TELL ME ABOUT IT
Okay, so one of your headline features for the new line up has been the Quad-Tex… What can you tell us about the material, and how does it impact on the performance and the durability of the kite? Quad-Tex is something I am really, super happy with. The very first goal was to increase stiffness and longevity of the canopy material. The approach was that instead of starting with a material and adding ripstop yarns to it, I looked at it the other way around. I started off with a matrix of ripstop yarn (typically 3x stronger than the rest of the yarn in the material) that would give superior characteristics to the material and then added the “regular” yarn in between this matrix to complete the material. Increasing the stiffness of the canopy makes your kite respond faster to bar input and wind gusts, making your kite so much more direct and fun to ride. “Faster turning”, “more direct” and “more crisp” are a few of the key characteristics that most people are feeling on kites made out of Quad-Tex. Improved rip prevention of course also came with the nature of the material.
From our experience in testing ‘wave kites’, some tend to perform really well in ‘perfect’ down the line conditions but then less well in ‘less than perfect’ onshore conditions and some are the other way round. Do you think the Slash is good in all surf conditions? While working on the Slash, I did get to test quite a few wave kites out there and definitely noticed what you’re saying. So when working on the Slash, I wanted to make sure we would have a good kite in all conditions. Luckily here on Maui we have a mix of absolute perfect side shore conditions, more offshore spots and a full onshore spot. The wind is also quite gusty here, which makes it similar to a lot of places in the world. I also had the chance to test some of the prototypes in Cape Town, where the conditions are also very different. In the end I can say that I am really happy that the Slash works in all these conditions! And a lot of riders are now also getting involved with the ‘strapless freestyle’ scene. Did you have this in mind with the Slash? This was totally on my mind when making the kite. Personally I mainly ride strapless now, and when there are no waves it’s all about the jumps and tricks. For that I was super stoked when we were testing the prototypes with Kai Lenny one day as his first comment was how much he liked the Slash for flat water tricks, because with the kite being so stable, he didn’t have to worry about what to do with the kite and it was always there where it needed to be at all times. I should add that, as with all of our kites, the Slash has tons of depower, so when you jump strapless it’s super easy to adjust
the power in order to land tricks and you never get carried away (like I experienced when I was testing other “strapless” kites). 126 | TheKiteMag
Finally, our long-term (three years) testing has proven that these characteristics continue to deliver responsive performance longer on a Quad-Tex kite and, over time, will still feel superior to a kite made out of other canopy materials. This is due to the fact that with Quad-Tex you rely less on the resin of the material to provide the stiffness. Instead, these characteristics come from the very nature of the core of the canopy itself. And moving on to the sharp end – you also have a new bar offering with the new Torque system. Can you take us through the key technologies and features of this? The key features of the Torque are the new quick release that not only passes the French AFNOR norm, but is also incredibly simple and easy to reload. Then both above the above and below the bar trim options come with a ball bearing swivel right above the release handle, making it super easy to untwist your front lines. So it is fair to say that it’s been a busy few months for Naish with a few significant new releases – did you guys plan to have a busy year or has it just worked out that way?! Well, we’ve been busy for three years working on the QuadTex, two years on the Torque and a year on the Slash. To be honest I knew it was going to be a big launch for three years already because of the Quad-Tex! And what’s in the pipeline for the next few months? We’ve got more coming in the next few months! Our next big release is spring 2017…