Postby Dan-at-Duotone » Fri Jun 13, 2014 7:59 pm
2013 Evo is VERY different than 2014 Evo.
The 2013 Evo was a delta-shaped kite with all the standard advantages/disadvantages of delta kites. It sat deep in the window and pulled hard, so it worked well as a freestyle/freeride/wave, hooked-in or unhooked type do-it-all kite. The downside was that the bar pressure was heavy and though it had a ton of grunt, it was impossible to completely turn that grunt off, so there wasn't a whole lot of top end... If you dropped the bar doing freestyle or sheeted out on a wave the kite tended to continue to pull pretty hard. Also, though it did OK for hooked-in jumping and upwind, it wasn't particularly good for either of those.
As we developed the Dice shape, we realized that it was doing pretty much everything the Evo was doing in terms of performance as a freestyle and wave kite... It works great for unhooked wake/freestyle, and the three strut design made it drift better than the Evo in waves. On top of that, the bar pressure was much nicer, and the range of the kite, especially on the high end, was drastically improved, making the kite much more pleasant and freeride friendly. In short, it did everything the 2013 Evo did, but better, plus it was more fun/accessible as a freeride kite.
For that reason, we completely rethought the Evo for 2014 and made it more committed to freeride... It is no longer meant as an unhooked/hooked-in all-around kite. I would not recommend it for unhooked wakestyle, and though it'll work well in the waves, especially if you like to follow the kite and throw it around a lot, it isn't the same sort of high-performance drifting wave kite that the Dice or Neo is. The 2014 Evo has much better high end than last year and sits much more at the edge of the window, so it goes upwind way better. It jumps better, has less bar pressure, and is just more comfortable in general for freeriding. Relaunch is pretty similar, and though I didn't notice as much grunt in the low end I've been told by several dealers that it works equally well as the 2013 for getting heavier guys out in light winds.
For people who liked the 2013 Evo because they liked the versatility of having a performance kite for unhooked freestyle and waves and freeride, I've recommended the Dice as the best choice in our 2014 lineup. For those who liked the 2013 Evo because it was really stable and user friendly for general hooked-in freeriding, I've been recommending they stick with the 2014 Evo. I think both the 2014 options are better than the 2013 Evo (not just because I work in the industry, though I'm sure the skeptics will believe that) but because I think that with the advent of bridled C shapes like the Dice, the delta shape has largely become obsolete.
All that being said, the 2013 Evo was extremely popular last year, and as long as you know what you're getting into, if you're getting a good deal on the kite, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.
-Dan