I am looking for a smaller foil in the 10 range and am curious to know your opinions on how these 2 kites compare. I will be using much on snow and soon will also be using with a foilboard.
I have the same needs, here is my opinion:
In short - Both EXCELLENT closed-cell kites for snow and foil. The Pelican are for freriders favoring user-friendliness (drift). The Speed5 are for week-end warrios favoring performance (speed, upwind angle).
In long (specs and test results)
http://littlecloud.fr/product-range/pelican/ https://flysurfer.com/project/speed5/ Speed and Upwind angle (Aspect Ratio) - Pelican 10m - 5.8 vs Speed5 9m - 6.15. Hence the differences in efficiency and up/down-wind angle. That's being said, on a foil, one can still go upwind at angles that TT cand only dream of (estimated 40-50 degree) .
Speed5. Forgivingness and ULW launch (Weight and cells thickness) - Pelican 10m 1.6kg vs Speed5 9m 2.2kg. My son (110lb), I (150lb) and a friend (200+lb) used the Pelican 10m in a 10-25 knots on-off session that even my Flysurfer Lotus (one of Flysurfer most forgiving kites) would open/close and bowtie mid-air (which it did when I gave the Pelican to my son and foiled with the Lotus 8m). My friend and I foiled with it without any such things happening. I would go as far to say that it is impossible to bowtie this kite (I could not). My son felt confortable enough to jump in these gusts with the kite. And when he missed the jumps (swung under) causing line tension loss, the kite drifted and went back to zenith. The Pelican is my Top-two forgiving kites (the other one with similar ULW and forgivingness is the
Pulsion). In another foil session - 5-10 knots with lull of 3-4 knots: The Pelican stays stable in zenith and easily launch/reverse-launch in the deep at 5 knot. The Speed5 more performance-oriented demands a little bit more attention in 6-7 knots.
Pelican. The rider - Xulpix - in the picture hereunder is the only other person that I know having rode both
