1 1 4 / T E S T S / K I T E S

GIN / EGOIST / 9M TEST TEAM NOTES: The Gin bar probably has the

comfiest feel in your hands that we’ve tested all

year. Surprised? Gin have been steadily chipping

away at their product offerings for several seasons and for the last

two seasons have been operated by a bigger business outfit who are

clearly allowing for more design budget. They’re going to be serious

players and the Egoist points to a bright future.

The ‘Gin and Tonic’ bar has just enough softness under your

fingers for freeriders, allowing your hands to mould into the bar. The

bar itself is small and very tidy and we really liked the neat chicken-

loop which is a good size for freestyle and has a clean safety system

running up tidily through the middle of the bar. The above-the-bar

trimming cleat is excellent and overall the bar feels and looks really

up-to-date in a sporty bright white. You’ll notice there are some

back line knot adjustment options on the outside lines just above

the floats – these are often found hidden under the floats, and we’d

like to see the same done by Gin. They have such a clean system, it

seems a little unnecessary to have these exposed. Plus it will be less

confusing to inexperienced riders.

The Egoist itself is bright and stands out without the colours being

garish. Implemented with the popular mid-sized nozzle inflation

system, the Egoist is spec’d out as you’d expect for 2015 and features

good attention to detail throughout, including a large webbing handle

on the kite to help you carry it along the beach.

The Egoist fits very well alongside the mass of three-

strut, mid-aspect-ratio freeride kites that we have reviewed

this year. We tested the Egoist over two sessions; firstly a little

underpowered when most other riders on the water were on tens

or 11s and also ideally juiced when everyone was on eights and

nines. We always go out for our first runs on the factory setting as

you’d get it yourselves. Initially, on first launch in the first lightly

powered session, the Egoist didn’t feel like the most torquey of

kites. On some kites you can sheet in on the bar on the beach and

immediately feel it lifting your harness. We tried other nine metres

that day that had more power. A couple of strokes though and we

were up and going nicely, perhaps not with as much torque as

we’d like, but nevertheless the kite flew very nicely into the wind,

we were riding upwind and felt comfortable. The steering does

require quite a bit of input and force to go round in the light winds.

There was a bit of a lag after initiation and looping the kite at this

bottom end of its wind range, the kite takes quite a wide radius to

begin with and took a while to come back up through the window.

So we went back to the beach and moved the back lines up one

knot on the rear pigtail for more steering input and pressure. Sure

enough there was more low end and the steering became quicker

and easier, however also became easier to back stall. Moving

the setting produced what we wanted in terms of more low end,

better steering initiation and feeling at the bar in light wind, but we

didn’t get that nice bite and really positive drive through a turn and

occasionally had to sheet the bar out when completing a loop to

reduce some of the load on the back lines.

Next session (now back in the standard middle setting) was

very different. The Egoist comes alive in genuine nine metre /

18 – 20mph+ winds, feels lighter and more positive at the bar

and has lots more lift at the top of the window, without feeling

unruly or intimidating. Straight off the beach it feels stable and

trustworthy, but also energetic and lively. Quickly up to speed the

Egoist parks itself nicely forward in the window and really makes

for effortless upwind tracking. The power band still isn’t grunty.

There’s adequate power, but it’s delivered to you in a soft way.

There are no big surges and, for freeriding, you feel very light and

quick on the water. There’s a large sweet spot overhead in which

you can send the kite to get plenty of lift. Getting a healthy climb on

your jumps is easy and then the hangtime feels decent and offers

lengthy float. Although light, the Gin isn’t completely neutral though

and is easy to sense where it is in the sky. It can still stumble a

little round the bottom of the window on a kite loop if you’re really

pushing it but, as with many kites with thin leading edges, the

more you can pump it up the better. Although the Egoist is happy

to sit forward to provide a very easy tow upwind, there’s a lack of

aggression round the corners for very skilled pilots. Although the

Egoist can be trimmed a little to be able to provide clean unhooked

performance for freestyle improvers, advanced riders would miss

that eagerness through the window to keep it moving forward

sweetly when unhooked. The Egoist suits an improving freerider

who is starting to really get to grips with their jumps and has all

the unhooked performance needed to make life easy in terms of

progression over the next few seasons.

SUMMARY: Overall the Egoist is a really fun, reactive but friendly

kite. We reckon the top end would go on for ages, too. The harder

you pump it the better to get a really solid air frame. Freeriders

already riding with high-performance levels will want more bite

and grunt. Lighter intermediate riders will definitely find the

Egoist more fun and very rewarding.

KW LIKED: A very fun and approachable mid and top-end range

will inspire lots of long, un-fatiguing sessions. We had hours on

this and barely felt it in our legs and arms when, in reality, we’d

rinsed all corners of our home spot.

KW WOULD CHANGE: Bigger riders or higher-performance

freeriders will want more bite, oomph and drive round the bottom

of the window.

SIZES: 14.5, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6m

www.ginkites.com

BALANCE POINTS: Build quality: 7.5 / Full package: 7.5 / Low end:

7.5 / Top end: 8 / Steering speed: 5.5 / Turning circle: 4 / Power

through the turn: 4 / Bar pressure: 5.5 / Water relaunch: 7.5 / Drift:

DT / Boost: 7.5 / Hang-time: 8 / Unhooked: 6 / Cross-over: 7 /

Ease-of-use: 7.5