My first Hook was the 10m size, which I bought as a replacement of an Edge V9, also 10m. I love riding that high performance freeride kites like a Core XR, Duotone Rebel or Ozone Edge and love those high boosting characteristics. But, there's one big disadvantage kites with a high aspect ratio have; their turning abilities are limited. Going for nice kite loops are mostly only accessible on the smaller sizes.

While ordering the Hook, I had some expectations the Hook has to deliver: Very massive boosting, huge windrange, significant better turning than my other, older, kites and ofcourse a really nice handling. So, normally, I want to fly new kites in moderate conditions first, but here all things were different. The 10m was the smallest size I had, there was a storm up ahead and I was quite a long time far away from the seaside. No matter what, I had to fly the 10m in around 30, later 35+ knots. Unexpectedly I felt quite home on this kite after around 10 minutes, the handling was quite intuitive and easy to do so I started going for some big jumps and airstyle tricks. After leaving this day with some nice Woo scores (16 and 18,5m in flat water), I was sure this kite has so much potential. Another day, there were around 25knts of wind, a kind of some nice choppy waves and my friend went out with the 13m EdgeV9. He felt a bit of uncomfy riding this kite, but I could throw kiteloops, and nice jumps and after all, I beat him with almost one meter more height on Woo. I ordered an 8m and a 12m size as well, to have my quiver for any conditions above 20 knots. In the past, I was wondering about big size tubekites, because they’re turning so slow, that I decided to choose foilkites like the Nova for the lightwind conditions. But in some tricky conditions, the Hook will be the better choice.

So now I had a couple of sessions with the Hooks and I’m still stoked. The Hook is my weapon of choice in tricky conditions and winds above 20 knots. With the 12m I got some nice personal records, competed at contests and had some nice freestyle sessions on it. The 10m is a size I highly recommend for those, who want a playful, powerful do-it-all kite for high jumping, carving, airstyle and unhooked. To describe this kite, I have only one thing in common. Never stop playing, as PLKB suggested!