2016 Kite Overview

2016 Kite Overview

This article featured in Kiteworld Magazine Issue #82

 

We first jumped on a 2016 kite back in August 2015, riding the Liquid Force Wow and Airush Union. That feels like a long time ago now and since then we’ve ridden 32 more kites at home and during our annual tests in Cape Town. So while this isn’t a definitive guide, we wanted to share some of our favourite developments that we’ve enjoyed this year, as well as some pleasing trends. Of course we’re really looking forward to the impending launch of 2017 gear over the next few months, but if you’re looking for a late season deal or to pick up a second hand quiver when others upgrade, you’ll do well to grab yourself a 2016 model – they’re excellent!

 

TRENDS

SKINNY BARS

This year we saw many bars that were proclaimed by brands to be ‘their skinniest ever’. This actually makes a massive difference to your grip after long days on the water and the reduced diameter means that they’re much more comfortable to use when worn with thick neoprene gloves. There are also are very few control systems that don’t now have above-bar depower systems (or at least have options to choose it), which in our opinion is great to see – as we think they’re much easier to use.

 

LINE UNTWISTING MECHANISMS

We’ve really enjoyed the fact that most brands now include some sort of line untwister mechanisms just above the chicken loop. As most amateur riders find that they do the majority of spins on the same tack, these functions mean we can quickly and easily take the twists out of our lines. Very user-friendly additions to a system.

 

STRATEGIC REINFORCEMENT

Weight reduction has been a running theme this year with one or two popular kites even seeing their number of struts lowered while there was also a growing number of single strut kites entering the market, or continuing to grow in popularity across discipines, like the Liquid Force Solo. Less weight does mean better light wind performance but it can’t be at the cost of durability and we’ve seen some brands making some interesting changes in terms of how they use materials in key impact areas to improve durability without bulking kites up. A great example is Airush’s Dyneema load frame which covers the entire canopy of their kites with a patchwork of dyneema strips that make it impossible for an Airush kite to tear right across from leading edge to trailing edge. It also prevents the canopies from sagging and losing shape over time.

 

 

THE USER-FRIENDLY FREESTYLE KITE

Some Cs are still as aggressive as they ever were (and some people still require that) but this year we saw some very versatile Cs and future Cs which had a lot more to offer more people. The North Vegas is now more tunable than ever and can be switched from the hardcore Hadlow mode to an extremely forgiving freeride mode, while there are also kites like the Core GTS that are functional across a number of disciplines.

 

The Airush Razor has been tuned for maximum freestyle progression but with lighter bar pressure and improved depower making it something you can ride for hours without having your arms ripped off. The Naish Torch proves its immense jumping prowess in huge winds, while kites like the Slingshot Fuel haven’t been tampered with and remain a hardcore option, not for the feint of heart. Grunty, grunty, grunty.

 

 

THE RISE OF THE BIG AIR KITE

While the pros in the KOTA stuck with C-kites for the most part, we’ve seen a number of freeride kites on the market that, in the hands of most riders, can offer far greater big air performance. Kites like the Liquid Force WOW, for example, is really billed as a wave kite, but that model set a president for us as the first 2016 kite we rode, showing us just how much of a big air focus brands are putting back in their kites.

We saw local South African riders clocking some major height on it while Bully, our resident big air-jock, was also logging some serious WOO scores on a broad range of freeride kites, like the Ozone Edge, Core GTS, Ozone Enduro, LF Envy and of course the F-One Bandit – on which he managed to nose past 20 metres towards the end of our test trip in Cape Town.

 

TOP PERFORMERS

C-KITES

The North Vegas pleased us whatever conditions we took it out in. Freestyle animal to freeride machine with plenty of depower and user-friendliness in next to no time. At the other end, the Naish Torch has the most nuanced steering on the market and bags of performance on offer to the more advanced rider. A reference for reactive steering, it has an incredibly solid airframe and surprisingly manageable bar feel, however, it doesn’t have the option for dumbing down that the Vegas has. The Airush Razor is also an excellent freestyle performer while the LF HiFi-X is the most focused handle-pass machine out there. We didn’t ride kites like the RRD Obsession Pro or Ozone C4 this year; we look forward to testing their new models over the next few months to see how that fits in the game as it’s apparently much improved.

