North Rhino 06 14M

Hello fellow Kiters!

Are you sitting confortably?... Good... then I'll begin.

My 21st birthday was coming up and I had already been flying kites for a bit, so I decided I'd take it to the next level and try it out on water.

Have to admit I did a fair bit of research on what kite to get as it's not a cheap hobby to pick up! I finally decided that for my weight (about 10.5 Stone), a 12 metre kite would do the trick well.

So I eventually got the '06 Rhino with the 5th element bar as it seemed like a wise investment, judging by what other people had told me and I took the IKO levels with it.

I've now had many sessions with it on the water and from my experiences these are the pros and cons of this kite.

Pros:

Setting up this kite is literally idiot-proof, you can't go wrong, if you can and you have, get in touch with me so that I may mock you endlessly.
This kite is amazingly stable, it just refuses to stall or slow down in most cases, that 5th line adds a lot of strength and stability to the C-shape so there's not much chance of it going "floppy" on you. Manouvers well in the air and can be adjusted for quicker or slower turns depending on your style of riding.
If your a fan of big air (and I am) this kite will keep you smilling all day long. The power this thing can muster is sometimes scary but great fun.
All modern North kites come with this now but the Ironheart safety device works great and is easy to take apart and put together again.
Water re-launching is fairly simple once you get the hang of it, the 5th line does make a difference I think.
The bag that comes with it is huge, which is great since you can fit half your gear in too, but it's pain in the ass if your flying with it trust me, airlines don't like you for it.

Cons:

Since this kite is designed for competition freestyle jumping among other things, it doesn't like to come down often and can be a bit problematic in water if you need it to.
The battens on this kite ( little plastic rods inserted along the kite to maintain shape ) are a bit fragile, I've already broken 2 packing it away, but the good news is that it comes with spares
The 5th line makes a self rescue procedure interesting, i've almost had it power up before whilst wrapping the lines which was slightly concerning...

My Opinion:

I personally think this kite is great, I actually liked it so much that I bought a 14 metre Rhino four months later.
I started kitesurfing with it and I'll admit it's not the most beginner friendly kite to use, but once your doing water starts confortably this kite has some real attitude on the water, it delivers a lot of power which is pretty easy to control. The fact that it doesn't like to come down can be considered a good or a bad thing depending on how often you fall in.

Hope you find this review helpfull and I would appreciate feedback or even personal experiences with this model.

Ride safe !