Best Kiteboarding GP 7m 2012
Reviews / Kites
55,300
At A Glance
The GP from Best is a totally new kite for 2012 and it fills the hole left by the Yarga when it departed the range some time ago. Like most brands Best concentrated their efforts towards kites with bridles and the popular Yarga got left by the way side. But with a strong freestyle team rider focus, and with boards like the Profanity highlighting a more radical direction for the brand the GP comes out of the corner fighting. It’s features 5 struts, fairly square wingtips and quite a narrow chord depth. There is a 5th line bar set up with the 5th line splitting to a Y near the kite to offer some more support to the thin leading edge. The quality of the materials and stitching is very high and there are plenty of reinforcement points on the kite. The attention to detail is extremely high and the graphics belay its purpose… This kite is aimed at the hard-core freestyler out there looking for optimum performance.
The Bar
The GP bar, like the kite is totally new for 2012. It features all the best bits from the Redline Performance Bar and trims it down to offer the bare essentials to the freestylers out there looking for uncluttered simplicity. It features an above the bar webbing pull/pull trim system, a 5th line which runs through the bar and can be rigged as a leash or as a suicide set up. The safety release is dealt with by the very simple Pro Cuff push to release system. Check the video to see how it works!
In The Air
If you pick this kite up, look at the shape and the graphics and expect it to fly like your grandma, then you’ll be sorely mistaken… The GP is an aggressive, fast, freight train of a kite. But if you know what your doing, then boy is it fun! The steering is unbelievable direct, if you’ve never flown a C-Kite before then you’ll have missed out on what it feels like to be directly connected to the kite at all 4 corners. The thin profile leading edge helps it to fly aggressively through the window and it turns on a dime. Forgive us for getting all American in this review, perhaps the graphics rubbed off on us! Hooked in the kite flies with purpose, sending the kite back in the window to boost results in a satisfying hank of the water. Whilst you get sent up with some force, you’ll need to dial in the timings to maximise the hangtime. The GP like all C kites isn’t floaty; it’s aggressive. It will send you to the stratosphere, but the onus is on the rider to get back down safely. Unhooked the kite performs sublimely sitting just far enough back in the window to maintain power yet not stalling when you land your tricks. There is plenty of pop from the kite too when you load the edge and release the board. The top end wind range is very good on the 7m, we could hold it down no problem at all, but the low end isn’t anywhere near as good as a 7m bridled flatter kite. Of course that should really be obvious, but if you are used to flying 7m bridled kites and you jump on the GP you might need a little more juice…
For
Well built, lots of attention to detail, great fun to fly, fast, aggressive, freestyle machine.
Against
Not for the faint hearted, wind range is good for a C kite, but not comparable to a bridled flatter style kite.
Overall
It’s great to see some brands embracing the C kites of old and the GP from Best is certainly one of the better kites out there. The unhooked ability really impressed us, it is a technical kite to fly, due to its speed, but great fun when you have the skills.
For more information visit your local dealer or go to http://www.bestkiteboarding.com
Videos
This review was in Issue 30 of IKSURFMAG.
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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!
