R-Sky Nirvana
Website: www.r-sky.com

The bridle that came with mine is the standard turbo bridle. It has a knotted/larksheaded upper leg, which allows for easy adjustment depending on the wind. Otherwise a very simple bridle. Mine came with only one (out of four) correct APA fitting, the rest were too large and the first time I flew the upper spreader popped out, which is a potential sail-ripper. I emailed R-Sky and some replacements arrived a week later.

Secondly: The way other people fly it
To watch someone talented fly this kite is awesome. The CD that came with early Nirvanas contains some video that is jaw-dropping. Craig threw his around a bit on the common and did some stuff I'd never seen done 'in the flesh' with a kite - roll-ups, yo-yos, lazies, ladders... sure, I'd seen videos before, but having seen a real human being do it I knew that I too could do it, if I just had that kite.

So... I sold my SL7 and a video and bought it. So what do I think of it now I have it?

What do I think of it? First time I actually flew my Nirvana, I wasn't sure. I spent two hours or so, and as I packed it away I thought 'That was £180 worth of kite, and I can't really say I enjoyed it'. I'd also experienced numerous spine-wraps, where the inhaul leg wraps around the tail (easily prevented with a line added from the upper spreader attachment to the the inhaul bridle leg).

It's not the sort of kite I'd get out for a quick 30 minute fly - for me, it takes that long to warm-up with this kite. However once it's clicked, once the gears mesh, the inputs are right and you hit the zone, it's marvelous... a joy to fly. AoxomoxoA, they say, and I always wondered what it was until I spent an afternoon flying the Nirvana.

If I had to have only one kite for the rest of my life, this would be it. Apart from the fact that it looks and feels like it would last that long, I feel that there will always be something hidden in this kite - no matter what I'm able to do now, there's something else I could learn to do with the Nirvana.

It's not the easiest kite to fly and trick. For me that prize will always go to the 'tana for the former and the Gemini for the latter. A day flying the Nirvana means a morning aching the next day - inputs are large and deliberate, no flick-wristed axels here. It's heavy, and hard to keep in the air in winds of 4 or 5 mph. Without weights it axels wonderfully - flat and slow.

The trouble is that without weights it's hard (but nowhere near impossible) to do some of the tricks you're buying the kite for: more than anything this kite is built for pitch tricks. It's still one of the few kites to come fitted with yo-yo stops, and it makes good use of these. Backflips continue round to wrap up with ease and I was able to fly wrapped up and yo-yo out after only a short time. Belly-up positions are stable and easily achieved... the Turtle is as stable as the fade, and lazy susans are easy.

Backspins are a little difficult, but once you click in to those large deliberate movements you start hitting them with regularity. Flic flacs are large, slow and impressive... people (as in public) stop to watch this kite flic-flacking more than any other trick.

Half axels are a piece of cake too, and the Nirvana has helped me pick up the cascade for the first time ever. A trick which I've now carried over to other kites.

In higher winds it begins to make its characteristic raspberry racket... the trailing edge is left untensioned to keep the kite slow, and it works, with the trade off that it farts it's way around the sky.

Of course, the Nirvana isn't just a trick kite. It's also a precision kite, a team kite and a ballet kite, or as R-Sky would have it "une machine 100% polyvalente." It's designed to cut square corners, track straight, and fly slow enough to syncronise with team-mates. I'm no expert on any of these aspects, but even in my relatively inexperienced hands it handles the geometry of the precision figures sweetly, with no excessive oversteer, and no wobbles along the straight lines.

A kite for all men?
No, it's not. As I've said, I find it heavy, hard pulling and difficult to fly in lower winds. It's slow, requires large shoulder-aching inputs and it sounds like a spitfire. In many ways it's an old-school kite - especially when the above is combined with the large tail and straight as a die leading edge.

It's also beautiful to look at, graceful, and once you've clicked, a treat to trick. A must-have for those of you who want something to grow into... something you'll be growing into for the rest of your life.

And so to ratings... I'm generally not one for ratings, partly because kite reviews are impossibly objective, and secondly because I believe some people skip straight to the stats. But if you twisted my arm for a number, a mark out of ten, then I'd have to say that this one goes up to eleven.

Andy Savidge - November 2003

Click here to see the forum discussion about this review.