I got this kite after selling my Frenzy 7.3m. It wasn’t that the Frenzy is not a great kite because it is but that taking on the water or near water presents a few problems, namely that it sinks. After owning several standard Arcs I considered maybe looking at the G-Arc range which are also very good kites to get back to using kites on the water but the one problem I have always found with Arcs is that in the Air they may be very graceful, on the ground in stronger wind they are a real handful and on land a liability. The Flysurfer seemed to be the best compromise and the Voodoo certainly looked to be the best all-round well mannered kite. Considering I needed to use the kite on land as much as the water I went for the 7m which has an enormous wind range.

This kite has now become my main kite working well in winds from 12– 20 mph. It is brilliant in that it can be set-up to do most things, buggy or board, by the way the WAC and trim is set. In the buggy it is set to induce stall turns so I can keep the kite low and get the power back on quick. Due to the kite being sealed with non return valves in the LE the canopy is very stable and copes well with these type of turns just tucking a wing tip if it complains. The de-power allows you to work your way up wind very well, to sum up, it is a very relaxing and easy to fly buggy kite. On a board this kite is great, although it does require a fair bit of wind to get any real air time. 12 mph is when this kite starts providing enough to get me going with some small jumps but more wind means higher jumps. I was asked, just after I got the kite why I needed a water relaunchable kite when I had used the Frenzy on the water without any problems. By having non return valves in the LE the pressure of the canopy stays high. This is an advantage on water because it stops the water entering the kite if it is crashed but on land it also has massive advantages. The constant pressure in the canopy keeps it stable so in gusty or turbulent air the kite may be moved around a lot but tends to keep the canopy shape so is very easy to recover if it does fall from the sky. In the buggy, if a turn was miscalculated the Frenzy would simply loose canopy pressure and end up a heap on the ground. The Voodoo responds to a similar situation by hanging mid air as the canopy starts to drift to the ground but fully inflated. This gives to moments of extra time to correct the problem and re-power the kite, something that can not be done with an open cell. I have found myself using this stall, hang and re-power characteristic to great advantage when buggying, especially when killing speed after high speed runs but still having the ability to re-power back up again quickly. All Flysurfers are made to the highest quality and both canopy material and control system are outstanding. When you are getting the air this kite can provide it is reassuring to know that all the equipment is to quality.

Is this kite better than a 7.3m Frenzy? I think so. The Frenzy was limited to being a very good boarding kite, which is not a bad thing but even though it could turn it hand to buggying it was not great. The Voodoo is equal to and surpasses the Frenzy in all-round competence.

What about on the water? I have only taken the kite out a few times and every one has been great fun. The kite is just so easy to set up, fly and land say compared to either an Arc or LEI.

The Voodoo would not be to everyone’s taste. It is not a high AR top performance kite, it is not a dedicate buggy kite, it is not a massive jumping machine, but what it does is offer all these things in a compromised but very competent package.

I would not advise anyone to just go out and buy one of these kites, you must fly one first to make sure it is for you. I go the chance to fly a FS Psycho recently and the power this kite generates for jumping is enormous compared to the Voodoo. Pulling the bar in on a powered run simply take you skyward. On the Voodoo you have to work the speed into the kite to get the same pop. The Mastair 12m I own was purchased after flying the psycho and has the same characteristics for insane jumping plus the advantage over the psycho of very low wind performance. Even though the Mastair is 12m compared to the Voodoo at 7m it is much more aggressive. The 14m Voodoo I flew before I got the 7m had the same mannerisms of the 7m, much calmer and more controllable and so stable.

When buggying I will use the U-Turn Oxigen Pro 7.8m as my low wind kite even though the Mastair will pull much harder in the same low wind. The Oxigen is a dedicate buggy kite and as such is very predicable. The Mastair by comparison is powerful on down wind runs but that lift is so powerful when the kite is passed through the zenith.

When the wind is between 10—20 mph I will find myself flying the Voodoo 7m, buggy or board. If I want high speed in the buggy or massive jumps on the board I will reach for a different kite.

