Ocean Rodeo Razor 9m 2012
Reviews / Kites
36,805
At A Glance
The Razor from Ocean Rodeo is billed as an SLE C kite, aimed at the freestyle and wave market. Out of the bag it certainly looks the part, in fact all the 2012 kites from Ocean Rodeo look rather appealing, hats off to the graphics guys on that one! But lets look beyond that as OR have always been known for their innovative well thought out products. The Venturi Technology is present once again; this is a vent on the kite that allows air to flow from one side of the canopy to the other near the trailing edge. Ultimately this reduces drag and allows the kite to fly at a much more sheeted angle than a conventional kite; it also helps with back stalling. It’s nothing new, OR have been using it since 2008, but as you would expect they haven’t stopped there. Perhaps the most striking feature of the Razor are the FST wingtips. FST stands for Forward Swept Wing Technology and in a nutshell it makes the wingtip bigger to help with smoother faster turning whilst at the same time moving the front line attachment points further forward which gives the kite more depower and range. It also helps break the surface tension during relaunch. The build quality is really high on the Razor, something we have come to expect from Ocean Rodeo over the years. There are plenty of reinforcements in all the right places and the overall package is very well put together.
The Bar
Just like the kite, the bar is a little different to the norm too. You’ll notice the curved shape and it immediately stands out from the rest of the pack. Ergonomically it feels very comfortable in the hands and the bar comes complete with O’Shit handles, floats, and moveable stopper and a below the bar trim system to take care of the depower. The chicken loop is a simple push away system that works very well.
In The Air
Wow, that was one word that sprang to mind the instant we launched the Razor for the first time. It’s like a little pocket rocket! We were amazed at the low-end power and pull of the kite. For a 9m it certainly pulled like a train, but while some kites pull and seem to sit further back in the window being sluggish the Razor was no slouch. Those big wide wing tips mean that when you put some input into the bar the whole kite seems to twist and start to turn through the window with surprising speed and force. This makes for a very exciting kite to fly, especially if you like pulling big powered freestyle tricks. Send the kite back for a jump and it really wrenches you off the water, there is plenty of float on the way down too, offering an aggressive feel but not sacrificing hangtime the Razor put a smile on all the testers faces when they flew it. Upwind is very good, allowing you to quickly get back to where you started after pulling a load of jumps. Relaunch was very easy, we didn’t have any problems there at all, sometimes the rear line needed a tug to encourage it to get airborne in lighter winds though. Bar pressure was medium, we always felt like we were getting plenty of feedback from the kite. While it was powerful and punchy it was very predictable in it’s flying characteristics.
For
Innovative, a little different, blistering speed, power and performance. Great construction and some very stylish looks for 2012 too.
Against
This kite isn’t a gentle beast. While it is easy to fly it delivers a hefty pull especially when looping. Riders at the novice end of the scale would be better suited to the Rise.
Overall
A great little kite from Ocean Rodeo, it delivered pull that we really weren’t expecting, lots of power, fast smooth turns and big loops!
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!
