Reactive: Flying Tank PSUL By Canvas Kite Designs | Sky Rider Limited

It’s a new week and another new kite here at Sky Rider Limited. It’s rare that I 100% don’t know what to expect from a kite, especially when it comes from John and Devin at Canvas Kite Designs but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Tank is a kite I was looking forward to too, after all it shares a sail everyone’s favorite guy Frank.
Frank, you might recall is everyone’s favorite mellow monster. With a chill attitude and a big presence, Frank was an ideal kite for Canvas’ first kite shop exclusive. But Frank has an angrier brother. Tank is same sail as Frank but in some sort of Jekyll and Hyde dynamic, Tank is somehow more brutal and bangs through tricks with an authority that his carefree sibling chooses not to match, that is not a huge surprise though since Tank gets a switch from revers to standard turbo bridle and goes from a slightly bouncy and forgiving mix of Sky Shark P2x and Crystal Z2s to hard as nails framing in Sky Shark P400pro and Nitro Strongs. The results of the change are jarring if you experience them back to back. But the standard Tank is a story for another time because that is not the kite, I have for you here. No, the kite featured here is Tank’s pseudo super ultralight variant.
Like I said at the top, this is a kite I was unsure about, after all it has one of the shorter developments I can recall from the boys at Canvas, not nearly as many twists and turns as is typical with their prototype. That also means that I never came in contact with the prototype. In addition to that there is the matter of the odd designation of a pseudo super ultralight. Reading that for the first time was confusing. How can it be a pseudo SUL? It either flies down to the low single digits of wind or it doesn’t. well, as it turns out there is a lot more to it than wind range. You see, on the surface Tank in PSUL form looks for all the world like a normal ultralight. With a Crystal S3 leading edge and Z1 spreaders you could almost call the PSUL robust. Keeping the previously mentioned turbo bridle and dropping down to 14g of tail weight the PSUL feels down right nimble. Probably the most interesting note on the construction of this kite is the spine which uses Sky Shark 5pts in a double conical configuration which to my knowledge is a unique arrangement that give the kite progressive flex in both directions from the joint. The end result of all this is an elegant and efficient kite that flows from trick to trick like the wind it doesn’t require. It effortlessly performs any number of tricks you can think of but unlike most kites operable below 3mph of wind it does so with momentum given by a frame that many would consider too heavy for task, hence the name pseudo super ultra-light.
If you haven’t by now figured out that I am in love with the kite that presented a mystery to me, I don’t know what else to tell you except to go try one for you self. I suspect that the Tank PSUL will become everyone’s favorite for its versatility and slightly old school feel. Enjoy
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