I love my API. I borrowed a buddies Summit one time and I hated it. The only tree that I could climb was a persimmon and that thing squeaked on that persimmon bark so bad it pathetic. I had to stand up all day cause everytime I sat down or stood up that stand would squeak. The seat was horrible too. I have seen some different style seats on them since then so they may have solved the seat issue. But, the climbing part is still the same so I am sure that haven't solved that. Also, the Summit doesn't have the same level of adjustability that the API does. The API will climb bigger trees than the Summit will and it will climb smaller trees. It also adjusts in one inch increments and has virtually 30 different settings where the Summit has much less. I don't know about the newer stands. I am basing this on my older API. I know there has been some major changes at API so I can't speak for this newest stands. But I wouldn't trade my old API for a truck load of new Summits.

Around here the majority of guys use API stands. In fact no body that I hunt with uses a Summit. I guess that varies from region to region.