Flown in every wind condition possible from extremely low winds rolling on the tarmac, to extremely powered up in 35mph on the beach and also a very gusty 30mph inland.

First impressions
After being sent a Cult back instead of my 2007 boxer from the repair guys at Naish, it was safe to say I was excited about the prospect of a new kite. Firstly I’ll talk about the bag, quite similar to the old boxer bag but with much better colours, few more pockets and better straps on it for attaching your pump, harness or even a board. Most importantly though the bag is that bit bigger making fitting the kite in a doddle. The Cult bags still aren’t extendable which I always thought would be a simple addition to make the bag that bit better. The kite comes with a repair package and contains everything you’ll need up until the kite is in two pieces. The manual given with the kite is very good with simple explanations of kite setup, flying site precautions, kite care and the do and don’ts.

The Kite
As most know, the cult is one of Naish’s new sigma series kites which is fair to say is a huge step in kite design. As Naish advertise the kite consists of two new technologies Geotech and Sigma Outline. When reading the website before getting the kite, I always dismissed the shape and the technologies thinking nah they’re just trying to con people into buying the kites by making it sound fancy………I can say though all my doubts about the technologies being a con are long gone, but before I get into why that is I want to talk more about the actual kite itself.
Once pumped up with the simple octopus pump system up you really start to appreciate the kite a lot more, and what a good job Naish have done with it. The very first thing you notice is the striking looks as the colours stand out along with its dominant shape, 2nd to this is how solid the kite looks, its build quality is incredible patches on those 2 points that will be the point of most ware and plenty of reinforcement at the bridal attachments. The bridals them selves are top notch and with loosing 2 pulleys that used to be on the old bridling system you now have less worry about keeping components clean.
Time to tip the kite over as you would with any other SLE/Bow/Inflatable kite and it does stay where it’s put even with the gap at the front. Many people ask me if it will blow away and the answer is no unless it gets properly windy to the point where any other kite would slide down the field. It still has the canopy pushing it to the floor and with the addition of a board it’s not going anywhere. I’m Using the 07 boxer bar system but converted to 1-1 for the cult…..it took me a good few weeks to dial the line lengths in right for the kite but once that was done the kite came alive and has been incredible since.
All harnessed in and ready to go the kite is so easy to self launch, simple walk so your kite lines are 90 degrees to the wind, fill the canopy with air and then pull the upwind back line and up she goes, straight off the down wind tip. No need to slide the kite nose down round the beach for ages struggling to relaunch it. The tricky part I found with flying the Cult is to find the sweet spot on the bar position. Because the kite feels like it relies on the build up of apparent wind it’s very easy to kill the power by slowing the kite too much, doesn’t take long to dial this in and you will notice the difference.
When jumping with the kite it’s pretty much the same technique as any other bow/sle but it’s a little slower on the redirect and can sometimes catch you out on the smaller jumps if you don’t redirect enough. In the big airs/higher winds it gives huge confidence to do silly stuff whilst knowing the kite isn’t going to kill you. It does speed up if you grab the bar further towards the ends and by no means is a slow kite if that’s done.
Unhooked the kite will need de-powering, it fly’s forward with good speed like this and is hugely powerful, and this power continues through kite loops and turns allowing for massive unhooked loops and big airs.
Overall I find the kite extremely stable, provides huge float and huge airs. Works well unhooked for developing those more powered up tricks. Brilliant build quality for inland use and fantastic ground control for self launching and landing. 9 out of 10 for me, one of the best SLE’s on the market today.
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