Kitesurf Control Bar Review | North Navigator Pro / Duotone Trust / Core Sensor 3 Pro

Jason is an excellent reviewer of kiteboarding gear, limited only by what he's able to get his hands on in New Zealand. He and MACkite have teamed up to get more gear in his hands, so hopefully you'll be able to enjoy even more of these in-depth reviews in the near future.

Today Jason is talking about the North Navigator Pro control bar but, as is true of any of us, his perception of it is going to be influenced by what he's ridden in the past. So a little backstory will help bring things into perspective, as well as give us a nice comparison of his most recent bars.

Bar Backstory

I've mainly ridden North Orbits with the standard North bar from 2019 until a year ago. Then I bought my first quiver in years, Duotone Evo D/LABs, and I went with the 2023 Trust bar. Prior to my switch to North in 2019 I was riding a Duotone Evo and Dice combination with the 2019 Click bar.

2019 Duotone Click Bar

When I went back to Duotone gear last year, I decided to go with the Trust bar because I found my old early edition of the Click bar wasn't the most durable and, after just a few months, would slightly jam up at times when trying to sheet out, particularly after Heli Loops. I also had the line snap on me, both inside the mechanism itself in the Click bar and on the lines as well. I had to replace a couple of other parts within the first year.

Although I really loved the feel of that bar and how it worked, the parts replacement was quite annoying to me because I hadn't done much replacing of gear before. But at the time, I was also progressing a lot and didn't realize at this stage in my kiting that, depending on how you ride and your size, it's not uncommon to need to replace bars annually, at least in terms of the lines.

2023 Duotone Trust Bar

When deciding on which Duotone bar to ride with my D/LAB purchases, I noticed that almost all of the current Duotone Pro Team tended to compete with Trust bars, so I assumed they would be more durable and more functional for big air riding.

Riding my modern Trust bars, one of the first things I noticed after all the other brands' bars I've been trying is just how light they are in comparison. At first, it's a little bit off-putting and makes you wonder about the durability, but after a few sessions it really grows on you.

Weight difference aside, the Trust's grip is good but a little bit slippery at times, and overall not as comfortable in the hands as my North Bars were. It does perform wonderfully smoothly with a fantastic sheet in and out and no binding at all when rotating yourself or the kite multiple times.

I also find the way you can reduce or increase the width of the bar to be a bit easier than these other brands, as they tend to jam up after a while and require some soaking to get the salt out. With the Duotone ones I find I can even do it while I'm actually in the middle of a session on the water.

Overall, things were going great for a few months with this Trust bar after I bought it, until a friend of mine and myself both snapped our center lines midair on big wind days. However, I don't think either of us were moving our V-splitter around every dozen sessions or so, something I've since been told is important to do. Recently though, I have seen online that Duotone has offered to replace Trust bar lines due to this possibility, so if you have a Trust bar, check out their website or perhaps contact the store you got it from to see how to get yours replaced. If you follow my Instagram, you'll know that I have since swapped my Trust bar lines to the Line Smith and have had no issues with them for 6 months now, and the bar feels fantastic again.

My only gripe with the Trust bar otherwise is that it does get wear in some areas, in particular the little plastic center part of the bar that the lines run through. You need to replace this every 3 or 4 months if you're a big guy who rides a lot, and it's quite a challenge to get the piece in and out. It takes at least a half hour. On the plus side, that piece is very cheap, and the store I bought it from actually gave me replacement parts for free.

All in all, I can still say that the Trust bar is overall one of my favorite bars on the market.

2021 Core Sensor 3 Pro Bar

During my long stint with North, in 2021 I switched some of my smaller kites to Core XR7s, and with those I got the Sensor 3 Pro bar. These kites were only really used for super windy sessions, mainly for boosting and looping. For the most part, I really enjoyed the functionality of the bar, but I was never a huge fan of using it because of the grip. There's something about it that I just don't enjoy in my hand.

