Switch Method (2011)

IN HET ENGELS OMDAT HET VOOR HET SWITCH FORUM IS GESCHREVEN.

First Impression Switch Method 9m

Background: my second season kiting. I have owned Ozone and Cabrinha and flown a few other kites as tests. I have decided to focus on strapless riding, as I just like the freedom this offers. Playing with my balance and carving are more my thing than powered jumps. The ocean is a playground. I exclusively ride the North Sea. Currents of 4m/s, whitewater, tides, etc. I don’t know what flat water is, the best we get is “chop”. Fairly large chop.

I ordered the kite on Wednesday evening, and is was delivered on Friday. Stoke!

Kite and bar out of the bag: the bag is exactly like my Cabrinha 2010 bags. Simple black nylon. Works fine. The bottom of the bag has some netting sewn into it, so the bag dumps water and sand. Nice touch. I would prefer full length zippers. Nice pocket in front with a repair kit. Velcro and compression straps for pump and bar I presume. I would prefer no zippers, I think Ozone has the bag thing down the best of all kite manufacturers, as is evidenced by Ozone reviews on the 'net.

I immediately removed the 3m line extensions, I figured flying a wave kite on 20m lines was worth a shot. Seriously, how much low end could you lose by ditching 3m of lines? 

The bar looks fine. It’s not as perfect as the Ozone bar, but it has some nice touches. I especially like the double swivel. There’s a swivel at the chicken loop, but also a swivel where the front lines come together. The trim cleat looks very nice, and as an added bonus, you can adjust where the cleat is by threading the line up or down to bring the cleat closer of further away. Switch has put a video on their website for this. You can adjust how loose you want the swivel at the chicken loop, too, also explained by a video on the Switch website. My only gripe: you can’t really use the line bungees when the lines are attached to the “wide” bar setting. The lines and the floats sort of get in the way. It’s a minor gripe, I use a half hitch and the bar goes in it’s own little bag anyway. Nice touch by the way, the bar bag. 
On the whole, excellent value for money for sure.

I unrolled the kite and pumped it up in the living room. Single inflate/deflate seems to be the exact same as the Ozone 2011 and Cabrinha one. Switch did not do what Ozone has done and add a little neoprene “hat” to the top to cover the valve. Instead a patch is sewn to the kite just like Cabrinha have done. Both the hat and the patch are to protect the canopy from the valve when the kite is rolled up. 

The one-pump lines that run to the struts are tucked nicely away, they seem fine. They seem to be “deeper in the pocket” than both Ozone and Cabrinha. I much prefer the “outside” type of one-pump with a clip, as it is more readily accessible should something go wrong, unlike Naish Octopus where you also have to release the air from each strut individually when deflating. I can’t fault any of the workmanship on the kite.

UPDATE:
So, I took the Method 9 out for the first time yesterday. I had decided to go for broke and also try a skimboard for the first time. Wind cross onshore, not so much gusty as just more of a lull and a surge every once in a while. I would guess the wind was somewhat around 18-20 knots, maybe a bit more. I weigh 75kg. A buddy was on a 2011 Naish Park 10m and a surfboard, he weighs 85kg.

Attaching the lines was a bit tough as the pigtails are still VERY stiff. I am not sure what I think of the fact that the back/steering lines pigtails only have one knot. It looks odd to have a single line with a knot, but also because I think this is the opposite of most brands, where the rear lines pigtails on the kite are the “loop” and the steering lines are the “knot”. But at least there is no guessing which knot to attach to. There are 4 knots where the back lines attach to the bar ends, by the way. I would guess that this is more of a trim thing, such as Ozone had for the 2011 bar. When you tune the bar, you can either stretch the lines or just move the rear lines up or down a knot on the bar ends underneath the floats.

Launch the kite, steer it around a few times (as you do) and immediately noticed more canopy flutter than any of my other kites when steering it hard through the window. But, I also noticed more bar pressure, and I immediately guessed that I need to get used to the bar pressure and “pressure” the kite correctly when steering it through the window. On my Catalysts, I would also get canopy flutter when steering it hard in high winds. In my experience, almost any kite will get canopy flutter, it really is a matter of having the right amount of pressure on the bar. It’s like when launching a kite: the canopy stops fluttering when the kite is at the right angle to the wind. I remember watching some excellent kiters pulling loops fairly close onshore, and you could hear the kites flutter during a poorly executed loop because the kiters were not being consistent with their bar pressure during the loop.

Time to hit the water. Throw in the skim, power up the kite, and away. I rode for close to three hours, mostly smiling. My findings:

I had read about the so called high bar pressure. Sorry, but I just ain’t feelin’ it. There is more bar pressure than a Catalyst, and maybe slightly more than my Cabrinha’s, but it is not a problem or something to worry about. I love that I can feel what the kite is doing, and the “higher” bar pressure helps deal with gusts in my opinion. When a gust hits, you feel it through the bar and can immediately release through the bar and keep overall “pull” from the kite constant. In lighter bar pressure kites, gusts would barely be felt and the increased pull from the kite would just throw me off balance. This may be just my inexperience that I like higher bar pressure, I think bar pressure is something very personal anyways.

I am fairly new to kiting and I don’t understand why kite design went (from what I hear) from high bar pressure to no bar pressure. Others have said “it is just right”. I agree, it just works.

Stability:
When the Method is at the Zenith/12 o’clock, it is super stable. Period. When in the corners of the window and you are not riding, it does need constant input. You can’t put it at 10 o’clock and just leave it there like I could with the Ozones. When riding, you can park&ride the Method fine. I would guess this has something to do with apparent wind or air flow across the canopy, I don’t know, I am no kite designer. But when compared to other kites I have owned, I do need to be a bit more alert when getting in and out of the water.

Upwind:
The upwind ability is as good or better than other kites I have flown and tested. I doubt that my upwind ability today was due to riding a skimboard for the first time or that my skills took a quantum leap forward in one day. I was racing a friend upwind on a quad surfboard, while I was on a skim. So the upwind performance is good, as advertised.

I crashed the Method a few times, and it relaunches easily indeed.

All in all, I am very happy with this kite. I want to order a Method 7m, but they are out of stock. Sure, there are tiny details I would like changed, but these are more personal preferences than faults that the kite has. If Switch would get in touch with me, I would happily give them my thoughts. ;-)