Actually, I really don't believe that the Speed is in the ball game if you look at it objectively. There are tons of dedicated riders that promote the benefits of ram air, however in looking at results of open course racing that measures effectiveness of a kite on all points of sail, no one considers to use any ram air.
I’d agree that in theory a ram air should simply be better, but it's clearly not the case. I even tested in very light wind a while back against the speed and we were worried that this thing would kill us, but it never came to happen.
Obviously, I’m bias due to my affiliation with Cabrinha, however factually speaking the Cabrinha 16 and 13 Crossbow IDS kites have won nearly every single light wind course race in the world (now racing to as little as 4-5 mph). Additionally, they have a significantly better wind range than nearly any other kite including other Cabrinha kites. The other detractor from ram air kites is their performance in gusty conditions. I actually got to see this first hand yesterday with the kite collapsing many times. It was however very gusty from 12-20 at the time.
If you are looking at any good light wind kite, make sure to make the proper line length adjustment. At a minimum you will want to go with 27-30 meters of line and maybe more depending on how light it is and the size board that you have.
In general it's pretty easy to get a ride in a crossbow. Give one a go if you can and see for your self when compared to other kites.
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