KiteDemon
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Nog een vergelijking tussen CB en Nova door een Northrider.
Het is maar een klein stukje tekst......
Well, what a weekend... had the opportunity to fly both the Nova and the Crossbow in some resonably varied conditions.
The Nova
Mr. Blueswan turned up with a couple of Novas on saturday. Was going to pinch JV's, but was having too much fun winding him up about me having first go, only for him to then get the kite later that day with its wrapper still on
Blueswan was all up for watching the user guide DVD, being the big nancy that he is (RTFM? RTFM? I don't RTFM... I'm a bloke FFS) and then I set up the kite while he was getting changed.
The user guide says to top up the struts after you've inflated the kite, but I couldn't be bothered trying to do that with the thing wrapped around me, so I just pumped it up like a regular kite.
The bridles are actually very simple, but still took a little while to untangle them. It's pretty obvious whether you've got it right or not. I'm definitely a fan of simplicity, and am often cursing my 5th line, so it's a bit complicated for my liking, but it's really not too bad.
The bar is a little 'busy' for my liking. The two plastic-coated depower ropes sort of keep their coiled shape, and make it a pain to lay the bar out neatly, and I think there are too many trim options - I'd prefer a cleaner bar - but it's alright. I like the range of depower in the strap though, and it's easy to use.
Launching, I instantly fell in love with the user-friendliness of this kite. We were sailing at Hengistbury Head, which is a gusty launch spot, and the beach is litered with shells and sharp stones - any kind of drag from the kite invariably leads to cut & bruised feet. The instant depower is great - don't get dragged at all.
There was a massive shore-dump, and the wind was pretty onshore - very nasty conditions for getting out - but I immidiately felt comfortable to dive the kite aggresively, knowing that I could kill the power. I found a little difficult to maintain constant power delivery to get out over the waves, but you can really work the kite hard, and just sheet out if you get caught by a gust.
The kite doesn't move fast for a 12m. It turns fast, but it doesn't move fast through the window... probably because you don't need to edge hard to control the power, you just sheet out!
Trying to edge upwind is a little difficult, as the bar moves side to side slightly, and I found I needed to sheet in and out quite a lot to maintain a steady pull. It was hard to find a comfortable point, where the kite was set, and I could just sit back, dig in and edge upwind.
Throw a turn, and the value of the kite to an intermediate rider becomes apparent - you can be very very agressive with this kite, and not get spanked. You literally just crank the kite across the window, and carve through the turn, with power on tap the whole way through, but with no worry that if you loose your edge, you're going to pendulum under your kite.
This confidence-inspiring ride means that I was quickly trying agressive jumps - redirect the kite as hard & fast as I could. The kite certainly boosts, and has a very floaty hangtime and a soft redirect, but it's not a super high performance machine. One guy on the beach said that one of my jumps looked about a line length in height though - it did feel high, but not the breathtakingly high jumps I do on my 10m.
There were some reasonable waves forming later on, and I found it much easier to get the kite timing right than I would on my own kite, where I often find I get lift just at the critical moment where you want to carve the lip. With the Nova, you can be so damned agressive with the kite, you can throw the kite, and then concentrate on getting the timing of your carve right.
At the bar end, on the water, the steering and sheeting is very light. You get great feedback when a gust hits, although the difference that is made when you sheet in and out is much more vague than on my own kites. However, the steering seemed a bit too light - was hard to tell what the kite was doing.
Did a couple of backloop kiteloops - man, that is SO cheating! Sheet out enough, and it's like pulling them when you're seriously underpowered - none of that savage power surge that pulls you horizontal and gives you that "this is gonna hurt" scream in your head.
Windrange... the best indication is that some people were fully powered on 9m kites when I first went out, and then some were undepowered on 12m kites later on. The Nova was set on maximum depower, and it was at its limit at times in the gusts, so I'm sure it won't go lower than 9m, but the low end wasn't tested - 14m, probably, which is a pretty impressive range.
Packing up, had a closer look at the build quality. Not amazed, I have to say. The dacron/nylon on the struts looks and feels a bit flimsey, and generally, it looks like a typical Takoon 'light' build, rather than feeling like a hard-wearing kite. The bloody strut deflators don't work very well either - you can push the North ones in, so the valve stays open, but the Takoon one, you have to jam the pins in, while you're squeezing the strut at the same time.
Anyway, very favourable first impressions, but I wouldn't switch from my kites - they boost higher, and go upwind slightly better, in my opinion, and the amount of sheeting and trimming is a pain.
The Crossbow
Today, it's been blowing North Westerly, so I shot down to Poole Harbour, dreading the carnage - it's a sunny day in August... where are these tnucs in February, huh?
Anyway, stood watching the carnage for ages, thinking "can I really be bothered to pump up my kite to then have some numpty wrap their lines around mine" whilst wincing at the collisions and watching with horror as kites tumbled towards the road.
Gary demo'ed the 9m Crossbow to me... all pretty much as expected. The stopper ball looked loads better. The pulley system and depower looked complicated but easy to use. All well designed stuff though - nice solid feel, unlike the Takoon, which has a slightly Heath-Robinson feel to the whole thing.
Faffed around for a bit, and came back when it was a bit quieter, and nabbed a go on the 12m Crossbow. The bar felt a lot more natural to me - more feedback, more pressure in the steering. Didn't really like the amount of force needed to sheet in though - I prefer kites that fly off the front lines - but after a couple of minutes, I didn't really notice it.
