I flew this yesterday in about 17-20mph at Exmouth. Perfect conditions, dead flat in the channel on twin tip and small waves out the back of the sand bar on my surfboard. Kite was lovely in both disciplines, was really powerful - i’d normally be out on my 11m in that wind and comfortable, I was overpowered really. Kite boosted effortlessly and nice floaty jumps, was using the larger fusion bar and kite was really stable when you wanted it to be but turned quickly and responsively when you wanted it to. On the surfboard it sat back going down wind and off the waves but when you wanted it to kick in it did so quickly. A couple of times i got caught out going towards the kite too quickly and it lost too much tension in the lines, but it floated backwards and stayed in the air until the lines tensioned again. If anyone wants to know any more let me know but I’m going to get a 12m to fit in with my other kites, This will be my biggest kite and was a little worried it wouldn’t be big enough for light winds but if it pulls like the 10m there shouldn’t be any problems. Looks great and has a few neat looking tricks such as the vents and wing tips. kite kept its shape all of the time and flew well when depowered and was really responsive so guess these did the business. Cant comment on relaunch as i didn’t need to do any but the wingtips also should make this easier.

James

Hey James, liking the review! Welcome to the OR crew.
I’ve got mine on order, 10 and 7m and in anticipation of the Dutch winning the EC next year I ordered orange. A bit of a sacrifice it turned out as these were the only color that was delayed. Or so. Anyway I grabbed a demo 10m last Sunday in like NO wind - People working their 14m Cabrinhas - and amazingly I could propel myself with it, sining like a canoeer but the Razor kept steering and gave me that gentle pull, just enough to hold ground. I normally would not go out at all in these winds, 14knots at most. I’m so looking forward to some full on kiting when my orange kit arrives!

Crew - keep them reviews coming in!! A lot of questions are being asked about the Cypher and the new Rises, how are these?

El Rudo - 01 November 2011 11:48 AM

Crew - keep them reviews coming in!! A lot of questions are being asked about the Cypher and the new Rises, how are these?

Indeed!

Little noises on the Cypher has got me interested. Still trying to get a demo sorted somehow. Unfortunately this weekend’s effort has been cancelled before we even got going.

Good review James and I should be able to post more on the Razor soon. 

I also had a brief go on a 10m Rise. Yup it is without doubt still a Rise but more poke and direct it seems without losing the Rise characteristics.

The 2012 kite’s are amazing,  light and strong the bar pressure is medium with perfect feedback
i have flown the 7 and 10 razor and 9 cypher.

i love the razors drift.
The kite is very stable, if you go too fast down the line, the kite falls slightly back and is right back to you ready for the next turn the kite has saved me several times.
For freestylers among us, the razor has a good pop a friend of mine
grabt the kite and landed his first s bend to blind.
he jumps easily you can feel what the kite is doing , not so much hangtime but more then last years razor.

the Cypher
I found it difficult to place the kite
it is more of an allround kite, I thought it was more a mix between the rise and the razor, the shape of the razor and the bridle of the rise.
it really is a kite that you can do everything with, there is not that much pop as the razor

The cypher generates less power than the razor. He does have more hangtime
He is just as fast as the razor.
I think it’s a good kite for teaching .

Hi Barry. Thanks

You are making the decision between the two even harder!

The Cypher sounds soooooo tempting if it takes some characteristics from both the Rise and Razor. I’ve been slowly developing my freestyle and this kite sounds like a good step forward.

Do you sleep at night noo noo? 

You need to start a Cypher thread!

andy - 03 November 2011 03:33 AM

Do you sleep at night noo noo? 

it’s daytime here as you well know.

Deciding over a Cypher or Razor? yes it is starting to effect my sleep.  Why did they have to schedule Winter to arrive? I’ve got that buzzy feelin associated with news toys and busting new moves.

Noo noo these photographs are going to make it even harder for ya.

Because I say so.

This is a beautiful kite guys. And - even though it was blowing 12-16knots, it flies super smooth with lots of power.

the oranges weren’t in so kMac made me choose orange and no kite or any other kite. I’m glad I picked this “other blue”.

yes yes. Even the ladies ar liking it.

What size and type of bar di you get Rudo? Pretty sure when I demo’d te 10m it was on the larger bar. All good and plenty quick in the turn. Wondr what they’d be like on the smller one?

Big bar small setting. Its the only bar I have in working order. My bars are a mess at the moment, R&D victims!
Actually that was on of the main differences with the 2011 Razor, I was flying this in the slow setting and that really needs a large bar. The 2012 has power steering so it would probably work with a 30 cm bar…
Other differences I noticed: More depower, loftier and boostier, and more pop than the 2011. These are preliminary conclusions, as there was no wind.

Wow, nice big flat water spot there Rudo. Is it Brouwersdam?

Too many toys to choose from.  Life was simpler when I had one kite and one board. :D

Hi vpas,
it’s 20km to the north from there, Rockanje. Not my favorite but the only good one with S - SE winds. Choppy to say the least. Actually the real flat butter pr0n is just around the corner, at Oostvoorne. And the best by far is across the bay, but that’s closed now for a major expansion of the Rotterdam harbor. It’s pretty interesting, it’s about 4km away from the beach, we sometimes go have a look there how they make a huge piece of new land. We hope to be able to ride there this winter. My favorite playground yessssss!

I’ve just had my third session on the 2012 Razor 10 and what a kite!

Heaps of Grunt, super stable. I’ve been out now in the 15-17Kts through to 20-25Kts and this kite is awesome.

I’ve been impressed by the stability, you can jus crank the power off and it’ll drift downwind and when you need to power it up it cracks back into action. I’ve only been kiting for under two years but 2012 Razor teamed with a Mako is brilliant.

