Kiteloose Essenz 135 x 42cm 2012
Reviews / Twin Tips
3,748
At A Glance
Italian brand Kiteloose are enjoying a bit of a rebirth at the moment, a new direct to customer sales platform means the gear is being delivered at very reasonable prices. The Essenz is their freestyle offering and it comes in at a pretty stunning €549. We loved the top deck graphics and the overall styling of the board. It is a simple shape, a slight concave in the bottom of the board, ABS rails, full wood core and a step cap construction to the tip deck.
On the Water
The shape of the Essenz looks pretty understated; there is nothing radical or crazy about it. Simplicity at it’s best you might say. But when you jump on the water while you might expect it to underperform with it s simple bottom shape you would be hugely mistaken. We couldn’t quite believe the way the board behaved. Fast, responsive, great pop, but more importantly one of the smoothest rides we have had in chop in a long time! Normally companies use fancy bottom shapes to achieve this, Kiteloose however have opted to maximise the flex of the board, which is quite soft, to allow it to breeze through the rough stuff like a magic carpet. We were quite simply stunned with how the board performed and it quickly became a test team favourite. Upwind was excellent, the 5cm fins helping it to bite along with the sharp rails. Jumping was good, the softer flex means you have to work a little harder to get the maximum pop, but the comfortable ride more than made up for that.
Overall
Well-priced, stunningly good through choppy water, fast and fun. We couldn’t get enough of it.
Videos
This review was in Issue 34 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit KitelooseRelated
By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!
