[Latitude] Latitude 64 Opto Air

It's called advertising, and it's always been that way. Welcome to the corporate world.

Exactly. Innova could come out with a disc called the titty, and you throw it, it soars through the air for a mile and when you finally track it down, there will be a 10 waiting for you, tall, topless blonde with a tight ass and gorgeous tits (domey not flat of course) and she will be holding your PnA disc ready for you to hit the birdie!...and there will ALWAYS be some poor shmuck who buys it.
 
Thrown the Saint some more and I've finally got a few of them to flatten out and go fairly straight. I have to whip it low and almost at a full 90 degree steep hyzer though. Still nothing like I expected and nothing like a gold line Saint. It's like the difference in a beefy teebird and a champ mamba. Thrown exactly perfect the champ mamba will give you the extra distance but a teebird is more forgiving and useful on the course. That's how I feel about my GL and Air Saints.
 
A buddy of mine picked up a Halo and a Saint at a tourney last weekend. I didn't get a chance to throw them, but he did a little between rounds. His impression: the Halo is not overly flippy, maybe a little less OS than a new Opto and maybe a touch more nose angle sensitive. His Saint he did not notice too much of a difference between his heavier Optos and GLs. He didn't mess with them too much, being in the middle of a tournament with high winds (relatively speaking). We will know more this weekend.

Sidenote: GGGT has the Air Bolts and Zero Strawberry Mercys up for pre-order.
 
halo's were my go to drivers for almost 2 yrs, until my recent change to the sword late this summer. I've only gotten the chance to throw both the opto air saint and halo about 3 times each. my first impression of the halo (153g) is, wow! very stable for it's weight. i got probably 50 ft or so more than my regular halo's (opto 161g, gl 168). I released it on a slight hzyer and it held the line all the way; it just seems to glide. It also came out of my hands a second sooner than expected but it's to be expected when your throwing discs that are about 15 grams lighter than what you're use to.

the 147g opto air saint behaved similar to my 164g opto saint, which i use for dead straight w/dependable fade or big annys.

thus far, I'm more impressed with the opto air halo (153g) than the saint (147g). I'll do more testing this weekend when I have more time. And I'm sure they'll fiy differently once they are broken in as well, which is what I am waiting for.

anyone else throw the opto air halo?
 
SO I got the Kind at 151gs, bright yellow. I had a chance this morning to throw it on some field testing for about 20 minutes or so (along with a new Blizzard Dominator). No videos (don't have a video camera) and these are just preliminary...I'll go more in-depth maybe next week after I play some weekend rounds with it.

Weather: Calm, cold (40 degrees max) no clouds. Elevation was around 5200 feet above sea level. Low humidity.

First throw, literally no warm-up...just jumped out the car and launched. Flew just like my well-loved Tourney King. I am about a 300-350 feet backhand thrower, and I measured this out to 328 feet, with no skip (the grass had some frost that was killing the skip.) It had the exact amount of high-speed turn I expect from a King (very slight) and quite a bit of fade, which is also how a King normally flies.

Warmed up a little more with a 175g UltraStar, then tossed the Blizzard Dominator a bit. Then I went back to the King. I threw it chest-high, flat, and as hard as I could. I measured it out with my phone app to be astonished at a 405 foot drive. This time, thrown flat and fairly low, there was little to no high-speed turn, but even more dramatic fade at the end. With no wind, it landed about 50 feet to the left of my launch line.

I threw it about 30 more times, trying a hyzer flip, annys, forehands, even a tommy or two. They hyzer flip worked, but not well. It fought out of an anny, which is weird for such a light disc. The tommy was just for giggles, so I can't really review that at all. But here's one thing I can say with authority:

THE VIP AIR KIND HATES FOREHANDS! Do not attempt to forehand this disc. Like, ever. I drive primarily RHFH, and it just was not working. I tried various style all to no avail. It just turned and burned right out of the hand. My buddy geofflaw was with me and he forehands everything but putts. He has less power on his throws and it still turned and burned for him. Then he threw it RHBH and blasted it out jsut over 300 feet.

SO my conclusion is that this is a great disc in perfect conditions. I can imagine it will not handle wind well, just like Innova's Blizzard. But if you have a good day, or your arm is tired, this is the disc for you. I love it, and it went in the bag right away. I took King's out a month or so ago in favor of more Destroyers, but this one is now back in. If you don't already throw Kings, I wouldn't reccomend getting this before you throw a heavy weight VIP King, but if you and His Majesty are intimate, I reccomend it. I got mine at DN (for the record) and they still have a bunch left.
 
