North 2015 Dice

Hi Peeps,

Most of you know me as a shop owner. but you should also know my reviews are as unbiased as I can make them. Take it for what it is ....

Rider: 93kg .... Oh ok, 94kg (but only of late) ,Level (advanced)
Style: Freeriding, Surf, Freestyle
Weather: 15-23 knots
Build Quality: 10/10
Satisfaction: 10/10
Disclosure: Owner of Action Sports WA in Balcatta

My Comments:

Just last week, myself and three other team and shop riders took the trusty demo van on an expedition to find wind and surf in Exmouth. We closed the shop for the week (Sorry to cause inconvenience) and pointed the Sprinter North. We scored a week of perfect windy, sunny days and made the most of it to test all of our new kites, boards and SUP's in real and decent conditions.

Here's my thoughts on the Dice.

As many of you will know, the 2014 Dice was my freeride/freestyle/wave kite choice of last season. I had my eye on other kites this year with the early relaease of the Neo, so I wasn't in a hurry to demo the Dice. The Dice was the last kite I tested and I managed to get out on the 11m and also the 9m.

The Dice this year, is not the same as previous years kite so you will need to demo the kite if you thought you might upgrade from last years. My initial thoughts were, Wow! Totally different to last year. Much tighter canopy, more power and really solid in it's feel in the sky. The Dice has moved along the kite style spectrum more towards the Freestyle end and away from the wave end. The kite has become so much more of a mainstream freeride/freestyle kite without the heaviness of the Vegas or Rebel. The three strut design sheds unwanted weight and gives the kite it's nimbleness.

The additional power gives the kite a more substantial feel to last years and it boosts really well with quite respectful hangtime. The steering is still quite crisp and the kite has a really playful feel to it. Loops are fast and excellent with nice consistent power throughout the radius of the arc. To be honest I didn't test the relaunch, but lets face it, any modern kite relaunches pretty well these days.

Upwind performance is as good as gold, but honestly, all this stuff is just words, it's impossible for me to convey the feeling of simple fun and great performance to you. I'd recommend a demo ride (as always) to see for yourself. I had kind of written off the Dice as being a bit forgettable when stuck somewhere between the Rebel and Vegas and not enough like the Neo to be fun, but it was a thorough surprize for me and turned out to be one of the favored freeride/freestyle kites of the test bunch. Two of our testers declared the Dice would be their kites of choice for 2015.

Suitability: The Dice is going to suit just about everyone. It does everything well, but has a much more solid feel and stands more in the freeride camp with a foot in the freetyle camp and a few toes in the wave camp too



Other kite tested in similar category was the Core GTS3, but that deserves a review of it's own.

Other kites tested on the week away : North Rebel 11, 10, 9 & 7, Juice 18, Neo 9 & 7. Best Cabo 9 and TS 10, Core Riot XR3 17, 12 and 9 and GTS3 9 and 7m. We will get reviews done on all of these kites in due course. If you have a review on any of these kites you would prefer to see, let me know.

DM