2016 North Neo 12m & North Team Series 138x42 TT

Rider: 93pies,Level intermediate
Style: Freeriding, Surf, Freestyle
Weather: 13-17 knots
Build Quality: 9/10
Satisfaction: 8/10
Disclosure: no affiliations, buy all my own gear

My Comments: Had myself a go on these little beauties today care of an impromptu demo session today Monday 17 Aug 2015, at Currumbin on the Goldy, courtesy of Josh from North. Due to limited available time I really only got to demo the new 2016 North Neo 12m and the new 2016 North Team Series 138x42 TT. I will start with the new 2016 North Neo Kite. I was very impressed with it's overall performance and found that it had plenty of power and was quite responsive in turning with good slack line drift ability. Something that you want for a dedicated Surf Kite which I am under the impression this is what this Kite is developed for. I found the power delivery and turning ability was quite predictable with very little lag effect for being a 12m Kite and it felt like it had plenty of bottom end power to it, and looped with ease which was needed as we were only out in fairly light wind conditions. I had a demo on last years model of the same Kite and from memory I found that it did not have as smooth power delivery as this years model and I found last years to be quite punchy in the gusts which made it more difficult for predictable control. Due to its good turning speed it was easy to throw it up into boosts or basic tricks and get some good height for the conditions, which I was reasonable impressed with as Medium to low aspect kites are not really boosting machines. The upwind ability of the Kite seemed fair but this is understandable for a medium to low aspect Kite whereas higher aspect Kites are IMO are better at upwind. Bar, lines, grip, depower and safety are all good and easy to operate with no hassles. Please keep in mind it has a high 'Y' if that bothers? One thing that did concern me however was it has quite heavy bar pressure. I used to like heavy bar pressure in the past but of my recent kites the direction seemed to be for lighter bar pressure and I certainly have got used to lighter bar pressure and tend to prefer it, particularly if I have been out for a multi hours although I did not have the time to play around with line settings to see if I could improve things for me. Overall I feel it is an improved kite from last years and it will certainly need consideration as one of the contenders if I was considering a new Surf Kite.

The North Team Series has always had some street cred, but I have to admit I have never had a go on any previous to this one. I was very impressed with this board it had very good pop and had very responsive turning ability for a board that has a reasonably square outline shape. Everything just felt so right to me on this board, just the right amount of stiffness through the centre and flex towards the tips. Landings were butter smooth due to big channels either side of a raised centre bottom section that would just displace water like crazy on landing. This board was running only 25mm fins on it but it has an aggressive rail channel that makes this board grip when I wanted it to grip and slide when I wanted it to slide. The board did not throw any spray into my face at all and I was riding from near glassy flatwater out into semi chop 1 to 2ft surf. There is a good level of rocker in this board that makes it feel so easy to throw the board up into some rotations, IMO this board would be a great crossover board between the freestyle and wakestyle, not that I am into wakestyle at the moment but I could feel the potential would be there and if I was to have a board like this in my quiver, I am sure it would assist to improve the level of my kiting.

After this I had a brief go on the new 2016 North Pro Series 5' 11" Directional Thruster and I was riding it strapless. I would have liked to have taken it out into some reasonable surf to fully understand this board but it was super responsive in turns and felt like it had a nice amount of flex in the board that you could just ride it for hours and hours on end without punishing your knees and ankles. I usually have slightly bigger length and volume boards due to my weight but I felt this board did not bog down all that much for me apart from when the wind was starting to drop out and I was not able to continue on to give a fair evaluation of it. Although I feel it might be something I would consider as to a smaller whippier board to my quiver if I had unlimited funds for having every type of equipment to suit all types of conditions and a bigger car and garage to transport or stash all the gear in