[HL] Test Gaastra Jekyll 2
Tekst & foto's: Ype de Jong
The quest has ended… !
On my long search for the perfect Kite (for me) I did try a lot of kites
- Slingshot Rev 2009
- F-One Bandit Dos
- Ozone Sport
- Gaastra Max 2009
- Slingshot Fuel 2009
- Flexifoil ION III
After more than half a year of testing and checking I am finally at the end of my personal Quest .... I did find it: The Gaastra Jekyll 2009…
The Bag:
The Bag, with a classy design is about my taste. It is pretty stabile and has straps to attach your Board. It comes with some spares like cabelbinders for the one pump a fifth line attachment for on the kite and a small manual. It is somewhat on the small side though.
The Bar:
It is one bar for all sizes. It is possible to attach the flying lines to the inner or the outmost side of the barends. So you can place the flying lines to the inside if you wish.
The hole in the middle of the Bar is neatly made with a stainless piece to prevent the depower line from wearing out.. Furthermore the Bar has so called o Shit handles on each side. The depower strap is a pull-pull system which works just fine. It has a neopren sock around it so You can't see if it wears out, but well a scissor could help you there…
The safetysystem is clear and easy in use, by simply pushing the top part of the loop away from you, the chickenloop opens .Also on the water the system is easy to close/assemble again.
The Kite:
The Jekyll is stabile but still fairly fast for a SLE. This Kite gives the kiter a very good power and depower feeling, that’s why you have a very good control over the power of the kite. With the Jekyll you can also jump extremely high with a very good hangtime I never tried a kite with such a turbolift! The Kite turns easy and fast and goes reasonably fast through the wind window. That and because you can depower him completely makes it ideal for Waveriding .It stays obviously a SLE so it does not have much pull in a loop (not a Ruben Kite so to say).The Kite has a simple Briddle set WITHOUT PULLEYS .. Magical!
The Jekyll is good and stabile handcrafted. They use stabile cloth materials. The kite is supplied with a good and functional One Pump system .A backdraft is that they dont use Ripstop on strut 2 and 4. Also for the kooks between us (!) is the Jekyll a good kite. Only by pulling a bit at the steering lines the kite is easy to relaunch even in the „soft“shorebreak of Scheveningen.
Conclusion:
I found the Jekyll to be a very nice Kite, a diserable mix of stability and Speed.Super nice for old school and waveriding. It’s also a kite where everybody just takes off with easily. It's not so good for Freestyle (but I am anyway too old for that…). Go anyway and test the Kite for yourself, because that’s last not least the only way to determine if the Kite fits to you.
Pro’s:
- stabil but still pretty fast
- Easy to relaunch
- Good safety
Cons:
- No Ripstop on strut 2 and 4
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