The Rebel originally evolved from the market's general dissatisfaction with bow kites. The North R&D team dissected the problems with the bow kites, spending a year of testing to come up with a kite that would out-perform and out-safety anything else out there. Ken Winner, at the recent US Dealer meeting in the Gorge, talked about the evolution of the Rebel.

"We just weren't happy with any bow kites on the market and were not about to put something out there of mediocre quality and performance just to be in the game. Bow kites have had to sacrifice significant features and characteristics to achieve the other. We didn't want to sacrifice. It wasn't an option. So we took our time to do it right. When I started working on the new kite to answer the bow kite problem, there were 3 characteristics of the kite that we were committed to achieving.

1. Keeping the 5th Line: This was number one priority because it offers the greatest amount of depower while still providing simplicity in relaunching. Integrating bridles and pulleys was not a place we wanted to go – they just added tangles and complexity.

2. Keeping the bar feel of our 'C' Kites: With the new bow kites that were out there, we noticed an immediate loss of bar feel and quick turning capabilities. One of our focuses was to keep the solid feel that a rider gets with a traditional 'C' kite.

3. Depower: We had to get the maximum depower, but the challenge was to achieve it with everything else that we wanted to have in the kite – the 5th line, the bar feel, all without bridles and pulleys.

I started development by cutting the tips off the Vegas. This started the whole evolution of the Rebel. By trimming the tips, I brought up the pivot point of the kite. The higher the pivot point, the more depower we achieved. We were pretty excited because we achieved this using our stock 5th Element Bar and 5th line system. We didn't want people to have to go out and get a separate bar for the new kite. One bar for all North Kites.

A few other modifications... we added some depth in the profile of the canopy to reduce and prevent stalling and switched the cam battens to nylon for added strength. The Rebel flies a little flatter than our previous kites, but it is not prone to the inversion and Bow-tie problems of Bow kites.

The Rebel was originally designed for intermediates for its simplicity and depower, but it has become many riders' new favorite all around kite. Especially for wave riding. Jaime rides the Rebel religiously and loves it in the waves.