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North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

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Toby
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North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Toby » Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:50 pm


Sun
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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Sun » Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:41 pm

I swear they said the same about the Cab Moto, a kite that I see less and less of. Not implying the kite is bad, just that reviews from a kite retailer seem to be about as impartial as reviews from the brand itself.

Sorry, just yelling at the clouds here. Even the guys from wetestkites are obviously biased towards the Dice. There was that huge 50 kite comparison recently, that seemed decently structured.

Just really hard to get a clean impression of a kite without trying it yourself or reading about it here on this forum from actual users.
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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Kiterisland » Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:30 pm

Yeah i agree shop reviews are essentially reading what the company says already.

For people who know how does the reach compare to the pivot in flying characteristics and wind range?

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Matteo V » Sun Apr 04, 2021 6:35 pm

Kiterisland wrote:
Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:30 pm
Yeah i agree shop reviews are essentially reading what the company says already.
Talking to shops over the phone looking for beginner friendly gear, I was pushed toward the reach. But being from a brand new company, with untested/no design lineage, I cant really reccomend them to our local newbies. Also, new north seems to be trying to keep prices up when there is an over supply of thier kites.

But yeah, this video just seems too scripted, with salesmen trying a bit too hard to project a higher value to the kite than it actually has. But that's salesmen for ya!

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Toby » Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:03 pm

The North team is pretty experienced with kites since many years, being former Cabrinha employees.

And North has a VERY long sails history.
So materials, quality, etc should be top as other too brands.

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Matteo V » Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:27 pm

Toby wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:03 pm
So materials, quality, etc should be top as other too brands.
Totally agree! Design wise though, Im kind of skeptical. One of the design criteria is testing and evaluating prototypes. If this is done only in ocean clean winds, and never in gusty/turbulent winds, some designs get through that are not great for conditions they weren't tested in.

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Toby » Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:46 pm

Matteo V wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:27 pm
Toby wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:03 pm
So materials, quality, etc should be top as other too brands.
Totally agree! Design wise though, Im kind of skeptical. One of the design criteria is testing and evaluating prototypes. If this is done only in ocean clean winds, and never in gusty/turbulent winds, some designs get through that are not great for conditions they weren't tested in.
sure!

But do we know in which conditions North tested them?

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Ludmil » Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:40 pm

Toby wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:03 pm
The North team is pretty experienced with kites since many years, being former Cabrinha employees.

And North has a VERY long sails history.
So materials, quality, etc should be top as other too brands.
...and quality should be top per se, right? Not saying the opposite though, brand image is important I must admit.
However, their last year kites weren't looking the highest quality, not bad, just didn't excel from the bunch as one could presume, considering the NS brand image as you alleged...

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Toby » Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:55 pm

Looking ?

Did we read any complains here about quality issues ?

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Re: North Reach Review with Shaun Bennett

Postby Havre » Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:39 pm

I can't stand videos like that. To me it just lowers the "integrity" of the shop producing them.

I wouldn't consider North "new". I would agree that buying a first version might not be the best option always (even if I personally have zero issues with my two first edition Enduros - arguably a continuation of an old Catalyst though). Like with vaccines there are only so much you can understand with the product from testing - and that real life experience gives you the possibility to start tweaking stuff. For example as mentioned by Matteo V from users using the kites in different conditions. 2021 would be the 2nd version of course.

I believe Pat Goodman lives in Taiwan by the way? Of course they got riders around the world testing it in other conditions.

As for quality. How do you evaluate that for a kite? Among the people I regularly kite with I don't think any of us got the same kite. I guess two are on old North/Duotone, but with different models. I would have no idea how I would say that any of them are of higher or lower quality than any other kite (in terms of the material).


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