I'd like to say it's mine but sadly thus is not the case. Vince from Horizon Kites brought a Neo 14 BRAND NEW out to Cooking Lake on Saturday and after unpacking it, having a good look, getting it inflated and giving it a whirl I'll happily give them a nod of confidence. Bear in mind that I'm not a seasoned kiter by comparison to most of you here so take this as a "surface level" review. Can't tell you anything about getting air or lift and float ; )

Build:
Looks great. Material feels deceptively like regular old ripstop but she's a water kite through and through so something's different about it I'm sure. Not sure if it's a surface coating or actually different material. All the bridle loops were solid looking and the bridle itself was bright and clutter free.

Bar:
THe HQ bar including the safeties are near exact copies of my '07/'08 Ozone bar with a few differences. First - and worst - the top had on the primary release has a leader installed that runs down the depower line to a double ring (like a Peter Lynn spinning ring). Essentially it's just a remote release so you just need to grab the big ball at the chickenloop instead of reaching up to yank the top hat. Trouble is, the line that ran from the top hat down through the bar seemed to be JUST too short - such that in flight the double ring spinner is kinda "bent" towards the bar. It's solid, not bending, it's just being pulled towards the bar so the double ring doesn't sit "square" to the depower line. It's hard to explain but maybe you understand me. So, all that said, crank the bar right back to your belly and because this double ring is being pulled toward the bar, the bar hits it and the primary release lets go.

Whoops.

Surely lengthening that line would work or you can do what we did and take it off and put it in your pocket.

The only other thing about the bar is the notches on the backside of the bar eands that I use to hook my "parking loops" onto on the Ozone bar. The HQ bar has the same notches but they are nowhere near pronounced enough. They are just barely notchy enough to hold the bungee loop that keeps the lines sorted. A minor negative but it means hooking the "parking loops" around the bar ends and maybe using the bungee keepers to hold them? But they don't hold well so all bets are off.

Otherwise all else is the same. Cam cleat trimer, floats on the bar ends, nice lineset, all rigged out of the bag ready to fly. The front lines spit into a Y about halfway to the kite.

Launch:
We had marginal winds to say the least and because of that and the fact that kites are likely vacuum packed to shrink 'em for shipping, it took an awful long time to inflate. Surely if the winds were more positive this wouldn't be the case. I watched some of the Speeds and Pulses that were out at the same time and they were taking their sweet time to inflate too. I'd say at about 70% fill it took to the sky and allowed me to work it through the air to fill the rest. Once filled - it stayed that way. We had it pegged down off to the side of us and it was puffed all day.

Flight:
So, this nice new Neo is siting there all puffed up with nobody to play with so I grabbed the opportunity, clicked into the skis and stole it. I hobbled my way out fighting a bad wind shadow and when I got far enough out to tack back and be clear of the traffic jam caused by the festival flyers I made my way into good winds. Still low - not much over 10km/h? Really, the wind was garbage. Still the Neo produced enough power that I was able to sit back against the kite and ride it.

The bar was so light it blew my mind. I was literally flying it with two fingers. I kept the depower line between my index and middle finger, parked the kite and we just went. Needed only ever so slight adjustment on the bar position and it moved like silk. If I felt the need to give it a good stroke I just walked my fingers to the other side of the bar, grabbed a mitful and then turned it back up, resetting my fingers straddling the depower line.

Much to my surprise I turned to head back and I had SURGED upwind. I wasn't even aggressively flying or carving - it just went upwind. All on it's own it seemed. So, back to kite kamp I went this time trying to make sure I didn't kill the wind too much as I made my way downwind. That was an interesting experience - usually the opposite is true for me ; )

I'd buy one if I didn't have so many already that I need to fly and learn how they are. It's on the list - I'll hopefully convince Vince to bring it out to the water this summer so we can see the relaunch etc.

(I also want to report that after that flight I took out my Access and realized all the things that impressed me about the Neo had been sitting in the Access bag all that time too! - light bar, upwind ability, nice turning.....I gotta fly my kites more I guess.)