I wanted to tackle one of the most frequently questions we get in the shop. “How does the 10 Best Kahoona V2 kite compare to the 09 Kahoona?” Since we teach on the Kahoonas almost exclusively in our school, these kites practically sell themselves. They have a great reputation among the kiteboarding community and if you do your research and scour the forums, you won’t find a bad word said about the kites. Pretty amazing since you can’t please everyone, and every other kite out there has its pros and cons.
Since a lot of people bought the original 09 Kahoona, they’re wondering why they should upgrade to the 2010 Kahoona. Here’s what we think…
- The Kahoona V2 has the newly redesigned V2 bridle system which eliminates a main pulley and incorporates a unique stainless steel block that allows the bridle to move so you can trim the kite effortlessly. The old pulley had a tendency to build up with sand over time so it would glide as easily. Plus, it was a plastic piece that had a higher chance of breaking, compared to the metal ring.
- The new Kahoona is made with a higher quality dacron on the beefed up leading edge. We estimate that it’s about twice the strength of last year’s so it’s more durable and resistant to abrasion. Here in the northwets we have to be careful of barnacles, mussles, driftwood, oyster shells and other sharp objects which can mangle our kites.
- The new redline bar is a huge benefit too with it’s increased line strength, and other cool features which you can find more about on our Best Performance redline bar review.
- It looks like there is a little bit more adjustment per size, especially in the trailing edge. The 13 and 11 have more lower end and are easier to relaunch in lighter wind conditions (the trailing edge is longer so it has more surface area to help catch the wind and relaunch).
- In reality, it just does everything better-more depower, much more stable when fully depowered, relaunch is effortless even in light wind, turning speed is about the same which is plenty fast (even in the larger sizes).
- If you’d like to try one out for yourself please contact us for a demo.