 

WAVE KITES

A tough call in a very competitive segment of the market. The Ozone Reo V3, Airush Wave and North Neos were stand outs for us in terms of fast, electric handling. However, the Peter Lynn Swell surprised us as a less-well-known model, but one of the lightest and most lively handling wave kites we’ve ever tried. At the other end of the spectrum we’ve got gruntier wave kites like the RRD Religion and the LF WOW – which we felt were good options for bigger riders who want a bit more bar feedback or are riding strapped –  but perhaps not so ideal for smaller riders or strapless devotees. The Cabrinha Drifter is always a solid do-anything-in-waves option, that continues to be reliable, lively and with good options for onshore and cross shore riding. The F-One Bandit also really impressed here as an all-round kite with a big focus on wave performance in its smaller sizes.

 

FREERIDE

There are so many options here that are great for so many things, but if we had to highlight some key performers, we’d probably pick out the Ozone Enduro with its huge amount of riding range application and the fact that it was a newly launched model this year. It’s got so much performance on offer and you’d need to be pretty advanced and quite specialized to really need anything more focused than this. The loop is a stand out (for reasons outlined in the video we released at www.thekiteshow.tv), it has plenty of ability in the waves and the un-knockable Ozone build quality. It makes you look good.

The Naish Park clearly deserves mention here after many seasons as a high performance, fast, lively high wind machine that’s been perfected over time, but the LF Envy impresses us year on year, too. It’s more of a quad worker this year, but there’s bags of performance on tap. The Airush Union provides lots of lift and fun in the air, the Bandit continues to set the standard as the original all rounder and we mustn’t forget the North Dice that has one of the best balanced feels between hooked-in and unhooked rapid handling, but delivers it with more of a softness compared to some. The Cabrinha FX meanwhile really crosses over into a very high-performance freeride end of riding and many riders would find it a bit quick and potent.

For different reasons the CrazyFly Sculp stood out for us, too. A lot of fun for sheer ease-of-use and gratifying ‘point and shoot jumping’, bigger riders, or those looking for an automatic skyhook or reliable low end grunt are going to get a lot out of it. The hangtime is so much fun! The Sculp is perhaps a surprising inclusion here if you’re not too familiar with CrazyFly, but it’s excellent and of course in a similar, more established way, the Cabrinha Switchblade in its eleventh year continues to please a very similar rider base as the Sculp.

What we’ve seen this year is that those flatter profiles don’t necessarily have to provide overly sedate and sturdy handling. The Ozone Edge and the Switchblade and Sculp are however in similar freeride brackets, but worlds apart in their suitability for early intermediate riders. The Edge is a big step on for hooked-in high performance freeriding. If you’re looking for a first kite as an active rider with strong ambitions to improve, you could get away with most of these three strut freeride kites, but our notable suggestions would be the Airush Lithium, Slingshot Rally, Naish Pivot, Cabrinha Radar, Ozone Catalyst and North Evo of the kites we tried this year with faultless control systems, very easy access power, depower and relaunch – but that won’t hold you back after your first six months.

OVERALL COMMENTS

You no longer need to opt for a tuned-down kite that will bore you once you progress. The freeride market now has so much range and application. The bigger sizes are more sedate and for most the smaller sizes get quicker, naturally, but there’s a lot of appropriate equipment to choose from. Find what you like in a brand and go for that.

Be realistic about your level, your intentions and how frequently you’re going to be out kiting, then look to the freeride bracket for your first quiver and you’ll pick apart the differences if you talk to your local shop.

Be aware that not all freeride kites are dumbed down and easy to handle. There’s an emerging high-performance freeride category with very dynamic and powerful kites  – including some that may prove too sporty for a less advanced rider, such as the Cabrinha FX.

We’ve seen the categories of equipment blurring and crossing over much more this year. A C kite doesn’t have to be for pro freestylers only – if you simply like a strong feeling of connection and interactivity with your kite, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t go for one. Equally, a wave kite can now also see you boosting to the moon on the windy days. But equally, if you do want to specialize and simply focus on boosting, then classic models like the Ozone Edge, North Rebel and Core XR4 that we tested last issue will provide your rocket fuel.

For 2017 we’re hoping to simply see a continuing refinement in helping us find our ultimate one kite quiver. But of course we’ve also seen some major new innovations already with the Cabrinha Fireball connection system and, as mentioned earlier this issue in Dragon’s Den, Naish have gone even further in terms of Quad Tex cloth strength and hopefully we’ll see more bio-production in the near future too, as mentioned by Clinton Filen of Airush.

 

 

Catch you next year, next issue!

 

This article featured in Kiteworld Magazine Issue #82

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