Flysurfer Spirit 4m

A while back I decided to sell most of my kites not because there was anything wrong with them but because I had decided to get kites that I could use for specific purposes, i.e, buggying and boarding. I got on very well with both my 7.3m and 5m Frenzy’s but always found that the wind was either to strong or to week to buggy or that the 7.3m would not turn fast enough or the wind was to strong to board with the 5m, there always seemed to be something. My high wind kites at the time consisted of a 2m Blade2 and a 2m Buster. Both were great fun but again had problems. The Blade was just awesome but seriously violent with it. You could jump so high with this kite in strong wind but it would put you down as hard and most of my time buggying with it was spend worrying about keeping it low. The Buster was very good as a buggy kite but also lacked any real performance, you could move, but that was about it and as for boarding, well forget it. Both went and were replaced with Flysurfer 4m Spirit. After flying the Voodoo 7m and absolutely loving this kite the Spirit seemed like a good choice, all the benefits of the Voodoo but in a smaller package. My 5m Frenzy had always been my choice of kites when the wind picked up and I wanted to get on the board however it was hard to precisely control when in the buggy.

When I got the 4m Spirit I was really excited and rushed out to fly it, even though the wind was only about 7 or 8 mph. It really looks the part, typical Flysurfer quality and look. The first thing you notice is how tiny the bar is, I have handles that are bigger, but as I was to find out , in the buggy this is a real bonus. Once the kite was set-up I pulled the kite up into the sky and , nothing. Were was the pull, the power. There really was nothing at all, even fully powered up, if you could call it that, the kite just buzzed around through the wind window. I landed the kite and put it away slightly disappointed and wondering if I should have sold my 5m Frenzy, which in the same wind would have pulled well. After convincing myself that more wind was needed I waited for another day. When it came I was back out, 15 mph with gusts to about 25 mph. Now would be the time to see this kite in all its glory.

As the kite pulled up to the zenith I was more impressed. It had great speed and I even felt some of that FS power. I moved over to the buggy and sat down, dropped the kite from the zenith and rolled about 3 mph down the field, what was going on. I landed the kite and checked the wind meter, it said 17 mph. Ok, it must be the WAC settings are all wrong. After about 30 mins of messing around with all the settings, flying and messing around again I was getting very, you know what, why did I sell the Frenzy.

In this time the wind was gradually getting much more gusty and the average speed had climbed to about 25 mph, with much higher gusts. Now normally I would be flying the 2m at this point but I did not have one to fly, only this Spirit thing that would not fly.

I knew that the one thing FS kites did well was have a good safety so I though why not try and fly in this very strong wind, if it is to much I will just use the safety.

The kite had now deflated so when encouraged flew slowly up to the zenith. The kite was depowered over my head and I really felt no pull at all, and was thinking, what a waste of money this kite was. At this point I did something very silly, probably out of frustration. I flew the kite to the edge of the window and turned it and flew it back up to the zenith pulling the bar in as I did. The next thing I noticed was how high of the ground I was. Once I got over the shock and had done a few more jumps I jumped in the buggy. The kite is fantastic, in that the higher the wind the better it performs. The depower is surreal, in that when depowered this kite does not pull, at all. It is so easy to control the power delivery when buggying and the upwind performance is great, much better than I had expected. I would never have felt so safe and had so much power on tap with a smaller kite, no fear of being lifted out or dragged out. The funning thing is that I got a few U-Turn Oxigen kites to use as dedicated buggy kites, the Spirit is a water relaunchable kiteboarding kite, but the Spirit is more reassuring in very high winds than the Oxigen’s. This session eventually ended and when I checked out the wind meter I could not believe that I had been flying in winds in excess of 30 mph and actually been in control. This kite is truly a high wind monster, safe, predictable, with a depower range that is off the common sense scale in these winds.

Jumping was also very, very easy, no pendulum jumps.

Step 1: Fly kite to zenith

Step 2: Pull bar in

Step 3: go up.

How can I sum up this kite. It is certainly a Flysurfer through and through. Is it a 5m Frenzy beater? Well. Flying outside its set windrange it is very disappointing and anyone wanting to own this kite as there only kite would be foolish. The Frenzy is a real jack of all trades. It will fly in low winds so you can have fun and when the wind picks up you can choose to buggy or board.

The 4m Spirit excels in high winds and has to be one of the safest high wind kites I have ever flown. When the wind is to much for the 5m Frenzy the 4m Spirit comes out to play.