2008 F-One Bandit review

by Vali Puscasu• Jun 13th, 2008 •

This weekend, John O’leary, let me and Toma test his kites F-One Bandit. I heard many things about the kite and its shape and I was very curious about it. Enough to motivate me to drive for 2.5 hours to Dewey.

First: the kites look sick. I really liked the actual colors and graphics. They are also nicely build.

It has an interesting shape not c, not flat – delta

The wind was very lite at the beginning and the only person who was cruising around was Warren on his big directional and the TD 14. I didn’t think that I will be able to kite since the Bandit was a 13 and I had just the Super Phatty, but John said: Just go out. You will be surprised.

And I was. The kite uses the apparent wind like no other kite I ever tried and I was able to stay upwind on my twin tip and jump a little bit. I just had fun cruising between fallen kites with the leading edge in the water. Was fun to just be out there.
Soon the wind picked up and I started to have fun. The first real jump on this kite was scary. Very nice lift and you had that elevator feeling that I like so much when you go up fast. The kite is stable during the jump and the hangtime is looooong.

Toma took the 13 also for demo and John told me to get his 9. I thought that I will not be able to kite since everyone was out on big kites but I was able again to go upwind. The kite was very fast and I was able to build enough speed to keep going.

Also the bar itself is extremely simple with only 3 lines coming out of the bar. The steering lines both have adjusters as in the past that are just grab and pull to the desired setting. There are individual knots along the “5thline” to bring the kite forward or back for more or less power. The only thing that I didn’t like was the depower strap was a little bit hard to pull since was far out for my hands to grab.

I went back to the 13 and I had a blast. I am intermediate kiter and I am not in wakestyle. Of course, because I cannot land any of the wakestyle tricks .
Anyway I like to jump. And this kite can make look like you know how to jump. Toma and I used it the entire Saturday and at the end of the session we both had huge smiles on our faces. Good high end also. I think at one point was gusting 28 and still the kite was stable and we could control it.

If you go to Dewey and John is around, take a look at the kite. And see if you can test it. It will be fun!

Looking forward to try the 11 m.