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new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby Havre » Fri Sep 24, 2021 10:34 am

Interesting view. So few that ride Orbits here. Only seen one 2020 and the person riding that one wasn't very skilled - so I have never spoken to an Orbit rider in "real life". A lot of Dice though. Never tried it myself, but by the way people describe riding the Dice it sounds very similar to my Enduros. I would expect the Orbit to be quite different from riding an Enduro to be honest?

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby nothing2seehere » Fri Sep 24, 2021 12:17 pm

Havre wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 10:34 am
Interesting view. So few that ride Orbits here. Only seen one 2020 and the person riding that one wasn't very skilled - so I have never spoken to an Orbit rider in "real life". A lot of Dice though. Never tried it myself, but by the way people describe riding the Dice it sounds very similar to my Enduros. I would expect the Orbit to be quite different from riding an Enduro to be honest?
I think the newer Dice are somewhere between the Enduro and the Amp now. The older ones were similar. Different design philosophy though. Rob talks in his interviews about designing kites that fly well. The duotone kites are about performance (which to me is the end product). My take is that this difference is a bit like manual vs semi auto gear boxes in a performance car. For outright speed the auto is going to be better for most people, but there's a joy in itself in a manual gearbox.

I've spoken to a few Orbit riders as there are a few where I kite. I got the impression it was a kite that would appeal best to an advanced rider (though the best riders at my beach are on bridled C-kites ). Its an interesting idea to me - target audience being riders who want more engagement than something like a Rebel but more hangtime than something like a dice.

I'm impressed that North spotted the emerging market for competition Big Air kites and got in there right at the beginning. I'm trying to think of another brand that was on the ball the same. F-one tried with the Bullit but I thought even Liam had gone back to the Bandit in competition now. Core riders were using the GTS range. The Dice didn't go anywhere near as big and was still mid way through getting rid of pullies. Naish had the Pivot but that was all about getting Kevin as high as possible in strong wind. I can't remember anyone trying a dangle pass on a Pivot ever.

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby Kitedicted » Fri Sep 24, 2021 8:08 pm

nothing2seehere wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 12:17 pm
Naish had the Pivot but that was all about getting Kevin as high as possible in strong wind. I can't remember anyone trying a dangle pass on a Pivot ever.
Second trick: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CTWz_Kan ... =copy_link

And here
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSwFwXvl ... =copy_link
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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby PusherII » Fri Sep 24, 2021 9:05 pm

dracop wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:16 am
Totally disagree with the above. The 2021 Dice crushes the Orbit on low end. 2021 onwards the designer took alot of materials off the Dice and it improved the low end alot. Ive been impressed how low I can ride the Dice in terms of wind speed. Note that I am uncertain if there will be a Durability issue for taking off so mich material. I can ride my 10m Dice into the teens and still make it back to the beach easily (weigh 214 lbs in ocean environment).

The Orbit is great in high winds as is the Dice.

Have not yet tried the Dice 2022 SLS but if it does actually dly farther out in the wind window, its going to improve the low end even more.

The Orbit only does one thing nicer than the Dice and thats doing powered kiteloops. The Orbit is more technique driven and requires more skill than the Dice.

All of ly fellow instructors can make the Dice work for them whereas I seem to be the only one who can make the Orbit perform, to the point I jump higher than lighter weight riders weighing 100lbs less than me in the same wind on The same kite. The Orbit strongly rewards pro grade technique whereas the Dice is not so picky. Its pickier than a Rebel or XR, but you do not need to be a superhero to get the Dice to work. You do for the Orbit - most riders will believe the Or it is a soft pulling kite with good low end because they dont have the technique to activatw its power.
Can you explain wich skill area is involved with orbit?
7 years experience here, used orbit sometimes and for sure not a beginner kite, not a low end/grunty kite, but it seems to me pretty easy to boost. Am I missing something?

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby dracop » Fri Sep 24, 2021 9:35 pm

If you only use a Boost to jump (eg, send the kite to 12 while riding normally), the Orbit does not perform well. The Dice will outperform it and the Rebel/XR/Edge kites will demolish the performance of the Orbit if that is the only technique you use.

The Orbit rewards virtually every high end technique for jumping with each element adding alot of power. So do a Stomp / Pre-Load Pop, load/pop off the wave kicker if there, and Boost once you are already airborne (so the kite's power does not have to rip you off the water - you are moving vertically upwards from your loaded pop when you send the kite hard to 12).

The Orbit will give you an elevator straight up /\ shape jump with some floatiness and it loves to Loop. You have to loop it for landings, no wimping out or you will regret it. Its not a XR/Rebel that will glide you back down and it needs the energy of the secondary / heliloops to land smooth. Note that good techqniue will improve any kites performance, however the Rebel only adds an extra 10-15 ft from the advanced technique. Boosting the kite to 12 with no other technique will easily get you 30 ft jumps; its not that sensitive to skill. Makes the Rebel a great Intermediate Big AIr kite. The Orbit will only give you bunny hops below 5m if you do nothing but boost to 12.

One thing I learned outjumping other guys with the same 10m Orbit in the same wind and them weighing 50-100 lbs less than me - they live off just boosting and do not do much technique beyond that. Their light weight is why they get good jumps. None of them understood the other elements or techniques and they do not use them in their jumps. They all thought the Orbit was kinda sucky; I thought it was an awesome kite if you have the skill to unlock it. My high weight means I am always looking for extra elements I use can use to get a bigger jump. I think guys in my weight category must have a theoretical limit of about 50-60 ft unless we get 35+ kts using a TT.

