Rider: 84 kilos advances
Style: Surf/ foil
Weather: 10 to 35 knots
Build Quality: 10/10
Satisfaction: 10/10
Disclosure: Running the Catalyst in my school
Well, I have had long enough time under my belt to give a review of both the 10 and 8 Reo's.
The good:
Plug and play right out of the bag. Super easy kite to fly, self launch, and self land. Power deliver is smoooooooth and easy, sheeting out half way dumps a good deal of the power to have the kite drift nicely. I have ridden the 10mt in 1 foot to double over head from wind ranges from 14 knots to 25. On a surfboard for me at my current weight 25 knots is about max. From 20 onwards I have used the 8 with both standard lines and a bar with shorter lines. Once it hits the mid 20's I now prefer the shorter lines, though yesterday I was out in 20 to 30 knots with longer lines and it seemed just fine. The kites turn on a dime and pivots quite well. The loop is very smooth and reasonably fast. I am coming off the Griffin TRX which I really loved once the bridles were finally dialed in last year. For me to like the Reo it had to be as good or better. Quality wise the Ozone is better, not by massive degrees, but it is better. The bar is better, I am really liking everything about this bar. Have always been a fan of the low V bar which makes self landing much easier and not having a long depower link to the flagging line is a bonus too. One thing I will say about the TRX, it is a better looping kite without any stall issues, it is quicker which I find useful when on a wave as you can run further down the line and down loop the kite back to keep you from over flying the kite.....if that makes sense., However I found the smaller kite like the 7 TRX too twitchy and perhaps too fast. That said, the Reo does the job nicely, just a tad slower so there is a compromise I am happy to accept.
The one thing that surprised me about this kite was how good it jumps. I read it was okay. I think this kite jumps really well....not mega loop type jumps but still over the 10 meter plus range. Nice and floaty enough, easy to redirect. I am still trying to dial in the 8, got my arse kicked yesterday and suffered quite a saltwater enema from not redirecting early enough and got slammed, wind was 25 to 30 riding a surfboard strapped. The 10 I have dialed in and really enjoy jumping with it. The drift aspect of the kite has been written about plenty. It does that fantastically.
I have also been using this kite on my hydra foil. 8 to 10 knots, no white caps, and can use the 10 meter kite and go upwind at speed. The really fun part is heading straight down wind of the kite and chase it with the foil and have it just sit there with hardly any input. That is something that is really fun to do and the kite will follow along nicely!
The Bad:
Nothing really, except one minor issue people should be aware of. I had heard the the struts were built too thin and were collapsing. Did some investigations and chatted with someone who had experienced that, and others who had never had the problem. The struts are very thin which I understand you should have when making a light kite that drifts well. While learning to foil I had the exact experience that I had heard. I tomahawked the kite hard on a crash straight down wind and the strut flexed and water went over the canopy not allowing it to fill with air for relaunch. In bigger surf there would be no time to fiddle with getting the kite back up and it might result in a swim. However, it took less than a minute to steer and shake the kite to release the water and let it fill with air for relaunch. Having spoken about this with someone else they suggested that I pump the kite up even harder, which I now do. I pump the kite til the middle strut releases it's last kink and it's good to go. It's only maybe another three or four pumps more than I would usually would do, but that seems to do the trick. (saying that though I have not crashed the kite like that again).
All in all I am VERY stoked with this kite, the quality is top notch and I am having a blast flying it. Plenty of good kites on the market these days, but this one ticks all the right boxes for me.
