First Kite with Naish Cult

The longest night and an air temp of 3 degrees predicted … but a day on the water a new Snugg winter wetsuit and brand new 12m Naish Cult drew me to the beach with Ed.
Wind when I arrived not the best 10-14 knots so figured it would be a light wind day on the 12m and the quad fin surfboard.

Wind picked up to 25knots by the end of the 4hour session so had a good range to test out the Cult.
One word “mindblowing”
After battling with the Halo’s – their on off power approach – their lack of waveriding ability and their uncanny ability to destroy front flying lines it was time to upgrade.

The kite pumped up fine – was a bit surprised that there were no stopper balls to help inflate – the only downside I thought.

Now realise what a dolt I was – ~It is single point inflation I am way behind the time …. As it says
NEW OCTOPUS INFLATION SYSTEM

The Torch features Naish¹s revolutionary NEW Octopus System. The Octopus¹ “single point inflation” lets you pump up your entire kite in one quick step. Naish¹s exclusive Octopus valves mate seamlessly to the bladders of the leading edge and struts. The Octopus¹ internal connection points keep everything out of harms way, and allow for an ultra-smooth, aerodynamic air flow. There are no clunky, heavy external tubes anywhere on the Torch. The octopus is the cleanest, lightest single point inflation system available.

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Weighted the kite down on the beach as I thought the sigma shape centre raise would let wind get under it, but not much movement on the beach (less so than my Halo kites). Launched carefully after checking all the safety’s. Bar is incredibly light and the range of movement is incredible. Love the ability to use depower on the smart loop – those of us under 5’10” with shorter arms. First time using the stopper as well – works really well when riding and shifts on heavy wipeout as i found.

The best thing about the kite is the feeling – whether in 15knots or later in 25 knots with depower the kite feels exactly the same …. also there is no flutter with depower – so kite just sits there stable with power on tap for when you decide to boost.

First 10 minutes where an education or more like a re-education on how o jump. Quite different from the bow or at least the feel was so messed up a bit not redirecting the kite in time. Dropped the kite in the sea and think that in light winds it is not as easy to relaunch as the Halo’s … actually jumped under the kite to much and it dropped out of the sky and inverted crossing the lines. So went back upwind to the beach came in and reattached my lines.

Trying to source a 7.5m to go with the 12m but feel amazed that 2 years has made such a change to kite design …. love it again. More on my next kite ….. but now just memories as I am off to Middle East for 3 weeks of work.

Snugg wetsuit (mini zip) is amazingly warm – air temp was 4 degrees yesterday and windchill was about -1C in the 15 – 25 knots ….. and I was sweating even after 4 hours in the water. Great suits very comfortable and I even resisted the urge to christen it ….