Review of the 2015 North kites
Every year in October the next years kites start to become available for testing. It is the time that I hold my breathe and hope that they kept what was good and improvement what needed improving.
A review is always just a personal opinion. But In my situation I can always see in advance how students and intermediated riders are going to like the kite or not. For the real advanced riders the best way is to test a kite yourself. (A good reason to come visit us at Lake Garda!)
I have tested the different kites on Lake Garda and the Vegas also in Dakhla and Venezuela.
The North Neo 2015:
Yes it stayed the same :)) It is very stable, responsive, nice bar pressure, good relaunch, good depower. Everything we are looking for in a kite for beginners and free riders. They improved the colours with some nice designs. The bar is not yellow. The safety leash is yellow, the kites have more colours and text. But that what counts is the performance and it is great!
The North Vegas 2015:
I personally really liked the vegas of 2012, liked the 2013, really liked the 2014 so I was keeping my fingers crossed for the 2015 model. The kite still feels like a C kite in unhooked performance and bar feeling. But it is a little bit more gentle. You feel this in how it response to you steering and how it reacts on gusts in the wind. Before I would only recommend the Vegas for advanced riders. Now it think also intermediated riders can have a lot of fun with it. This year they skipped size 14 and added the 14,5. Which is great for lake Garda. Still the low end doesn't come close to the Dyno or Juice. This kite needs the 5th line and relaunches perfect with it.
The North Dyno 2015:
The 2014 model was the most favourite light wind kite off all our clients. From beginners, intermediated to advanced. Everybody loved this kite. We have 3 15m and 1 17 m. On the light wind days this where the only kites you saw on the Lake Garda. It was a magic kite that would fly in 6 knots and ride in 8 knots.
The 2015 model is completely different. the bridles are attached to the struts and the wingtips got more round in my idea. Last years model was amazing in relaunching. It would be sitting on the edge of the windwindow, you would take a streering line to bring it up and it would go up. Without any back stalling. Well that is a completely different story this year. In light wind the kite doesn't want to go to the edge of the windwindow. (not even with using the 5th line) and when you have it their it tries to backstall. When you have it in the air it tries to fall out of the air. And when you ride it has no power. The 2015 model starts to fly with 8 knots and ride with 10 knots. Norths description/ warming of the kite says it is a really technical kite. So probably it would take some time to get used to it and make use of it's full potential. This is something you can ask from advanced riders but not from beginners. So for us the Dyno has become less magical. The dyno comes in 2 sizes 15 and 18 m.
But there is a new light wind model: The Juice.
The juice comes really close to how the Dyno was last year. The only negative point is that it has less struts and it likes to so drown more when it is lying on the trailing edge in the water. But with some powerfull swimming and shocking the powerlines you do get it out of the water and once you have it on the edge it comes up really nicely. With the riding the power is good. It has a fast response and nice bar pressure. I think our students will like this kite a lot on the light wind days. The Juice comes in 2 sizes. 15 and 18 m.