A site dedicated to EH Ripper kites

Archive for May, 2011

EH Ovando 9m review

ovandoI had a short session on a EH Ovando 9m today. It was one of those days when I normally wouldn’t even bother to pump my 12m c-kite, but since this was a one time opportunity I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to see what this Ovando was capable of. To my surprise it went well to ride with my 139cm board and I soon realized that I there was no need for this huge board, so I switched to my 131cm board. At the same time the wind picked up a little and I had one of my most powerful sessions ever, I even had to pull the depower strap a little bit!

Hard to say how much is was blowing, but I think I started with only 5 m/s and probably around 8 m/s at the end of the session.

Didn’t evaluate the kite when it comes to water relaunch, jumping etc since I was busy handling the power, but I hope to be able to find that out soon.

I´m not the guy that hype kites and I´m usually quite critical to kites in general, if there is nothing special about them, then I don’t see the reason to come up with things such as easy water relaunch, good bar grip, nice colors, one pump system, just to make the kite sound descent. But this time I don’t feel that I´m exaggerating when I say that this is the most powerful 9m kite I ever tried!

I think this 9m Ovando can be compared to any average 11m kite and this 9m Ovando is perfect for me a day with descent wind and my weight is 85kg. So if you consider buying an Ovando I would suggest you to go one or two sizes smaller than you planned to.

Good wind!

/EH kiter