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  • 03 Mar

Cabrinha Chaos Review: Pete Smith

The Chaos is Cabrinha's all new competition Freestyle kite. This kite is dedicated to one thing, delivering the absolute best performance in Freestyle competition. Designed with PKRA superstar Alby Rondina, this bridled C kite represents the progression taking place in today's touring freestyle arena. Lets be clear, this technical performance kite is not for everyone. It won't mow your lawn. It won't leave you dangling. But if you are looking to get on the podium then this is your kite" Well that's the blurb from Cabrinha about the new Chaos, and to some degree I think that is spot on however - and it's a big one - I've been using the Chaos 11 now for a few weeks for mainly surf riding and a small amount of freestyle and have come to the conclusion that this simply is a very good kite.

I'd not been a huge fan of the Cabrinha kites in the past and still maintain that most modern kites are pretty similar in performance, power, safety and durability with most users looking for something like the kite they are used to, this works really well but every now and again there is a good need to take a step back, try something new, take the time to re-learn what you may have forgotten and open yourself up to possibility there maybe something else out there.
This is precisely what has happened with the Chaos. Yonks back I used to use C kites, then was amazed at all those hybrid kites with huge range and decent response and started using those for years, if I were honest with myself, this 'may' have held my kiting back a bit because I became lazy. Now I've been handed this Chaos and after using it in light wind, strong wind, gusty and shifty wind of Sydney's northern beaches I'm loving it. What we have here is a properly balanced, well behaved performance kite, this is the usual trade off with 'high performance' is a tenancy to become unstable and hard to fly. The Chaos really is for me a great all round, brilliantly stable high performance kite. I'm using it more for unhooked wave riding and its still a brilliant kite, I've gained more confidence unhooked simply moving this kite. Sure there are faster turning kites and kites with maybe a slightly better bottom end but we are talking maybe in the 5% difference range here and I can live with that, I'll just use a bigger board if its super light and the speed isn't slow, it's super predictable and only slightly slower than my old 9m. Being more of an old C kite style it is so smooth and constant with power delivery, won't hunt and surge about at the front of the window in gusty conditions and when i big shift hits it or you make a mistake it will give you enough time to get things back into shape without tipping forward or backwards and tumbling out the sky. On the odd occasion you do drop the kite relaunch is OK, I've discovered a bit less air will help it roll over a bit quicker but you do have to apply a little more thought to getting it back up than a full on hybrid kite, comparing it to an old C kite though its light years ahead in relaunch.
To sum up, this seems to be a super smooth, super stable true performance kite that will give you time as a rider to get what you want done, screw it up and recover without the stress of kites falling from the sky.
It's been a while since i had a really close look at a Cab kite but the build quality on the Chaos seems top quality, the quality of the hardware on the bar seems very good and looks like it'll last a lifetime, the 'new' coated lines are actually pretty good, they don't have the tendency to tangle and do actually speed up the setup process. The single point inflation is great and looks well protected and the pump up system (the pump) is probably the BEST pump I've every used. Gone seems the silly screw in bit that meant no other kite brands could be used if you lost the doodad bit (you know what I mean) instead its now integrated into to the valve, this means you get a full hose opening to push air through and vastly speeds up the pumping up process, the new metal shaft pump is also slick and when I lent to a friend who snapped his new *** ****** pump handle first use he said "I'm buying one of those now!", lastly the bag, brilliant, looks good, fits good, bar pocket is good, zips are good, basically its all good and not huge!
I did test a few settings on the kite, preferred settings on the back lines were top knot and the forward mounting when the wind is lighter and i move down knots on the back lines as I get overpowered. Even on the back lines on the top knot with some wind the tendency for the kite to stall and fall backwards is minimal.
Rider details - WSNS Team Rider, 68kg on a 5'10 2013 skillet
Next kite test is my new 9m drifter and a review of the 2013 Pete Cabrinha LE Skillet 5'10 board.