The kites look great in the air, so nice to have some style in the air, cant get my head around kite manufacturers that make kites that look like someone puked on them.

I’ve got my hands on a 10m Razor. 2 short sessions on it in unfavourable conditions. Who said this things hasn’t got any float?

First effort was a light wind, “I need to go out with my new toy” session. 13mph or about 11 knots but it was forecast to pick up a little. Fingers crossed and it did build to about 13-14 knots at most in the gusts. Sub 15mph otherwise. In the gusts this thing was getting me and my 80kgs up wind. Thats on a JT pro (132x41) too. Couldn’t do much but another knot or two and things would have got interesting. 2 others were out and a guy on a 13m and Mako (140 I think) was mowing the lawn but getting upwind nicely. So bottom end for me before I start starving myself will be around 15mph. That’s the magic number for me and kiting anyway. 10m will be my big kite this year. Small bar too. Bar size will be down to riding style but either size will do. The wave guys might want the larger one so they can be really aggressive with the kite. Small bar will be fine for me.

2nd effort wasn’t the best session again. Easterlies don’t really work that well in North Wales and the winds were up and down and basically dropping. Still I was well powered in the odd gust and was really surprised at the height and float in the light winds. Nail the take off in up you go. Surprisingly it held me there too. It thrives on pop though and I can see why Jeremie gets on well with them. Pulled a Raley and unfortunately sent the kite a little as I popped (bad bad habit and poor technique). Turned into a bit of a monster with me dangling underneath the kite for what felt like ages. Pedulumed underneath it but it just drifted back in. Wind dropped to nothing which cut the session short.

Looking forward to a nicely powered session now but winds have gone a bit funny for the moment.

I’ve had three sessions with the 2012 Razor 12m, so I figured I’d post a quick review. Just some background, riding on the large Fusion Bar with a Nobile T5 twintip and 5’11 surfboard with straps. I’m 185 lbs, and ride about 65% on a twintip (basic freeride - rolls, etc. working in some unhooked, 35% on strapped surfboard.  The past two seasons I’ve ridden a 2010 Rise and 2011 Razor and now the 2012 Razor for the upcoming season.

Session #1: 10 - 14 knots NE, small waves/chop
Session #2: 14 - 18 knots ENE, small waves/chop, flat water
Session #3: 13 - 22 knots W, gusty, chop, some flats

Build Quality/Design:
Typical of last year’s Razor except that the panels on the canopy appear to be better designed and built. Bridles, connection points, bag, etc. are similar to last year’s Razor.

With regards to design, it’s definitely a good looking kite, in the air it has a more pronounced C-shape and appears to be more compact than last year’s Razor. In fact, the first time in the air, I commented on how it’s a much tighter arc in the air, it looks thicker in the air as compared to last year’s model.

Overall Riding Impressions:
I’m riding with the fast turning, less depower setup so far, although I switched to more depower as well. The first difference is the decrease in bar pressure. It’s not so much as to throw me off, but definitely less, which I was originally wondering if there was a decrease in low end, this is definitely not the case. The kite has the same low end as last year, while I was pretty lit up on both the 18 and 22 knot days, so I’m not sure there’s a big increase in high end, but this will require some additional tests with setup (I had it set to less depower).

Compared to last year’s Razor, the kite pivots about itself a lot quicker when turning, probably from the FST. I’m not saying it’s a dramatic increase in turning speed, in fact, I think it’s roughly the same as last year, it’s just that the turns generate more power as it’s less of an arching turn, seems to be a lot faster on transitions and loops as well.

As far as stability, this year’s Razor seems to hold it’s shape and eat up gusts better than last year’s. The 2011 feels every little gust and reacts with a grunt. This year’s model seems to smooth some of this out, not as much as the Rise, but definitely better.

Upwind this kite is the same as last year, not as good as the Rise, but given where it likes to sit in the wind window, this is not a big surprise. It’s low end grunt balances this out, as most of the time I struggle staying upwind, I probably wouldn’t be kiting with near as much power on the Rise.

Relaunching is markedly improved from last year, it may be the combination of the newer bar (I was riding the 2011 Razor with a 2010 Freeride bar) and FST. Anytime I let go of the bar after unhooking or just crash it after some aborted move, it would fall back on it’s LE with low power and wait for my input. Very easy to get back in the air when it’s on a wingtip, I think the FST works as advertised here.

Jumping/Looping:
Jumps with a bit more loft compared to last year’s Razor, but basically the same, a quick catapult off the water, which even though you may lose some hangtime as opposed to the Rise, I really enjoy how this kite jumps better than the Rise. I like the stomach-turning yank straight up into the air.

I’m not the best at looping the kite, especially in aerial transitions, but I have looped it occasionally on the surfboard, and as I stated in my overall impressions, it seems to loop more on itself in a tighter radius.

Unhooking:
I’m just getting into unhooking, and I’m not focusing a lot of my riding time on it, but I’m working on it in both flat water and on the surfboard. This kite is noticeably more controlled and smooth when unhooked as compared to last year.

Surf:
As I stated to begin with, I only got this kite in marginal surf during part of one session. In that time it behaved similar to last year’s, with solid down the line stability. I’m going to ride more in the coming weeks (hopefully) and will update my thoughts.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, the Razor keeps a lot of last year’s strong points (power, turning speed, explosiveness) which improving on some needed areas (relaunch, stability, and turning arc). I’ll update my thoughts as I get more time on the kite, but so far, I think the 2012 Razor is a more refined 2011 and should be suitable for a wide-range of disciplines. Ideally, it’s for someone who is into powerful, aggressive riding in both freestyle and surf.