I thought I would put a review on the Gin Nazca, as surely this kite must win an award for the most under-hyped kite on the market.

I have been riding for 4 years and over that period have owned GK, Cabrinha and North, & Best kites and demo’ed Rev, Nobile 555, Rebel, Vegas, and probably some others. Unfortunately I am an addicted consumer and love trying anything new. I buy my own kites so don’t have any allegiances.

Basics: 12 m kite, one-pump, 5th line safety, leading edge supported through 5th line (not sure what that makes the kite - hybrid??), carbon bar. Bar is small; I think it could be a bit longer as I like quick turns, but it seems OK. Simple safety, nothing mechanical to seize up; maybe a little easy to set off if you bump the cover, but I guess this is better than being hard to release! Bag is good quality with a second bag if you want to leave the struts up. Good pump, blah blah blah...

Build: This kite is up with the best for construction (probably only slightly behind Flexi IMO). Really nicely finished kite with lots of attention to detail, down to a small neoprene cover over the zip on the leading edge. Reinforced leading edge and good protection on scuff points. I tested the strength of the canopy by crashing into some trees and then hot launching through a bush. Not a scratch - couldn’t believe my luck. Probably not a recommended test technique…

Bar and lines: Don’t really know what to say; again good quality, uncluttered design. As I said above I would have liked the bar to be a bit longer but that is personal choice and others seem to be cutting bars down for other brands. Swivel is below the bar so easy to manually un-spin. If the safety is on the 5th line and not suicide it twists up after a few rotations in one direction. This is a little annoying but not a big deal, as it is easy to un-spin or connect to the built-in suicide option. Could do with a larger chicken loop for unhooking as it is a little hard to hook back in, but also note I am average at unhooked riding.

Bag: Good, solid construction; nice back-pack style so easy to carry the 2 meters from my car to the beach. Second bag is a good option if you leave struts up, rather than have a lot of mesh floating around in one bag when you don’t need it.

Flying: This is where it gets harder to describe and to be honest I find all kites now fly well, given a bit of time to adjust to different feels. So I will list the things that made me change (and given not many other people fly these I shouldn’t get too much grief).
•Very stable. Seems to float and correct itself when it is over-flown. Easiest kite I have flown for unhooking (note I am far from good at unhooked stuff).
•Easy to re-launch. Not as easy as a bow, but its not bad and defiantly a lot easier than some other brands I have flown. It doesn’t seem to get itself into too many strange positions and to date has not rolled over itself which is a definite down side of a 5th line. (A justified risk, as I have seen enough 4 lines in death spirals with little that can be done quickly other than release the kite.) For me, I have found the 5th line a great safety, but I am sure others will disagree.
•Rips upwind but always hard to compare to other riders as boards make a lot of difference.
•Jumping: I really enjoy the feeling of being rocketed out of the water combined with the float of a bow style. This is one of the reasons I have gradually gone back to more c style to get that explosive launch. The Nazca delivers it all. Only small downside is it takes a bit more technique than jumping a bow, but well worth the perseverance.
•Loops: This is a great looping kite; keeps very even power during the full turn. The 5th line has a small pulley which allows the line to even the load across the attachment points to the leading edge and according to the blurb, increases the torque during the turn. I don’t know if this is true but it sure turns nicely.

If you are looking for a kite that has the powered feel of a c kite with nearly the same de-power of a bow, jumps well, stable (I think it would be good in surf as that seems to have been a design criteria, but can’t comment), direct bar feel, and did I say exciting jumps, it’s well worth demo’ing. I was sufficiently impressed by the solid construction and feel during jumps, loops etc to change over. Give it a go and let me know what you think.

Also a review in KBM (volume 8, November 2007).

Hey doogle do they go up wind enough to get around piers?

i heard they make great wind socks

The pier was the least of my problems more worried about out pointing the spirit of Tasmania!!

PrawnStar let me know if you need more repair tape for your new kite, I wont be needing it based on the quality of the Nazca

"PrawnStar let me know if you need more repair tape for your new kite, I wont be needing it based on the quality of the Nazca"

Gold Jerry, Gold.

Had an excellent day on the Nazca (doesn’t feel right saying I had an excellent day on the GIN). It was nice to see another Nazca kite out and also pulling off some awesome jumps and kite loops. The more time I spend on this kite the more I am enjoying it.

Please PM if you are in Melbourne and would like to try. I would like to get some others opinions as obviously I love it or I wouldn’t have replaced a big brand kites for these.

You trying to make more money selling them doogle. Who was the other Gin out there?