Just a hello and a first post with my initial thoughts on my first few weeks of riding Ocean Rodeo. I am a kitesurfer of many years starting in 2001 in the era of the brave and foolish, I have tried many kites of many different styles and manufacture and since being an instructor for 7 years I have used 4 different makes of kite for teaching. I pretty much know by now what I want from a kite to teach on and for my personal riding which for the last 2 years has been speed riding. I hope to gain some thoughts and experiences from other forum users and hopefully have some interesting and whitty conversations.

Below are some thoughts from my last 3 sessions all on the same 9.5m Prodigy I have on demo at present, having just the one kite means it is tested to the max in all winds in all conditions.

Good day to test both the Ocean Rodeo Prodigy 9.5m bottom end and the light wind speed board from Mike Pacey. Forecast was for 20knots gusting 26 but the actual wind was just enough at 13 knots gusting 18. I was worried with the Prodigy size of 9.5m and if it would even get me going, the Sunday before I had this kite out in 30 gusting 40. Two lads were out on 11m Hadlows just keeping ground but the wind was due to pick up within an hour. The Prodigy is on demo courtesy of Richard the UK importer and I only picked up the board last week. There’s been a lot of speculation on just how much faster than the wind you can go with a kite and board, of course a lot of it is down to the kit and today the combination of kit worked. So peak speed today was just over 36 knots, that’s with a wind history during the session of 13 gusting 18 proving that you can with the right kit and a good angle to the wind DOUBLE the wind speed. So a fantastic light wind board designed by Mike Pacey “I have a tweak to make to the foot positions and it will be more efficient” and an astounding wind range from Ocean Rodeo, I am just over 11 stone and used the 9.5m from 13 knots to gusting 40 knots during my last 2 sessions.
19th Dec
Roa Island Channelside, speed session in 15 knot average wind with dips to 10 knots and gusts of 20 knots. Underpowered at times on the 9.5m Ocean Rodeo Prodigy but still a very efficient kite giving a peak speed of 31.6 knots. The Prodigy presented no issues again with the gusts.
Hopefully soon if all goes to plan I will be doing a back to back test with a Prodigy, Rise and Razor all of same or similar size to see what they can produce during a speed session, I really look forward to giving my thoughts on the 3 kites.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ta5rn4NlQ8&list=UUoNTV6Q4LNG_2-NP3HHfwxA&index=1[/youtube]

Good to have you here Gary and stoked you like the prodigy.
great post.
We all like going fast on occasions but personally my spherical objects are not up to what you do.
I am sure all the crew will be interested in “your need for speed” and I will get you some more kites to play with.

You are using a Core Sensor Bar? That makes sense. I have one myself. Great above the bar cleated depower system.

Welcome to the Crew.

Kirk

The Board looks FAST,...are you making them yourself?

Kirk, I am using the sensor bar as an interim until I get some OR bars, it is a good bar system but I always try to use matching equipment where I can.
Richard, the boards are custom built by an ex pro windsurfer from the UK called Mike Pacey, he also competed in speed windsurfing and in the early speed kite events in Sotovento. He used to build and repair speed windsurf boards and now builds boards for Dave Williams the British speed champ and for me, I have 5 boards of his in total, a pair of Xcellerator copies, a pair of his own design in carbon with the half moon shaped tails “very fast accelleration” and just 2 weeks ago I picked up a Lightwind prototype that I tested for him at Weymouth speed week last year, this is more like a traditional speed needle in the windsufing world, it is also the only one he has built and has Tuttle and mini Tuttle box type fin boxes with a tri fin configuration allowing for plenty of experimenting with fin sizes and 1, 2 or 3 fins. Mike has been a wealth of help with equipment and advice and luckily he sponsors me so the boards come at cost to make to me. Having the light wind board means I can train for speed whatever the wind is doing. I’m so committed to qualifying for the worlds again I don’t own a twin tip so every time I’m on the water it’s on a speed board. All I need is a good winter of wind now to get some GPS tracks for next years world speed event, I was only 4.5 knots slower than the man himself Rob Douglas in France this year although that put me 23 places behind him