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Naish Pivot 2016 - take 2

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Created by Macster > 9 months ago, 21 Jul 2015
Ozone Kites Aus
NSW, 884 posts
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11 Aug 2016 5:46PM
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thorn said..
castill0jf said..
try before you buy - i had the 12 pivot 2015 - sold it is big and slow . very grunt and not for my style.


Good advice. I too found the 12m too slow so swapped it for the 11m which is much faster for everyday use. The 11m and 9m kites are my go-to kites. However there are days when the wind is low and you still want to kite. On these days I am willing to sacrifice speed for a otherwise boring day of no kiting. On a big twin tip I can kite in 10kts, 13kts and I'm going well and jumping, not sure of the top end as I change to a smaller kite then. I've owned the 17m Zephyr (Pivot more powerful and faster) and 15m Naish Fly (Fly more powerful but way too slow). So for me the Pivot is a great balance. Obviously there are lots of other kites I haven't tried but the Pivot is a great all rounder for me.


Which Zephyr? There have been 4 versions in the past, and now there is a V5 about to hit the shelves in approx 2-3 weeks. Ozone tried 1 and 3 strut versions, we flew some of them in Mauritius, but they are sticking with the 5 strut platform, because thats where the massive wind range comes from, the sacrifice to the bottom end by having a couple of extra struts, is minimal and can be compensated for by changing to a bigger board.

The original Zephyr was not the most lifty or upwind, but it worked well, especially for the big guys. The next version was much better, and the 3rd even better again, V4 from 2015/16 was only an incremental improvement, but I would still say that it had better bottom end than my 14 Catalyst, and then last year with the 14 Enduro it still had 3-4 knots better bottom end.

Absolute best bottom end and still with a very good wind range, you need to shift to a foil kite like the Chrono V2 15M (and beyond if you have the desire and skills to handle a 19M R1 V2)

ste
WA, 499 posts
11 Aug 2016 7:21PM
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I've had a zeph 2015 and my v8 13 edge has a better bottom end or at worst the same.



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"Naish Pivot 2016 - take 2" started by Macster