TESTED

CORE Section 3

WAVE KITE

It’s the third iteration of the CORE Section now, and they’ve really built some pedigree into the latest model. The Section fits into CORE’s discipline-specific range, and is aimed as a pure wave kite. For V3 the bridle has had a good trim down, and is now very compact. There are also additional tuning options with the addition of the CIT modes enabling better tuning for onshore and offshore conditions. We had a good play with these and, although the adjustments appear quite minute on the leading edge and bridle, it has quite an effect on where the kite wants to sit in the window and handles. If you like to trim your kites this is brilliant as you will glean some positive performance using these, conversely if you like your kite to just work without tinkering simply leave it in the all-around central setting and the kite performs well in all situations in any case. Three steering speed settings are built into the wingtips for the usual adjustments there.

We had the opportunity to take the kite out in a whole host of conditions from heavy double over head side-off through to crumbly onshore UK conditions to give it a very real-world test, as well as a smidgen of foiling for good measure. From a practical perspective, the kite drives upwind well, is rapid to reverse launch in a hurry,