Sizes: 8, 10
Conditions: 15mph-35mph, chop and flat water
Location: Gorge
Ability: Intermediate/Advanced
Other kites flown this year: 2007 Waroos (owned quiver), 2007 Yarga 9m (owned), 2007 Bullaros, 2007 Boxers, 2007 Fuel 11m, 2007 Crossbow 9m, 2007 T2s, 2007 SS Links, 2008 SS Revs, 2008 Naish Helix 9m
Pros:
- Awesome unhooking performance
- Clean easy to use bar
- Boosts are easy to hit, goes high
- Grunty, lots of low end
- Very light bar pressure
- Steers well from center of bar
- Relaunches well
- Only two pulleys on the bridle, instead of 4
- One pump
Cons:
- Has sliding rear line leash on bar but tough to grab
- Kiteloops on par but not the smoothest of the 08's
Summary:
Fun to demo the 08 Havocs the last few days. First impressions out of the bag: Nice one pump system, very clean. Setup is easy with colored connectors. The bar is nice and has a very easy to use below the bar sheeting system. You can clip your leash to the handle on the end of the depower rope and it will pull through the sliding stopper. Overall I found the below the bar elements very nice much easier to change sheeting and cleaner than my current SS setup.
The bridles are simplified, only one pulley for each side of the bridle. The front and rear bridles are connected through a pulley on the kite, but there is no pulley on the front bridle. I never put the kite in a situation where the bridle would get caught, but it seemed like it would be difficult to do given the wide wing tips on the kite and relatively short bridle.
No battens, which is nice!
In the air the kite is well behaved like you'd expect from an SLE. Bar pressure is extraordinarily light, meaning you don't really even need the sliding stopper above the bar. If you keep your hands in the middle of the bar the kite feels great and turns easily. Really where the kite shines is when it comes to boosting and unhooking.
Boosts were very easy to feel your way through and it always felt solid through the jump. Most of the other SLEs I have tried have a much harder to find sweet spot, whereas with the Havoc it always feels like you hit it. The other riders that tested the kite felt like they got their biggest jumps of the day on it.
Unhooked I think this is the best SLE I have tried. It offers a very consistent and easy to handle pull. The kite is very controllable unhooked. The other 08's I have tried, the Rev and the Helix, fly well unhooked, but sometimes they can power up giving you more pull then you want. The Havoc feels very C kite like unhooked and I think that's a good thing.
The kite soaked up the gusts easily, depowered well. Under a lot of depower the canopy fluttered a little but not more than you'd expect.
The downsides:
Its nice having the really clean bar, but I think having an easy to grab o-shit handle on the rear lines would be a good feature. There is a velcroed strap thing on one of the side lines that you can grab and leash to, but its small enough you would not be able to grab it in a hurry.
The relaunch is very good by any standard, but the Helix and the Rev offer sub 5 second relaunch every time. I never failed to relaunch the Havoc when I tried but I noticed it didn't seem to have the magic flip over and go relaunch of the Rev & Helix.
Kiteloops were not the smoothest, the 8m fluttered a bit if I didn't mind the sheeting during the loop. Honestly I think the kite loops well by any standard except when compared to the Rev. Speed of the loops were about on par with the Helix. For straight turning speed I thought the 10m Havoc was a bit faster and more responsive than the 9m Helix.
Conclusion:
This is a great kite, and for anyone interested in progressing in their unhooked tricks or even just as a boost style jumper I think it will be very good. The kite's light feel on the bar will probably appeal to smaller guys and women, or for anyone who doesn't want to have more bar pressure than you need to steer the kite.
We had the kite on the beach along with a Naish 08 Helix, Slingshot 08 Rev, and some 07 Waroos. Most of my friends felt like they nailed their biggest jumps on the Havoc and that it felt the best unhooked. I thought it looped as well as the other kites minus the Rev, but most people aren't doing kiteloops so I think that probably won't matter for the majority of consumers.
I tried the 07 Havocs earlier this summer and though I never had perfect conditions for them I don't feel they nailed it nearly as well as they did in 08. If you have tried the 07's and weren't impressed you should give the 08's a try. They are solid kites.
