As quiet as it is, just for a laugh, I thought I'd invite you to share your worst kites ever. Over the years most brands have had some god awful designs in the search for something revolutionary.

Here's a few to get started:

Best Hellfish (Cuban Fibre) The kite that never was
Flexifoil Nexus - Wouldn't even fly
Slingshot Link - Flew like hell
Cabrinha C111 - Wouldn't fly without extensive technical bridle modding from new
Airush Halo - Deadliest span kite ever
Wipika NSK - Poly hessian canopy lolz
Gaastra Phoenix - twin leading edge bladders and zippered canopy?

There have been so many ....

DM

Anything by Duotone, especially the white canopies. Lol

and Ozone Lei's

agree with all of those, and would add the entire naish sigma series & what was that slingshot light wind model with the massive leading edge bladder from around 2006?

Anything by Pansh.

Best and worst all in one kite. Ozone Edge.
Air like no other and fast.
Around 8 or 9 years ago this section was flooded with people groaning about their leading edges failing. They really were extremely poor quality. My 7&9 failed in similar areas of the leading edge.

'Best' once used some strange material to make the bladders in 'Bularoo' kites. After some time in storage, the stuff had turned to myriads of sticky flakes; very difficult to clean them all out to instal a new bladder! Also, huge one-pump-connector valves, situated far from the strut/ LE junction, requiring modification of the holes in the dacron sleeves to suit normal-size valves & longer hoses. WTF were they thinking

I had a 18m Naish X2 back in the day. Had about 15 struts that needed to be pumped individually. LE as thick as my thigh. And it was still nicknamed "the seagull" because it flapped it's wings like no other kite I've owned. Couldn't keep much pressure in it as the bladders were like bubblegum.

Had horrible times teaching with the Gin kites, their kites used to deflate every second crash.

Had a love/ hate relationship with the old bandit 3, lofty as hell, but kind of like rodeo riding on a bull that has been smoking the glass barbeque. Was pleased when a buddy crashed it and ripped it in half for me lol.

Oh and in the days before LEI's were industry standard had some absolute hellish times on the bigger C-quads, but learned a hell of a lot.

And, sadly, never had a good time with a Naish kite, always fell apart on me way before I felt was acceptable.

Gaastra pure 2017 11m
Bought mid season as my 10m wave kite busted.
Regretted every minute of it , flew like a tank. Didn't like doing anything, build quality was excellent but if this kite got in the hands of a beginner would be terrible to learn on.

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kitesurfsnow said..
Gaastra pure 2017 11m
Bought mid season as my 10m wave kite busted.
Regretted every minute of it , flew like a tank. Didn't like doing anything, build quality was excellent but if this kite got in the hands of a beginner would be terrible to learn on.

But their beginner kite is the spark, the pure is supposed to be for intermediate/advanced riders I think.

Hated the earlier Naish Parks. Would just back stall all the time.

never flew the kite but remember the crazy bad marketing and self promotion of Buzz kites, looks like they have disappeared?

Pretty much every kitting company using Chinese bladders, not learning their lesson over 15 years of dodgy value adhesion.

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Plummet said..
Anything by Pansh.

Pffft.. you only flew one way back in 2013 or so. The new Hawk kite is very good for value $$

Ok I'll bite

* Pansh Aurora 1 (see I am honest!) - great for about 1 week and bridles shrunk and stretched soon after. It's what gave the rise to the most modded kite in history. However, they're new Hawk foil is very good (plug)
* Peter Lynn Waterfoil 5.6m. This was sold as a "trainer" kite. LOL... omg it almost killed me on first flight. Very super responsive though and spun like a 30inch blade fan! But can be tamed using some bridle mods and patience (like anything). Yeah none of you know this one. I am the only one in the planet with TWO of these!
* Gin and RRD kites - ugly as
* Airrush - kites for mowing lawns with only
* Cabrinha FX - weirdest kite I've ever flown
* Ozone Zephyrs - slowwwwwwww turning

The GK Sonic gets my vote as the easiest to stall kite in history. The build quality was terrible too but, before it fell apart, it screamed upwind and had fantastic hang time. The lack of non-return valves on all but the end struts made blowing it up a nightmare too in the UK where the plastic was frozen solid in Winter.

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NorthernKitesAUS said..
Ok I'll bite

* Pansh Aurora 1 (see I am honest!) - great for about 1 week and bridles shrunk and stretched soon after. It's what gave the rise to the most modded kite in history. However, they're new Hawk foil is very good (plug)
* Peter Lynn Waterfoil 5.6m. This was sold as a "trainer" kite. LOL... omg it almost killed me on first flight. Very super responsive though and spun like a 30inch blade fan! But can be tamed using some bridle mods and patience (like anything). Yeah none of you know this one. I am the only one in the planet with TWO of these!
* Gin and RRD kites - ugly as
* Airrush - kites for mowing lawns with only
* Cabrinha FX - weirdest kite I've ever flown
* Ozone Zephyrs - slowwwwwwww turning

I'd agree with you just to keep the peace but.

most kites that are pigs to fly don't have their lines tuned or have not been repaired back to symmetrical.

