Naish Boxer SLE 9m - initial impressions

Written by: Erik Gibson

 With much joy in my heart, I collected my new 9m Boxer from Johannesburg International Freight Terminal. I had been looking forward to this moment for about 6 weeks already.

After sorting out the loss of paperwork, I walked out with my new toy and an extra bounce in my steps.

Hours later, the plastic wrapping was unceremoniously ripped off and I took some pictures and will now give my initial impressions of the 2007 Naish Boxer SLE 9m.

Firstly, some background on why I chose this kite, over many of the other offerings in the market:

1. I liked the 2006 Naish Shockwave 12m kite. Good handling and range. The only negative of the 2006 Shockwave was the slow turning speed. Sure, it turned on a point, but lacked power when carving and throwing her through the powerzone
2. The Boxer is cheaper
3. Many options available on this kite, with 1:1 and 2:1 along with the ability to further tune the bar pressure
4. It’s Naish – and they don’t tend to release too many lemons to the market

Here we go – remember that I’ll give a full review of the kite after this weekend – with a cooking NW predicted for Sterkies – which is my second-favourite kiting spot, after Langebaan.

 Unrolled kite & bar                                                             Wrapped bar & 20m kite lines

As usual, the Chinese labourers did an excellent job of making the kite a small as possible – in a way I can’t do again… A point of irritation was the fact that they do not wrap the lines in a figure of eight, which meant that I spent an absurd amount of time working the twists out of the lines, before re-wrapping the lines in a figure of eight.

The bag – whoopee.

What can I say; some people will make their purchase decision on a kite bag. This bag is not particluarly different from last year’s, except this one is white and blue. I am a little concerned that the white will show the dirt from our inland kite sessions.

The bag has 2 zipper bags one at the front – where I keep manuals and repair kits. The top of the bag has another miscellaneous pocket. Additionally there is a place to tie your kiteboard on the bag, oh finally, it also stores the kite and bar in the main compartment – how unusual, that…

That’s all I have to say about the bag.

OK, on to the meat of the matter. I think the kite is well constructed for a supposedly “cheap” or entry-level kite. It has the usual trappings of any inflatable kite – rip-stop canopy, Dacron leading edge and struts, which house the Naish ”Octopus” single point inflation system, bridles with Ronstan pulleys and scuff protectors on all relevant exposed bits.

The trailing edge has a new “Delta cut” which I think means it’s not shaped like the straight-edged Shockwave, nor is it “bow” shaped. The pic isn’t particularly clear, and the aerodynamic differences between bow-, straight- and Delta trailing edges would surely only be apparent to those aeronautical engineers amongst us.                                                                                                                             

Scuff protector

The graphics are pretty and would appeal to the 40% (by my own estimations) of the market that will buy a kite for the colour-scheme and the silk-screened graphics, and not all the techno-speak.The bridles are similar to the Shockwave, with 3 settings, allowing one to change the bar pressure of the kite, by selecting the relevant knot. Each will adjust the pressure, as well as the depower of the kite. A helpful graphic explains how you can tune these settings.

“Delta-cut” trailing edge                                                                                            Kite tuning

Here we go – the kite is inflated and barely fluttering in the “breeze” of my front yard.

Oh well, at least you can see it, basically. I had expected the red & blue kite, but alas, a mix-up occurred and I ended up with a yellow and blue kite, which looks similar to my (now sold) 2006 Shockwave. What impressed me is how narrow the struts are – surely more for aerodynamic reasons, than a cost saving. It is pretty, isn’t it? It’s really got a SA Police-themed look to it. J

So, with the kite covered, let us look at the kite bar and associated safely systems.

Naish have gone the extra mile and included a kite leash with the Boxer SLE, which hopefully will start a trend, and cause the other premium kite to start including a leash as a standard. To be honest, a safety leash is more of a bystander security device, as well as ensuring that you do not lose your kite, after doing something bad, and releasing the kite into the blue yonder – and into the nearest tree/bush/barbed wire fence downwind at the bottom of the beach/dam/football field.   

Kite bar, in bag.

It’s a measly $10 cost, and all manufacturers should be obliged to include one. The kite comes standard with the 10kg stopper ball on the depower line, along with a spare 10kg and 2 x 35kg stopper balls. Personally I don’t see myself using them when kiting inland at all. I would possibly reconsider this when kiting in solid coastal wind. The bar is white, blue, red. Predominantly white, which again concerns me from a “dirty look” but time will tell if this is the case. Who knows – perhaps a particular shade of brown on the bar may be next year’s colour and style statement. J

 Kite bar in a 2:1 config with new white look

The bar has a 1:1 and 2:1 configuration options, which a nice feature in my opinion, as one is wont to oversheet the kite in light conditions with a 2:1 configuration. Additionally, to all the wussy kiters who moaned about 2006 2:1 pulley systems’ bar pressure - this should alleviate this non-issue (in my personal opinion).  

         Opened quick release

Additionally, there are 3 settings on the front lines, which allow one to change the depower and feel of the kite – allowing for 3 different personal kiting styles, from the bar to the kite (in order according to the manual), namely:

• A: Mr. Fully “Long Arms” Depowered – which allows the most depower
• B: Normal – good depower, normal arm-length (default setting)
• C: Powered – more for the kiter who likes to throw tricks

That concludes my first impressions of the 2006 Boxer SLE. There has not been much info available on the Internet, thus the creation of this document. I hope you found it informative. See you all on the water this weekend – looks like the NW will not disappoint us at Sterkfontein Dam!

- Erik