Hello,

I currently own a north rebel 2011 10m, only do strapless waveriding with a 6.0 surboard.
I can use a 7 2010 rebel from my brother in law at my home spot (lad works to much), but now I am going on a summer kitetrip so I will need to buy the smaller size.

I was thinking of a wainman gypsy 7m 2011, would it be a good combo with my 10m rebel (85kg) for a 2 kite quiver?

Thanks,
frederik

They have a different riding style. The Wainman kites are more similar to our Neo than our Rebel. The advantage of sticking with North, whether Neo or Rebel or anything else, is that you can use the same bar on all the kites, so either you can get by with getting the 7m KO, or you could buy another 5th line bar, and then if one of your bars fails, you've got a backup for both kites.

However, if for whatever reason you've decided to switch away from North, I haven't heard anything bad about the Wainman kites, and with all of the high-end range of your 10m Rebel, I think a 7m is a good size for the next smaller kite in your quiver.

Hope this helps.

-Dan

Hey, Dan, don't want to hijack, but how come Neos and Fuses come in fewer sizes than Evos and Rebels? Really want Fuse 8 and 10.

I think it's mostly cost. We don't scale the kites, so each size kite demands multiple prototypes from the factory (which are not cheap) that must be shipped to the designer (not cheap), and then there's the designer's time to design and tweak each proto (not cheap) and then the time and effort to figure out final construction/panel/design layouts. We've put a lot of effort into standardizing construction methods etc. in a process we call "Progression Q" which makes construction methods for new kites/sizes as inexpensive and efficient as possible, but that is still an added cost.

Plus the added difficulty for our dealers to try to stock all the kites.

Because the Rebel and the Evo are so popular, it is worth it to put the time and effort into designing and manufacturing all those extra sizes as we can be sure to sell enough of them to payoff the investment.

On the bright side, it looks like we are seeing enough demand to expand nearly all the lines next year. We'll be adding a couple Neo sizes and a Fuse size (as far as I can tell at this point... those kites don't come out until January and February, so nothing is set in stone yet), though I don't believe an 8 or 10 Fuse is in the cards.

Hope this answers that question and that I'm not completely wrong.

-Dan