I love riding the FX and the Zephyr for their predictability when the wind is lighter, so everything is slower but they still loop.

The worst kite IMHO (and theres a few of them) are the ones that "deform into a jellyfish" underload. I've had a switchblade, union, varial and an edge all do it to me.

Flew a Cabrinha kite - think it was a CO2. circa 2006/7 era. It wasn't a terrible kite .... but in combination with the Recon bar it was a death trap so it was known as the kite of doom amongst my circle of friends. Pretty much everyone who flew it had a brown trouser experience at one time or another.

That was the bar that would lock at full power if you sheeted in fully. Its a nice idea for advanced riders but there was no way of disabling the locking mechanism. One of my mates went so far as to taking a hacksaw to his bar to try and cut the mechanism off but it still used to stick. It was so horrible I had to go and buy my own kites rather than borrow his when I was learning.

the ?north kites that folded and tied themselves in an origami knot
i didn't believe it at first but saw it happen :-)
unbelievable

naish sigma were ****e

wipika hydros would shoot through the window and then luff out of the sky, got good at relaunching back then

best hellfish was before its time, but never flew one..... I have "cuban material" tents for lightweight camping trips, haven't tried them as kites as yet

I remember back in the day before hadlow flexifoils a done a swap for a c kite it was a proto type known as the jelly fish. That was like riding a sister and whispering her sisters name to her. Just sheer on of bucking bronco ??

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bolgo said..
the ?north kites that folded and tied themselves in an origami knot
i didn't believe it at first but saw it happen :-)
unbelievable

Yep, the 2010 North Rebels (4 strut) and the first 4-line if I recall correctly, had a propensity to fold in the middle when ridden by heavy riders in really powered conditions whilst sending through the wind window depowered. There was a basic fix, but the kite needed the middle strut and we saw its return the following year.

DM

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ActionSportsWA said..

bolgo said..
the ?north kites that folded and tied themselves in an origami knot
i didn't believe it at first but saw it happen :-)
unbelievable

Yep, the 2010 North Rebels (4 strut) and the first 4-line if I recall correctly, had a propensity to fold in the middle when ridden by heavy riders in really powered conditions whilst sending through the wind window depowered. There was a basic fix, but the kite needed the middle strut and we saw its return the following year.

DM

First 4 line kite with depower was the 1999-2000 Naish AR5.
I reckon any foil kite that bow ties as well.
Has to make it on the list

1x vote for the Slingshot Link.

Think it was back in 2007ish

It did not want to stay in the sky

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stamp said..
agree with all of those, and would add the entire naish sigma series & what was that slingshot light wind model with the massive leading edge bladder from around 2006?

The slingshot "octane"
I named it "cockstain"

I had a "Mosquito" ram air a looong time ago. No depower. It had a line that attached to one of the lines and your harness. Let go of the bar and sometimes it would collapse nicely. Sometimes it would go into a fully powered up death spin that would body drag you until it crashed. The lines were then so twisted there was no way of launching it. Needles to say I gave up before I got any good at it.

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ActionSportsWA said..

bolgo said..
the ?north kites that folded and tied themselves in an origami knot
i didn't believe it at first but saw it happen :-)
unbelievable

Yep, the 2010 North Rebels (4 strut) and the first 4-line if I recall correctly, had a propensity to fold in the middle when ridden by heavy riders in really powered conditions whilst sending through the wind window depowered. There was a basic fix, but the kite needed the middle strut and we saw its return the following year.

DM

I think they were 2009?

I hadn't felt an aluula kite until the other day, and as soon as I touched it, it gave me terrible flashbacks to the HellFish! Easily the worst kite ever imho.

I had a couple of Takoon Furia's which were terrific kites. I upgraded when the Takoon Pure came out, absolutely the worst kite I have flown, worse than a Slingshot Link! Would Hindenburg out of the sky just like Link ??

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ActionSportsWA said..

bolgo said..
the ?north kites that folded and tied themselves in an origami knot
i didn't believe it at first but saw it happen :-)
unbelievable

Yep, the 2010 North Rebels (4 strut) and the first 4-line if I recall correctly, had a propensity to fold in the middle when ridden by heavy riders in really powered conditions whilst sending through the wind window depowered. There was a basic fix, but the kite needed the middle strut and we saw its return the following year.

DM

Yup 100% spot on, they sent me a little pigtail to attach like a loaded center line to keep it from folding in half! Great times!

I'll add in there... my beloved Wallan Air 3 line ram foil

No depower

Fixed Angle of attack before you took off

It was physically impossible to go upwind on :).... well at the time at least.

Fair Condition, needs repair, won't hold air. Was $1000, now only $500.
I want to punch this guy.