North 2013 Bar - Love it - but is it safe vs Naish UCS?

[onein5]

I got fed up with my Naish 2012 bar Swivel not unswivelling, so I got a 2013 North Trust bar with the swivel on the QR so I can now unspin it to my heart’s content – I love the bar, great in every way, and flies all my Rides straight out of the box. But I noticed is has significantly less depower throw than the Naish bar…

Assuming you have the sliding stopper out of play – you let go of the Naish bar and it depowers so much that the kite basically flips on its back and falls out of the sky, do the same on the north bar and it still has enough tension/power to sit at Zenith for 10 or 15 seconds without input.

In the normal scheme of things this is great. Gives me time to attach the leash on my surfboard, or sort out the Velcro on my gloves in winter, but I was a bit concerned about the safety aspect…

I figure, if I crash and drop the bar (hooked in) on the Naish, it’s basically going to be as good as 100% depowered, but on the North it could still fly through the window and cause pain and destruction.

Does anyone (Taut?) have any input? Maybe having experienced what I am talking about? I was going to ditch the Naish bar and just fly the North, but now I am wondering if I should keep the Naish for the nuking surf sessions, when unspinning the bar is not necessary at all.

PS I know the throw is adjustable on the North, but the longer you make the throw, the less depowering ability you have at the Vario Cleat – so you have to strike a balance.

[Caesar]

I got fed up with my Naish 2012 bar Swivel not unswivelling, so I got a 2013 North Trust bar with the swivel on the QR so I can now unspin it to my heart’s content – I love the bar, great in every way, and flies all my Rides straight out of the box. But I noticed is has significantly less depower throw than the Naish bar…

Assuming you have the sliding stopper out of play – you let go of the Naish bar and it depowers so much that the kite basically flips on its back and falls out of the sky, do the same on the north bar and it still has enough tension/power to sit at Zenith for 10 or 15 seconds without input.

In the normal scheme of things this is great. Gives me time to attach the leash on my surfboard, or sort out the Velcro on my gloves in winter, but I was a bit concerned about the safety aspect…

I figure, if I crash and drop the bar (hooked in) on the Naish, it’s basically going to be as good as 100% depowered, but on the North it could still fly through the window and cause pain and destruction.

Does anyone (Taut?) have any input? Maybe having experienced what I am talking about? I was going to ditch the Naish bar and just fly the North, but now I am wondering if I should keep the Naish for the nuking surf sessions, when unspinning the bar is not necessary at all.

PS I know the throw is adjustable on the North, but the longer you make the throw, the less depowering ability you have at the Vario Cleat – so you have to strike a balance.

Try adjusting your lines.
I can tell you that I have at least the same de-power with my new Fuse than what I had with my Switchblades (and they have a ton of de-power).

Cheers
Caesar

[onein5]

Thanks Caesar, It's actually not that I feel I have less depower when riding... It all feels great and I can extend my arms fully to dump power without hanging up on the stopper, it's more the point where you mess up and drop the bar when hooked in. At that point the Naish bar would totally kill power, but there's still quite a bit in the North

[Kamikuza]

Thanks Caesar, It's actually not that I feel I have less depower when riding... It all feels great and I can extend my arms fully to dump power without hanging up on the stopper, it's more the point where you mess up and drop the bar when hooked in. At that point the Naish bar would totally kill power, but there's still quite a bit in the North

Pull the QR...?

Swivels... above the bar never seem to. Unless you got a single depower line, anyway. Assuming their function is to keep the double depower line untangled

[onein5]

Hi Kamikuza, Sometimes, whilst falling out of the sky headfirst and facing backwards, having let go of the bar, there isn't an awful lot of scope to QR. Those were the sorts of things I thought the Naish bar might be a bit more forgiving of... Might well be a question that's either dumb and/or pointless though. Just wondered if I should worry or not - must be millions of North Bars out there, and if no-one ever asked the question before - then I have my answer.

[tautologies]

Thanks Caesar, It's actually not that I feel I have less depower when riding... It all feels great and I can extend my arms fully to dump power without hanging up on the stopper, it's more the point where you mess up and drop the bar when hooked in. At that point the Naish bar would totally kill power, but there's still quite a bit in the North

I'm not sure. I have not ridden mine on a north bar. I understand what you are saying with flying across the window. Try it carefully..fly the kite through the window then let go. Do it slow at first then with a bit more power..maybe a bit underpowered at first.

[onein5]

Thanks Taut, I can kind of already tell how that would go - you can still feel it pulling you at Zenith when fully sheeted out, I reckon it would definitely be capable of giving you a serious joyride through the window in the right circumstances... Maybe the answer is to use the UCS for the storm riding sessions, and the Trust for the loops... Annoying but kind of have to put safety first, and knowing the UCS just falls out of the sky when fully sheeted out is a nice level of comfort when it's 35 knots!

Then again - I suppose its possible you could drop the UCS, the kite could flip, fall back into the window, then power up after wrapping itself nicely in the lines which might breed it's own problems!!!

I guess this is just really about the fact the kiting can be risky, and it's never the danger you anticipate, that spanks you in the end!

[cglazier]

I own both Naish and North kites.

The Naish bar certainly has a longer depower stroke than the North and the Naish kites are designed to use it. If you use a North bar with a Naish kite you may not be able to fully depower it in extreme conditions.. but under normal conditions it works fine.

North kites are designed to depower with less throw, so you can use either bar with them.

The North swivel works well when you manually turn it. The Naish one is up on the lines and often doesn't work.. no manufacturer has ever had a swivel up there that has worked reliably. Personally I just do back or front rolls to untwist my front lines so it doesn't matter to me.. I would rather they just left it off their bar system (in fact they have omitted it on their 2013 Ride bar).

CG

[onein5]

That's really helpful, thanks. I think maybe keep the Naish UCS for when it's nuking then.

[davesails7]

You can make the depower throw longer on the North bar by replacing the chicken loop line with a longer piece of amsteel.

I did this on my north bar to set up a 4:1 depower system for racing. You will also need to add a pigtail to increase the length of the "mini-fifth line" by the same amount that you increase the depower throw.

I think my total cost for the lines was about $10.