North Rebel 2009

What a little power house the new rebel 09 is, I recently used it is some very gusty winds in Portugal, somewhere around 20mph gusting 40mph ,talk about getting yanked out of the water, they were more like good jumps, The kite is a fair bit more powerful than the 07 or the 08, it feels lighter in the hands and speed of turning was super quick. With the bar fully away there still was power in the kite, but it was still Ok with my 10m coping with the 40 mph gusts, and there was still reasonable turning speed, so many kites I fly you push the bar away and the turning goes completely. The 09 bar feels very much like the 08, it is a sweet bar, with so many of the annoying bits that wore out on the 07 and 06 well and truly binned, one complaint by Daryl from www.holiday-active.co.uk thought the quick release was a little to easy to use, talking about Daryl, if you want a cheap place to stay he has some cracking little chalets for £50 a week, it doesn't get better than that, plus he is a qualified instructor, if you want to go and ride and leave him to teach the Mrs, or a mate. Anyway the jumping of the rebel could be, I am not going to fully go there, as I love my Vegas, but it just might be a better jumping kite than my Vegas, the height and hang time, is amazing, I don't think it is as good for unhooked stuff, but just ripping up and down and just sending the kite back was awesome. The third day and it was light winds maybe 12 knots and not enough for a fat lump like me ,but I blew the rebel up for my son, he is 6'3 but can only weighs 65kg, and just getting up, Daryl and I were both impressed with the rebel here, you could when the wind really dropped pull the 5th line, and pull the kite on to it's back, or you could just hold an out side line and the kite would just roll over and launch, it really does not get a lot easier than this. He also pulled the quick release and the kite came straight out of the sky on the 5th line, so so safe, I was really impressed with the new rebel, I think the big thing North got wrong is they should not of called it a Rebel, as it is not really like the 07 or 08 rebel, a much more al round beast. Ps it now has a one pump system and not there own clever crap system, they have borrowed the same idea as slingshot and it worked a treat.