Just bought and received the 10.2 Unik, sounds grazy or maybe a bit foolish but I bought this kite because I really like Gong’s philosophy and what they did after the past years so I thought, well …. for this price and theyr return policy let’s give it a shot.
I flew a lot of kite brands over the last 16 years and a lot of boards, at the moment I fly Duotone Neo`s because they fit me the most, most of the time I’m doing waveriding on strapless directionals here on the Northsee coastline in The Netherlands with lots of downwinders in any direction. After so many years I can say about myself that I can feel if a kite doing it`s job or not, so below my summary of The Gong Unik 10.2. (I flew the Unik with the Duotone Click bar with the Y split on lowest position)
Update 1: I bought the Unik 9 and 6.8 as well
The bag:
High quality and comfortable bag with enough space and a very good zipper, 2 holes with straps on each side for the bar and pump, some big brands have way less good bags than this one, the only thing what should be convenient is a small extra pocket with zipper or velcro for your spareparts or belongings.
9/10
The kite:
Came nicely packed and sealed in a box in 5 working days, well done!
The kite is beautifully and tightly finished and looks great in the entire wind window without hardly any fluttering.
2 drawbacks I could find:
The rubber tube from the leading edge to the strut, pumping is difficult here, you have to move the small tube to let the air through it, not a big problem but you want the kite to be pumped up in one go without staggering, I solved this by cutting 2 cm’s of the black rubber tube, 2 min work.
+
The 2 Ronstan rolling pulley’s are a bit out of time, they do what they have to do but I prefer the Ronstan Shock blocks sliding pulley’s, much cleaner and most likely we will see this in the 2020 models.
Update 1: I changed them for Ronstan shock blocks slider pulley's, only 2 grams.
Update 2: Till now after a couple of sessions no signs of wear and tear at the lines from the Ronstan Shock block sliding pulley's
The 10.2 is a powerful kite and light, it is faster than my NEO 9 and drifts perfectly. (difficult to say this but It`s true)
This UNIK can do it all and I think Gong has put down a very good product here, which is certainly not inferior to the more famous brands.
I will give more updates after a number of downwinders as also how this machine will fly on the foil, let’s see how this outstanding one-strutter behaves in overpowered conditions and how de wind dump is (High end) Low end is powerfull!
Update 1: The top end has been reached quickly and the indicated parameters on the Gong website correspond, in my opinion, with reality.
Update 2: Recently made a powerful downwinder, half of which I was heavily overpowered, the kite tends to fly over you on top but does not fall down.
Still controllable but not recommended for wave riding in overpowered conditions.
Update 3: This kite fly`s perfect on foil, very easy to control and it just floats there in the sky , this kite rocks !!!
To the Gong team:
You nailed it with this one!
But, shorten the rubber tube by 2 cm, sliding pulley’s instead of rolling pulley’s and an extra compartment in the bag that you can close with a zipper or velcro for your spareparts and/or belongings.
8/10
Pricewise 10/10
(I give it an 8 because I have no comparison one strutters material but that will certainly follow)