Thanks for the first impressions. Mine finally shipped today, so hopefully the weather is good next weekend and I can get a good chance to take them to the field. Really wanted them this weekend, but I guess I learned my lesson on pre-ordering. Will post a review for my ~300 ft. (340 max golf d) arm as soon as I can!
 
I have two Saints and one Halo coming now. One of the Saints I plan to give away (the lighter one, I think).
 
Good to hear a review on the King, I would love to replace my Bliz Boss with something similar Lat/Westside for the open field bomber
 
Good to hear a review on the King, I would love to replace my Bliz Boss with something similar Lat/Westside for the open field bomber

I wouldn't say that the Kind would replace a Boss. Their flight paths are pretty similar, but they are not of the same speed. On rim width, the King is between a Destroyer and a Wraith. So I suppose that would be speed 11.5 on an Innova scale.

But with that said, you can still get some crazy D out of a King. I don't know what you're D is right now, but this VIP Air King gave me another 30 feet without any trouble, another 50+ when I was really cranking on it. I don't have a "noodle arm" by any means, but 3-350 during rounds is pretty average for me, and I was going well over 4 with the King. So i think you'll like it. I found it to be more controllable than my Blizzard Boss, but that I think is more my execution of the throw than the disc itself.:wall:
 
Andy are you sure?

the PDGA tech specs appear to show Wraith at 2.1, Destroyer at 2.2 and King at 2.3

that said they also say the Boss is 2.5...which surprises me that it is that wide
 
It must just be my grip but the destroyer rim seems thicker to me than the boss rim. To me the rim of the king feels very similar to my bliz boss
 
I didn't take any exact measurements, but comparing them to what I have, the King rim is noticeably smaller than a Destroyer, but noticeably bigger than a Wraith. Either way its smaller than a Boss. I'll bust out the ruler later and re-confirm this.
 
Good to hear a review on the King, I would love to replace my Bliz Boss with something similar Lat/Westside for the open field bomber

That is my thought exactly, because my Blizzard Boss has chunks coming out of the rim after very few tree hits. Would like something with equal or near equal D and more durability.

I don't throw anything but golf lines, even in an open field, so I doubt that the Blizz Boss can noticeably outperform the Air King/Halo. Can't wait to find out!
 
Three rounds this weekend with my Air King and it is a definetly a money-maker disc for sure. I played three courses with it: Turkey Creek (wide open, long holes to the point of ridiculosness) Widefield (tight and technical with two or three long bomber holes) and Cumberland Green (extremely short, congested course) . I threw the King only once at Cumberland and overshot the pin, so that wasn't really a factor.

Turkey Creek and Widefield were about the same conditions....sunny, 60-70 degrees, moderate wind. Turkey Creek is noticeably higher in elevation: 6100 feet ASL as opposed to 5300 feet ASL for Widefield. On these courses I used the Air King quote a bit. It was either that or a Dominator for true drives.

Turkey Creek: the Air Kin saved my arm! Check out the course page here on DGR to see the wildness of this course. We had a work event there, so rather than comesserate with people I pretend to like, me and two buddies hit the li ks. By the end we were getting thrown out for sure, but they were 9 and 10 over and I managed a 4 over due mostly to my drivers. There was one gnarly griplock that sent me deep into jail, and two drives where I got the disc way too high. Similar to Blizzard plastic, when the Air King gets high it starts to come back to you. I probably could have ousted it for some MTA events. The biggest takeaway I got from Turkey Creek is that the Air King handles wind better than Blizzard, but still beta knocked around quite a bit. On several of the downhill holes at TC it would get out about 350, catch wind and just skydive from the heavens. No forward penetrating fade whatsoever.

Widefield is when I really put the durability to the test. Anyone who knows Blizzard knows that hitting trees with it is a bad idea. Lots of chunkage and road rash. Luckily, I can confirm that VIP Air is more durable. There are some very tight linea at Widefield that are workable...but not for me. His Majesty met five or six trees at high speed with no flight path damage. I now have a small chunk in the rim, but it still flies just like a King should. My forum buddy geofflaw tacked his VIP Boatman that is about four months old on the same tree that I chinked the King, so there ia that. The wind was heavier at Widefield than TC but because of all the trees, the King flew much better than at TC. I pulled out a respectable (for me) 2 over with three birds. His Majesty took a dip in Widefield creek twice, but that was my fault, not the disc.

So again, I feel that this is just a great disc. Its easy D if you already know how to throw a King. I'm sold, and will be buying two backups with my next paycheck!
 
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