traction and the speed (they call it SVV). From the first touch, one feels the EX is fast and manoeuvrable but not uncontrolable.

It will get you moving when most other 3 metre kites are still on the ground. In the buggy, jibbing is positive and precise, the EX's breaking ability is very good it keeps its shape, reacts quickly and positions itself well. It turns even tighter when one pulls back with the whole handle as if flying a two liner. In light winds, the best perfornance was on lines of 100-115 ft. In medium winds 65 ft. was sufficient. When the wind gets above 4 Beaufort, shorten the lines to 30-50 ft. Above 5 Beaufort (18 - 24 mph) in the buggy the pull becomes very strong. With the EX there is no risk of the sail closing up or collapsing, and if you manage to make the kite fall inwards on itself, all you have to do is pull back on the lines and the kite pops back into place. The SVV system allows one to modify the incidence of the wing by moving two larks head knots. The sail becomes more powerful in the centre but less stable and has a reduced window.

Unfortunately we don't often think of these remote kite makers, who build products of great quality and who don't hesitate to spend many hours testing on the immense glaciers near Lake.St. Jean