You should have just answered that there is sooo much diversity in riding styles - brand naming does count for much these days..

The best kites are the ones you have the most fun on

Purely a guess but
Bandit
Cabrinha
SwitchBlade

Most riders imho are like sheep following the flock
north kites seem to be the shepherd around here
You Carnt deny north are a well oiled machine when it comes to marketing their brands, for instance flexifoil when hadlow was on the team were going great, now he's jumped ship they have stopped manufacture of water kites, shows how high profile a rider can be to a brand, doesn't make that brand substandard as he isn't associated, but that's how it works, I'd encourage riders to demo other brands alongside what the others are riding

theDoctor said..

Slingshot Link

About the same time I didn't buy a link I purchased a 7m naish shockwave. It flew like a wasp on crack. I would have been safer with the link even before the magic red bridal...for those that don't know they replaced the bridal with a red one that still felt like the kite had a stone on its back (though the 7m was an ok storm kite)

Ozone has to get a mention

pearl said..
..for those that don't know they replaced the bridal with a red one that still felt like the kite had a stone on its back....

It used to fall backwards out of the sky for no reason at all....
Except maybe it just didn't want to fly

COL said..

theDoctor said..

pearl said..
..for those that don't know they replaced the bridal with a red one that still felt like the kite had a stone on its back....

It used to fall backwards out of the sky for no reason at all....
Except maybe it just didn't want to fly

The stone was on the leading edge, it took a tumble with monotonous regularity and no provocation. The smaller ones were Ok, the 12m had 9 struts. Can you believe that, 9 struts. And that's the year after producing the classic Octane(version1), which was super light weight. The Link is definitely the world's most swum kite of all time. But therapy has helped me get over that.

I would need therapy after just having to pump up said 9 individual struts, especially if they were the ball valve kind that had to be pumped with funny balloon man syringe pump.

I recon it's different all around the world. Its very dependent on which dealer and distributor is doing the best job locally.

BrisKites said..
North is the biggest selling brand in kites.

Biggest selling kite is a bit different as it relies on the model being around for a long time. It would have been a battle between the Switchblade and Rebel a few years ago but it would now be the rebel.

Biggest selling kite now. I would guess the Neo or Pivot

I assume this guy sells north..

COL said..

theDoctor said..

pearl said..
..for those that don't know they replaced the bridal with a red one that still felt like the kite had a stone on its back....

It used to fall backwards out of the sky for no reason at all....
Except maybe it just didn't want to fly

The stone was on the leading edge, it took a tumble with monotonous regularity and no provocation. The smaller ones were Ok, the 12m had 9 struts. Can you believe that, 9 struts. And that's the year after producing the classic Octane(version1), which was super light weight. The Link is definitely the world's most swum kite of all time. But therapy has helped me get over that.

Hey COL,

Actually, the trophy for worlds worst kite would be equally shared between the Wipika NSK or the Flexifoil Nexus. The NSK was made from Poly tarp, weighed a tonne and was only able to fly in strong winds, badly. The Nexus? Don't know about relaunch, because it barely flew at all. I don't think anyone actually used it to kitesurf.

By comparison, the Link, was a gem.

DM

Definitely agree with DM, the Flexifoil Nexus was the worst kitesurfing by a long shot, at least the wipi tarp kite flew ok when it was windy, the nexus just incredibly hard to control and did not relaunch, first test flight in Botany bay years ago required a rescue.
There was another kite that looked similar and was made of a "hypalon" type material, the same stuff inflatable rib boats are made from, it was called the Seasmik or something. It had no internal bladders in the inflatable parts, which they marketed as a key superiority, problem was how to fix a puncture, but the thing was horrendously heavy and flew like a car door.

I think the biggest selling kite for several years has been the F-one bandit, they built an entire brand on one model of kite and from what I know F-one is one of the biggest brands globally.








This video of the Nexus is the best way to get an idea of what this contraption was like, It had an inflatable LE and TE with flexible solid (heavy) battens.
You can see from the seasmik and the nexus that bridles were an idea that got rebirthed a decade later.

Ozone Kites Aus said..
Definitely agree with DM, the Flexifoil Nexus was the worst kitesurfing by a long shot, at least the wipi tarp kite flew ok when it was windy, the nexus just incredibly hard to control and did not relaunch, first test flight in Botany bay years ago required a rescue.
There was another kite that looked similar and was made of a "hypalon" type material, the same stuff inflatable rib boats are made from, it was called the Seasmik or something. It had no internal bladders in the inflatable parts, which they marketed as a key superiority, problem was how to fix a puncture, but the thing was horrendously heavy and flew like a car door.

I think the biggest selling kite for several years has been the F-one bandit, they built an entire brand on one model of kite and from what I know F-one is one of the biggest brands globally.








This video of the Nexus is the best way to get an idea of what this contraption was like, It had an inflatable LE and TE with flexible solid (heavy) battens.
You can see from the seasmik and the nexus that bridles were an idea that got rebirthed a decade later.

Classic video. Love the pump. When the first half the video shows the kite and guy bouncing off the water, I was a bit suss.
Luxury