There wasn't really a great deal of difference in the way the Crossbow flew to be honest. Its turn speed is similar to that of the Nova, it was similarly sluggish through the window for a 12m. However, I felt the bar made an enormous difference.... it was really easy to maintain a constant pull, in exactly the same way that I would with my own kites. It felt very natural, and it was very easy to rip upwind.
Carving through the turns was similar - carry loads of speed, chuck the kite like your life depends on it, slice your way around.... loads of fun! Similar in every way, except it was easier to dump the power - with the Nova, you really had to stretch if you wanted to dump most of the power, but with this, you just sheeted out to the stopper ball, and that was enough.
Jumps were similar to the Nova - good, with great hangtime, but you really notice the difference that the sheeting is making, which was slightly disconcerting when I once sheeted out a bit too much to find I was dropping fast - it was OK though, just sheeted in again.
Again, kiteloops are a piece of p1ss, although I had a tendancy to over depower, which wasn't the case with the Nova, simply because it wasn't so easy to sheet out!
Then I had a go on the 9m. Now that kite is a lot of fun! Cabrinha, if you're listening, please make your 12m fly at the speed of your 9m - it whizzes around the window like a beauty, and is a bit easier going on your arms.
Tried some unhooked stuff with the 9m, and it's a joy - did the biggest railey of my life. It seems to get you blasting along a lot quicker than the 12, and then you can really load up, because it's not designed to sit so forward in the window like my Rhinos, and just let it rip.
The 9 clearly has a good windrange, as I was going upwind on it, when people were out on 13/14m kites. You've got to get moving fast, but it's really easy to work it. Another thing about the Crossbows is, I didn't touch the trim at all - I had all the sheeting range I needed.
Managed to spunk the 9 into the water at one point, and it went onto its back, and looked as if it was going to roll completely at one point, and then it went face-to-wind. I pulled on the front lines to get it to turn halfway around, as instructed, and then tried to pull on the back lines to get the wingtip to catch the wind, but the back lines wouldn't go under the kite, so they were pulling the kite the wrong way. Tried this for ages, and eventually had to get relaunched by another kiter. I wonder how many times a situation like that might arise.
Hopped back on the 12, which felt even slower than ever, and tried again to boost as high as I could. Lots of highish jumps, with loads of nice floaty hangtime. Not staggeringly good, but reasonably impressive. The float is nicely downwards, and not massively downwind too, which is great.
Then I tried to go blind in 3" of water, and busted my footstrap, so that was the end of my session. To be honest, I had to come in anyway, as my arms were completely knackered - it seems that the bar pressure was taking its toll after all, and I even had mild pain in my elbow (my LEFT elbow before anybody drops in any wnaking jokes).
Looking at the kite on the beach, it's definitely got a more solid build feel to the kite than the Nova had. There's some nice heavy weight dacron on the leading edge and struts that looks hard-wearing, and a few more scuff guards here and there. It's still a Cabrinha at the end of the day... so it's bound to be a bit more flimsey than a Slingshot/Naish/North etc.
So this kite impressed me still further with the whole concept, but it still had its downsides. I suppose I could develop triceps like Arnie and put up with arthritic elbows in my old age, but until the 12m flies as light at the bar as the 9m or the Nova, I'm slightly put off the Crossbow.
I'm also moved to concede that perhaps, maybe, just maybe, the Crossbow might go upwind a teeny weeny little bit better than my 2005 Rhinos. But would I swap my Rhinos for Crossbows? No way, my Rhinos have the precise bar feel I want, I can ride them all day, and they boost better than anything else around.
In Summary
Are they for beginners? I would have loved to learn on kites like these. The depower is every bit as good as it's cracked up to be.
Are they only for beginners? I really love the fact that an intermediate like me can throw the kite around as agressively as I see the pros doing on conventional kites, and this definitely offers a lot of potential. In fact, the best thing is that you need far less ability to pull off an imitiation of some moves that the super skilled guys are pulling.
Are they worth the money? Well, you could almost cover the windrange of two kites with one - don't believe anybody who tells you it'll cover three - but you're still going to need two of them to cover the same range as a three-kite quiver. I'm sure they're not worth it for advanced intermediates and above, but they could make kitesurfing a lot more enjoyable if you've been at the same level for ages, and you're struggling to find that extra confidence you need, or you're just rubbish in gusty conditions.
This is more of a significant event for the next generation of kitesurfers. Most of us are all well able to use edge control to depower, are able to move the kite with more or less agression, depending on the conditions etc. What this means for the next generation is far less death runs and spankings. They'll never develop the skills that most of us have got, but they're not necessary if these kites become the status quo.
For the rest of us, we split into two groups - the 'balls to the wall' types who are happy to crank their kite hard, and ride out the occasional spanking, and the 'happy to play it safe' types who've got kite and board control mastered, and are happily in the comfort zone, and won't go any further (or will just progress very slowly) because they don't like the heavy wipeouts.
For those who fall into the latter category, you might find these kites take your riding to the next level, but remember, when you start down that path, you leave behind all those hard-earned skills, and you'll be rubbish if you then try and get onto a high performance boost machine and do the same stuff.
Just my two cents
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