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby edt » Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:29 am

I really like the new orbit. 2022 I guess it's the model year whatever the nearest one is. Feels stable easy to fly easy to boost not like the 2020. I didn't like the old orbit because it was so finicky and hard to fly.

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby Blackened » Sat Sep 25, 2021 6:09 am

dracop wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 6:16 am
Totally disagree with the above. The 2021 Dice crushes the Orbit on low end. 2021 onwards the designer took alot of materials off the Dice and it improved the low end alot. I've been impressed how low I can ride the Dice in terms of wind speed. Note that I am uncertain if there will be a Durability issue for taking off so much material. I can ride my 10m Dice into the teens and still make it back to the beach easily (weigh 214 lbs in ocean environment).

The Orbit is great in high winds as is the Dice.

Have not yet tried the Dice 2022 SLS but if it does actually fly farther out in the wind window, its going to improve the low end even more.

The Orbit only does one thing nicer than the Dice and thats doing powered kiteloops. The Orbit is more technique driven and requires more skill than the Dice.

All of my fellow instructors can make the Dice work for them whereas I seem to be the only one who can make the Orbit perform, to the point I jump higher than lighter weight riders weighing 100lbs less than me in the same wind on The same kite. The Orbit strongly rewards pro grade technique whereas the Dice is not so picky. Its pickier than a Rebel or XR, but you do not need to be a superhero to get the Dice to work. You do for the Orbit - most riders will believe the Orbit is a soft pulling kite with good high end because they dont have the technique to activate its power.

The GTS/Orbit/Dice are all KOTA targeted kites which involves two key elements: power to jump high and how it loops. The Orbit and Dice both loop great, as a heavier weight rider I want as much power to get high enough to do proper megaloops. I can jump 15+m without a megaloop but its hard getting enough height for a competition stytle megaloop to the horizon off these kite unless the wind is nuking strong way past 35 kts. This makes it hard to practice megaloops due to availability of such wind conditions. So improving the power level of the kite ala the Dice SLS while keeping its loopabilitytis a winning formula imo!
I haven't ridden the Dice since 2020, but I didn't think it changed that much in 2021. Happy to admit I could be wrong with the Dice low end vs Orbit, but I can also ride my 2020 10m in 18/19kn at 100kg and a 137x41 board. It's boring as shit and I have to work to stay upwind, but it goes. It admittedly doesn't become fun until ~25kn.

I disagree with Orbit being harder to loop. It's the easiest kite I've ever looped and not aggressive at all. Unless they changed it, the Dice was super aggressive and if done incorrectly - painful. While admittedly awkward at first, the Orbit is just "pull the bar" and the kite does the rest. You don't even need to sheet out a huge amount to get the kite to climb.

I do agree the Orbit needs decent technique to jump well, but as you said, once you get to the load/pop stage it's fine and a standard requirement of anything not named Rebel or XR (etc). I normally consider this basic intermediate riding, but my definition of intermediate may be off. The Dice was also in this category, unless they made it more pull and go in the last year.

That said, looking at Aaron's 34m on a 9m SLS - pretty fucking epic. The structural stability of the SLS must be insane. My 9m Orbit, even pumped to 11-12PSI wouldn't hold shape well enough to handle that much power. The wingtips would instantly fold on takeoff.

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby dracop » Sat Sep 25, 2021 6:23 am

If you read my comment you will notice we are in agreement on looping. I stated the Orbit had a nicer loop in 2021.

They DID change the Dice 2021 alot compared to prior years; getting rid of pulleys/sliders made it much faster and reactive. 2021 the kite is minimalistic - no bumpers, patches, not even the connectors off bridle lines. The designer took off everything he could to improve the low end and it actually did help alot.

At some point in the last couple of years they also opened up the center canopy panels generating more passive power.


I despised the Dice five years ago now I love it. Itching to try the SLS altho what I really want is an Aluula Dice.

Note this all for 2021 Dice vs 2021 Orbit.

2020 would ha e looked very different. 2022 is looking very different with the into of SLS, I will prob order one to see if it really makes a difference.

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby RasmusP » Sat Sep 25, 2021 9:15 pm

Hey guys, it's me again.. I could finally demo the Orbit a second time, sadly only the 12m again.
Loving the kite but I got one question, since my slingshot raptor has the following issue:
Is the middle of the leading edge staying put on the ground in strong winds?
With the Raptor, the middle of the leading edge is slightly pulled up by the pushed down struts (about 5cm), while the structure is "bent".
The kite is basically "hopping like on springs" and although it's only 5cm, you have to constantly keep an eye on the Raptor and have a board or sandbags on it.
You can't leave it for one second in more than 25 knots.

While all other Kites at the spot are staying put without any issues, the Raptor wants to bounce backwards...

So what's your experience with the Orbit? Is it staying put?
Ofc you need to secure the kite in 30+ knots. I'm only talking about "in comparison to the average kite".

Thanks in advance for your feedbacks!

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Re: new reviews on 2021 North Orbits?

Postby lizards » Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:16 am

Can someone explain to me a bit about what makes the orbit different from other 5 strut boosting kites such as the edge, xr, or rebel? I am looking to replace an old 7m cabrinha velocity which is also a high aspect 5 strut boosting kite.
I keep reading about how the orbit is best suited to more experienced kiters. Other than the front stall tendency, all the kites I just mentioned work great for beginners. Is the orbits frontstall tendancy much greater than those kites?
Also the other 5 strut kites I mentioned are known to be slow but people talk about the orbit being a fast kite? What is different about its design that makes that the case?
Since I am replacing a 7m kite and all 7m kites are zippy and fast, I’m not sure I want a kite that is known for overflying easily. There are some pretty tempting deals out there on 2020 orbits which is why I’m considering it.


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