Wainman is one of the first, if not the first brand who made kites specifically designed for wave riding. Wainman kites are updated by a version, instead of “renewing” them each year like most brands do. The newest version of their wave riding kite “Rabbit” is the 3.0. We tested this kite in gusty 20-30 knot Levante (side shore) wind in Canos de Meca, Spain. The conditions were good with waves up to 3 meters.
Looks
The 7 different colors belonging to each kite size (5 till 14.5m) are characteristic for Wainman. An unique detail about Wainman kites is that they give each kite size a name. In our case (the 7.5) is called “mr Green”. Wainman present’s kite size up to 2 digits (!) behind the comma (all having 3 struts). For example they have a 6.25m, called “Gypsy”. Each kite size has a special dedicated aim, all explained on their website.
Our mr Green has lots of bright colors and a huge typical 3-rounds logo. Even the tips of the leading edge have this logo.
Bar and lines
The bar and (4) lines are a bit different from bars from other brands; the safety system, colors and connections are uniquely “Wainman’s” style. For example the safety connection sits well above the chickenloop. The chickenloop comes completely off when released. It would be advisable to connect your leash both to the safety and “suicide” rings (in the chickenloop). If connected like this you are sure not to lose either the kite or the chickenloop.
It comes with a swiffel similar like Naish and Slingshot, which all suffer the same problem; it doesn’t rotate properly, which means the front lines will most likely be crossed when you loop the kite for instance. If these lines are crossed multiple times the safety system can become nonfunctional. Since the aim of this safety is to have one line go through the swiffel, it won’t completely work. There for we don’t like these swiffels.
Good for the deck of your board (wen you accidentally) hit it with your bar, is the very soft ends of the bar. It does get you frustrated though when tiding up the lines around it, since the end of the bar will bend very easily. Something to get used to probably.
Performance
The kite flies really easy and smooth, very steady. It is not a kite we would recommend for riders who like to have the power from the kite to smash or ride the wave. It is really the opposite: leave the kite in a corner and it will be there as long as you want. It has quite low bar pressure. With this kite you intend to ride the wave purely by your board. We had the steering lines set to average out of the 3 possibilities.
While testing it we saw other riders rather doing is the other way around; the kite (in this case at Canos we saw mostly The North Dice and Neo) swinging from side to side with each bottom turn. The Rabbit is not responsive enough to be ridden like this. You feel this immediately when using the kite on a twintip board, unless you want to ride a wave with a twintip (?), the Rabbit is clearly not mend to be used for free riding. It flies steady enough for some freestyle moves, but is too slow in his reactions to have a fun session while free riding. So the Rabbit 3.0 is a very clear one purpose kite, which does it perfectly for pure wave riding.
List price 9,0 m2 without bar/lines 1125,- Euro
With bar/lines: 1520,- Euro