New to you kites are always exciting. Truly new kites are a rare treat indeed. Frank by Canvas Kite Designs is the rarest of things, new to the world, accessible to a broad section of flyers and capable of any number of levels of performance to meet a flyer in any number of points along their journey.
Frank is the fourth model developed by CKD’s dynamic duo of John McCracken and Devin Cobliegh Morrison. Frank is a big but friendly boy at 2.61m or 102.7” of playful wingspan, he(it) cuts a striking figure in the sky. The Canvas guys list Frank as ideally for flyers intermediate through to the professional level. I would say that is accurate more for the amount of pull it can generate just because of the massive sail size. I find Frank is fun on lines from 25m out to 40m and covers an incredibly versatile wind range. Experienced pilots can easily expect Frank to operate comfortably from as low as 3mph (advertised as 4mph but its remarkably floaty) to a high of 18mph which practically means it will go as high as you are brave enough to hold on.
Frank is one of three ways (so far) that this sail is available. Frank is the first kite by Canvas Kite Designs to be available exclusively in your local kite shop. Frank has two siblings so far, Tank and Tankette. Frank is a bouncy P2X and Crystals combined with a reverse turbo bridle gives the kite a playful and easy going presence on the lines. Tank and his SUL companion Tankette are very different creatures despite the shared sails. Tank features the stiffest tubes in the Sky Shark lineup, P400 Pro and Nitro Strongs. Tankette is a novel framing featuring Crystal leading edges and lower spreaders and a biconical double Sky Shark 5pt spine. Both of these are available from Canvas and feature a traditional turbo bridle.
As for the specific kite, what can I say but thank you to John and Devin. They presented this custom Frank to me at Kite Party this year and I was just beside myself. I try not to be partial to any one manufacturer, I am happy to call John and Devin my friends and I truly believe in the underlying intent of Canvas. I genuinely enjoy this kite. I hope you all will too but until you get the chance to, I hope you enjoy this video.
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