Review for Naish Helix 2008 12 M

Times tested: No Comment
Range: 12kn to 18kn

Good: Shape, smoothness, relaunch, build quality, speed and turn rate.

Bad: Some aspects of the bar, basically the adjusters and trim strap, donkey dick.

Review: I like the Helix, for many reasons, I used the word incredible to describe it, and by that I mean it has an incredible shape, and an incredibly smooth power delivery and turn characteristic.

Many other areas are similar or better to kites already in the market or ones I know are coming soon.
Things like relaunch, CB3 and Contra are the best, but Helix is close. The bar as delivered on the demo kites, is not as clean as similar 08 flat kites. However when the smart loop is available and fitted I think it will be one of the best and cleanest bars on a flat kite for 2008. The donkey dick on our demo managed to slide over the ring where s suicide leash is attached on the side of the chicken loop. A bit of tape will fix that issue though.
I did not find the adjusters to be a problem though, they may resemble CB1 design, but are not as stiff and inclined to get in the way as those were.

So the review, it was an unseasonal NE on Tuesday when I test rode the kite for approx 90mins, winds ranged in the 12/13 to 17/18, and mostly around 14/15 knots for the greater part of the test period.
Water was light chop, mixed with a small swell down near Dolls.

I was riding a 1.52 x 44 Underground FLX, I weigh approx 75kg wet, no problem going upwind at any time, and the upwind angles I could achieve are some of the best I have experienced.

Jumps in the gusts were excellent for height, acceleration off the water and for float and smooth soft landings.

Power control in turns and the rate of turn is another outstanding (incredible) quality of the kite, same as the power delivery, silky smooth. Its a kite that delivers most of the pull via the front lines (seriously unlike any other kite I have ever used!), excessive muscle on the rears just kills the speed and therfore the power this apparent wind eating kite can deliver. It likes to go fast, it needs to be ridden fast, but it is the easiest kite I have used that needs to go fast.

Normally I like to ride my 1.52 in winds/waters like Tuesday, but at times the board was just too big for the speed I was carrying, so had a couple of good high speed splats.

Relaunch is easy, and the technique is "pull the other one", basically pull one rear leader, then release and quickly pull the other and the kite will pivot on one of the "points" of the leading edge.

Octopus one pump worked well, left the struts inflated until the tests yesterday at Kurnell, then deflated the whole thing and rolled it up to see how it went back into the bag. Kite fits easily in the bag, so bag design is good, has double shoulder straps and a pouch on one side for the bar, and straps for a board on the front.

Kite comes with a "smart leash" thingy that allows a rider to ride with a fully spinning and flagging leash system. Kite depowers enough for an experienced rider to just ride with the leash clipped on the centre line above the bar. Have not used the bar stopper. There is only light bar pressure, so never felt the need for it.

Kite will fly in the lightest winds, similar to the Cabrinha CB3/Contra3/SB3, the canopy tension (Geo Tech) does seem to help in the overall balance of this excellent kite design. Will also relaunch in super light winds, well under 10 knots as was experienced during by the riders during the tests yesterday.

I also tested the primary safety - drop the bar depower - the kite falls from the sky after a moment of hovering, similar to the Cabs.

The kite must be flown to be fully appreciated, but it does have exceptional lift, stability, speed, and smooth power delivery.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve


Rider Profile

Weight (kg): 71-80
Ability: Advanced
Style: Jumper
Preferred Water: All
Preferred Power: Good
Preferred Kite Size: 12.0
Most Used Kite Size: 12.0
Preferred Board Style:
Preferred Board Size: 131-140
Brand Affiliation: Shop
Similar gear used: Waroo 12M 07
06 Vegas 14M
SB1 12 M

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I flew the Helix today for a bit. 170.b rider, 9m kite, seven strut model in wind averaging 16 with gusts of 20 and lulls of 12 on a standard 6'0" (custom version of Airush production converse) in waves from knee to head high. Rode about 20 minutes, caught 8 waves (all unhooked). In short, ideal conditions.

The short version is "this is a great SLE and anyone in the market for this type of kite should try to test one of these for sure.

The details are as follows:

What I liked: Most comfortable kite I've flown. Very, very smooth flying kite. No flapping and nothing weird about performance. If I wanted a really comfortable kite to cruise around for eight hours on, this would be at the top of the short list (of what I've tried) Sheet way out and kill all the power and it sits very stable. Felt like other SLE but smoother and more stable. Turning was a bit better than other SLE, not fast like a good C, but good for this style of kite and the feel of the turn is good. Not pivotal at all and carves a nice arc. I am really only interested in unhooked wave riding and that is what I wanted to see if it could do. The kite should be sheeted to full depower for unhooking (I don't know how the kite was rigged but assume it was stock middle knot). Trimmed this way it unhooks and flys well. Again, very stable and smooth and not a bad kite for someone looking to learn how to ride waves unhooked. Sits a little back from what I am used to but better than most other SLEs I have flown. If the wind angle is perfect this kite is a smooth and effective unhooked wave kite, if you need to turn it a lot (onshores for example) it is not fast enough. The stopper widget on this kite is a really good one. slides easy when you want it to, holds when it is supposed to and it has adjustable tension (not on the fly). Best widget stopper thingy yet. Bar was not full production so I won't comment on rest of it.

What I didn't like: Slow turning compared to new Cs for unhooked waves. Granted it was a big kite but still this is the big area that needs work in all depower bridle kites. Much slower than Generator, Torch, Reactor etc. Kite also felt a little undersized for a 9. I would have been on my seven reactor (in fact I had been earlier when wind was even lighter but I was also underpowered). I would like to try the seven of this kite (none around) but I just had a feeling that it would be not enough. Seemed when I rode it and watched others that it was a little less kite in lighter winds than older Naish SLE shockwave. So maybe for light winds you loose a little. Not a whole kite size worth but feels like maybe 1/2 to 1 meter smaller?

Couldn't say how it relaunches but it is very hard to crash this kite if there is wind. I don't know if it gets weird in super light winds.

Who will love this kite? Basically anyone who wants a really smooth riding comfortable, easy to fly, stable depower kite. One of the very best of the genre.

Best uses? all around free ride kite. Great choice for a one kite quiver maybe although I have questions about light wind performance and no idea about high end.

Is it revolutionary? Not really but it is damn good at what it was designed to do and it validates the design and shape.

Serious Competitors; North Rebel, Airush Vapor. It would be great to see an unbiased, no holds barred test of these three.

Prediction: Naish will dominate the bridle kite sales with this thing. It may or may not be the best bridled kite but with lots of hype already and the fact that the kite is solid and super comfortable and easy to fly I would expect the Waroo flyers to jump ship to Naish by the hundreds.

The design is interesting enough that I wonder if this design could be applied to high end C shapes?