suzsuz07 wrote: ↑Wed May 02, 2018 5:25 pm
I'm a bit new to kiting and just bought the 2018 Evo. Had some challenges launching/flying at first which made me feel like a Day 1 beginner, but don't know enough about it to know why. I eventually got used to it, but would like to understand more about what I was experiencing. Can you (or someone who gets that) explain what you mean by your comments? It might help me understand what I was struggling with. Thanks!
I'm not new to kiting, but very similar experience. Initial impressions were it sucked (12m). Seemed like they had designed a vacant beginner kite since the relaunch was annoyingly automatic. It was never where I thought it was, had no low end power, and couldn't jump. I have a very varied kite style/brand ownership history (including North), so used to flying different brands with different styles, but this was completely weird. Everything else I was able to understand within an hour or so and start hooking up, but the new Evo took about five 3-4hr sessions before I actually started enjoying it. A couple mates have taken out my 12m and thought it was weird initially as well, but after a couple hours on it, they went and bought them.
Kite: 2018 North Evo 12m
Weight: 95kg
Board: 139 Cabrinha Custom (mainly)
Wind: 15-30kn range
Lines: 22m
Skill level: Intermediate
Bar pressure: Lightest I've ever flown.
Relaunch: Automatic - easiest kite I've ever used
Low end: Non-existent - at my weight, 18kn to mow the lawn, 20kn for small jumps. Lighter friends were fine from 15kn.
High end: Never ending. Kite for me comes alive at 23-24kn, and I've had it out in as much as 35 fully powered. Really surprised by this.
Gusts: Unless there's a large variance, hardly notice them. Handles big gusts quite well.
Lulls: No problem. Kite flies in very little wind. Not quite as good as a 1-struter though.
Drift: Much better than previous Evos, but still wouldn't use it as a surf kite. (mainly because I have surf kites)
Turning: Much quicker than previous years. More instant response.
Looping: Power is super consistent throughout the entire loop and extremely predictable. Much quicker and smoother on the soft/medium settings.
Jumping: Great lift, great float. Highest jumping and most float kite I've owned. Needs a bit of loading/sending skill to get a reasonable height though. Haven't tried them, but from what I've seen on the beach, the new Rebel/Switchblade will out-jump and out-float with just a bar pull.
Unhooking: Can only do basic ralleys, so no idea.
Basically, there are a lot of pros/cons to the new design, but after initially wanting to try to return it for being utter shit, it's the most fun kite I've ever flown. So much so that I bought a 10m, which I recently had out in a storm megalooping in 40kn+ (okay, megalooping when it was 30-35 and hanging on for dear life after 40
). The upper range on these kites is incredible. My confidence on the water has taken a dramatic leap forward with the 2018 Evo and I've progressed leaps and bounds on it. Previous kites always caught me out doing one thing or another, but this one is extremely forgiving. The main downside will be that at my weight and board-size, I need another (or larger) kite for the fairly standard 15-20kn condition range. If I were to do over again, I'd probably size up to the 13m or even the 14m. For now I'm considering sticking with the 12m over winter and seeing how I feel at the start of next season.