Ocean Rodeo stick shift bar

[mkNY]

Just got to test out my stick shift for the first time in gusty powered conditions on my 9M.

Functionally the bar works great, depower was easy to use and didn't take much learning curve. To be honest I would prefer to have the knob reversed in the sense that hitting it would power up instead of down. I can usually take my time to depower but would love to power up fast which is harder this way, but I get the safety aspect I guess. Overall I love the clean front line setup.

The front line spinner was the smoothest turning one I have ever used, super easy to untwist your lines.


Some things I really am not a fan off:

This is my main concern, the bar is HUGE. When I first unpacked it, I thought I ordered a wrong model, but there is only one size. It's almost 58cm end to end and almost 2 times as thick as my old North bar. I wish you guys made a smaller less bulky model, not sure why it has to be so big. On 9M kite it definitely felt a bit large. Maybe more suited for 12M and up.

The chicken loop is very big as well. For a bar this size unhooking cannot be a main concern so this could also be slightly more compact.

Anyway love the concept, hope you guys can squeeze it into a tighter package in the future.

[CaptainArgh]

...This is my main concern, the bar is HUGE. When I first unpacked it, I thought I ordered a wrong model, but there is only one size. It's almost 58cm end to end and almost 2 times as thick as my old North bar. I wish you guys made a smaller less bulky model, not sure why it has to be so big. On 9M kite it definitely felt a bit large. Maybe more suited for 12M and up.

I think more options are coming down the road. This is just the first variant.
You are correct though, took me a few tacks on my 8M to get used to the responsiveness since I was coming off a 17" bar.

[ORSales]

...This is my main concern, the bar is HUGE. When I first unpacked it, I thought I ordered a wrong model, but there is only one size. It's almost 58cm end to end and almost 2 times as thick as my old North bar. I wish you guys made a smaller less bulky model, not sure why it has to be so big. On 9M kite it definitely felt a bit large. Maybe more suited for 12M and up.

I think more options are coming down the road. This is just the first variant.
You are correct though, took me a few tacks on my 8M to get used to the responsiveness since I was coming off a 17" bar.

Very stoked to see that people are enjoying the bar and that they have found the jump from traditional trim control to back line trim control so easy. Argh is right that - with time - we absolutely intend to branch out to variations on the theme, much like in 2007 / 2008 SLE kites were all freeride kites and by 2009 / 2010 you started seeing purpose built SLEs for various riding styles and wind conditions...

JZ

[adamj2281]

Quick review - I've had the bar for more than 8 weeks, but before I could use it I broke my foot skateboarding and have been out of the water for 7 weeks. Luckily, I'm back in the water and have 2 sessions on it so far, here's some thoughts:

-Line Swivel - Love it, works like a champ, one of my bigger complaints of the older OR bars. I loop the kite only one direction, and on almost every tack when on a surfboard, so I'm using this quite a bit.

-Clean Lines - I'm guessing the engineering/testing process to come to this solution speaks volumes in that it took this long to create a bar/lines without something dangling above or below the bar. This is the biggest advantage I believe to this bar over a standard bar.

-Lines - Top quality, stepped up nicely.

- Bar - I have no issues with the size of the bar, good feel, pretty light considering the added weight of the knob/springs, etc.

-Design/finish - This is the best built OR bar to date, I've been through a ton of bars since 2010 from OR, and this one is extremely solid and clean.

-G Stop - Takes a second to get used to, but works well. I like it a lot better than the old design (which wouldn't work on the PU tubing anyways)

-Sidewinder: I'm slowly getting more comfortable with it. It's not difficult, just different when you are so used to a certain design. I toyed with it more than I normally would just to get the hang of it. My main worry as a lot of people have stated is rapidly changing the depower trim. If you hit a lull or get stuck in currents and need to rapidly power up, there's no ability to grab the trim and go fully powered at once. I did practice going fully depowered by bumping and letting it run, and no real issues there, but I want to see how it reacts if I'm way overpowered. From a safety standpoint - I'm not worried with not being able to depower quickly, it seems to work great, it's mainly powering up quickly.

Overall, I think it will play well with anyone on a surfboard as you can make quick, small adjustments on the fly. I'd be a bit worried giving it to a beginner who is used to a standard bar, as I could see someone inadvertently pulling too hard on the knob side of the bar and overcorrecting into a loop. Basically, the advantages outweigh any negatives for the intermediate to advanced kiter; having a clean view of the kite and being able to make quick adjustments on the fly is well worth learning to use the sidewinder in all conditions.

I'll update this post after some more sessions with a full, final review.

[ORSales]

I'd be a bit worried giving it to a beginner who is used to a standard bar, as I could see someone inadvertently pulling too hard on the knob side of the bar and overcorrecting into a loop. Basically, the advantages outweigh any negatives for the intermediate to advanced kiter; having a clean view of the kite and being able to make quick adjustments on the fly is well worth learning to use the sidewinder in all conditions.

Adam,

Thanks for the great review. To touch on this one last line of your post, your point relates more to existing beginners who learned on a traditional bar but I do think it will be very interesting to see the coming 12-18 months of new students who learn exclusively on a back line trim bar and if any of them elect to ever go back to "traditional" trim systems!

JZ

[adamj2281]

Quick update - I've had some more sessions on the Stick Shift, a few more thoughts:

-Highly recommend it for surfing, I tend to make a lot of small changes especially when dealing with current between tacks, and it's a breeze and actually pretty easy to pull off depowering with a single hand on the bar (which is 95% of the time on a toeside tack).

- The bar will start to wear on your hands after a long session, it's not a deal breaker by any means, but I did notice it more. Although, I'd rather have one that's nice and grippy and fits my hands well instead of a really flat/smooth bar.

- I do find myself wondering if I should switch up the leader length between kites, that's kinda annoying (I know I'm lazy) so I end up just riding a different bar with older kites. This will obviously phase out with newer kites, but.........I've never had to switch parts between kites I fly, so call me lazy, but I'm not a fan of that part of it.

[BrunoC]

Get a bunch of kook proof pigtail sets from PKS and leave your adapters on your older kites...this is what I have done across brands and it works fine and is always ready to go.

Quick update - I've had some more sessions on the Stick Shift, a few more thoughts:

-Highly recommend it for surfing, I tend to make a lot of small changes especially when dealing with current between tacks, and it's a breeze and actually pretty easy to pull off depowering with a single hand on the bar (which is 95% of the time on a toeside tack).

- The bar will start to wear on your hands after a long session, it's not a deal breaker by any means, but I did notice it more. Although, I'd rather have one that's nice and grippy and fits my hands well instead of a really flat/smooth bar.

- I do find myself wondering if I should switch up the leader length between kites, that's kinda annoying (I know I'm lazy) so I end up just riding a different bar with older kites. This will obviously phase out with newer kites, but.........I've never had to switch parts between kites I fly, so call me lazy, but I'm not a fan of that part of it.

[adamj2281]

Another update after having the bar for a bit longer - it is extremely useful on waves. Case in point, there's a lot of times where I want to quickly dump some power as I downloop into a wave face.

On the old bar I really could only do this by sheeting out, on the new bar, I can pop the depower a couple of notches while riding towards shore right before hitting the flats and downlooping. Once I'm heading back out, I power back up, works like a champ.

[EastCC]

Yep, I've found that it's easier depowering in the waves too, no body adjustment to reach the trim strap. I've also had good feedback from foilers using the bar for the same reason.
I don't usually adjust the trim much but have found myself using it more often now to get the sweet spot.

[Do-it]

I'd buy one if they were cheaper