Gemini
The Gemini was a real game changer twenty years ago and opened up many new doors in the freestyle department. My fave kite for several years!
If not the flattest ones, the Gem performs good looking axels. Put the kite on a stall, pop a line, allow enough slack in the lines for the kite to rotate and you've got it. Easy peasy!
East to enter either from an axel or pancake. Needs a little tending, but as soon as you find it's sweet spot they are pretty stable and s perfect start for a bunch of other tricks.
This kite does flic flac! Period! Quick and sharp or slow and graceful, all depending on the pilot input. Goodie!
This one is harder! For me it's best to do s ground pass and then a snap stall and try to maintain it's sideways momentum to initiate the slide. It's quite hard to keep it sliding and a lot of tending is required. I couldn't make it slide more than half way across the wind window.
Yet another trick this kite will do with ease. You can do them straight down or a somewhat angled approach. Sharp and snappy or slow and floaty depending on your input. Way cool!
The best way to get this kite over into the backflipped position is IMO to double pop. You know, pull a little, give slack and then a stronger pop and more slack and the kite should end up on its back. It stays pretty flat and you can hold it with a bit of tending. It's also easy to recover from.
For a thoroughbred trick kite, the Gem does very decent precision! The snappy combo turns are there with not much oversteer. The Gem will also do nice and straight trajectories with a little pilot guidance. Actually impressive!
An experienced pilot can control the speed of this kite surprisingly well. It does speed up a little when passing through the power zone, but not as much as you might think. If the pilot moves on the ground he/she will be rewarded with a kite under control!