Just like my old Click bar, you do need to replace components of it due to wear every 8 to 12 months, at least if you ride them like I do at my size, and unfortunately I found the Core components the most expensive to replace here in New Zealand, particularly the lines which cost me twice as much as other brands. They are arguably among the strongest factory lines on the market, but I have seen them snap as well after about a year's use. If you live somewhere with a Core shop which can do all the part replacement for you, Core is super functional, well-designed, and just a great overall bar, especially if the grip doesn't bother you as much as it does me.

One other small downside of the Core bar is that if you are trying to use it on other brands with a High-V like Duotone, it doesn't maintain all of its safety functions. I do see some people choose to use the Core bar with their Duotone gear, but I would warn against it. I'm told by an actual kite bar designer that there is something about the Core's flag out system that means you don't have a full flag out when you punch out your safety. So that's just something to keep in mind.

2019 North Bar

Moving on to my previous North bar, I mainly found it ideal for its simplicity. The grip itself is great; it's probably tied with Cabrinha for my favorite grips on the market. The North bars have a slightly elongated area under the fingers to make it a bit more ergonomic, something I never knew I needed until I felt it. This grip just seems to be a lot easier to hold onto, particularly with only one hand on the bar.

The size and weight, although a little bit larger and heavier than my other bars at the time, didn't really bother me too much because I was used to it for so long, and of course the kites I was riding with it were a bit heavier and slower, so it lined up a bit more with the overall feel of the bar.

The bar, of course, doesn't have auto-unwind, but it did have a very smooth sheet in/out motion and, more importantly, never seemed to stick at all when sheeting out after multiple Heli Loops or rotations in the same direction.

In terms of durability, these bars were probably the best I've personally owned, and I never had any of the parts or lines need replacing while I owned them, although I did get new ones each year so I can't say for sure how long they might have lasted before they began to show more wear or needed parts replacement. In my opinion, if you are riding often, more than, say, 100 sessions a year on the same bar, and jumping over 10m and doing some powered loops in stronger winds, you should really consider replacing at least your lines each year for safety's sake. If you are doing just surf and foil and not a lot of big air, they could probably last for years.

The point where I started to find the older North bars less enjoyable is now that I've gotten used to the lighter feel of my 2023 Trust bar, especially when testing more of the modern, lighter kites. Going back to the heavier bar is just a bit more annoying and feels like there's a slight delay. I find it can slightly reduce your overall feel in connection to the kites in the smaller, faster, sizes. I did mention in both of my Cabrinha Nitro kite reviews that I find the lighter and faster the kites are, the lighter I seem to prefer the bars to be. This is a bit of a picky critique, and I realize that most people might not notice it a great deal, but after a while on a lighter bar, I promise that you can really feel the difference that extra 15-20 percent weight can make.

North Navigator Pro Bar Review

The new Navigator Pro bar, right away in the hand, is very similar to the North bar with the functions of the auto-unwind of the Cabrinha bar, but as soon as you pick it up and feel it, you can see it's clearly lighter in hand than both of those bars. Once again, it's super clean and easy to use. It has all the essential functions, and they look like they've all been given a little bit of an upgrade.

In particular, the grip still has the same fabulous characteristics of the standard bar I like, perhaps improved even a bit. It also has that super easy-to-hold ergonomic shape I love. The weight reduction has meant the bar has not quite caught up to the lightness of the Trust bar, but it is certainly close enough to make it feel comparable performance-wise, even in super strong winds.

The other main difference of this new bar, of course, is that they have added the auto-unwind, and it seems to function very, very smoothly. In the lighter sessions, I couldn't feel any resistance at all on it, and it unwinds cleanly as I ride downwind with multiple loops. I had a similar experience in my big air sessions where I was testing the bar in over 25 to 30 knots. You should try to make sure you set up your lines correctly and there are no twists in the center lines. I'd wager a couple of twists may hinder the clean sheet-out the bar has, although I didn't find it bothersome enough to make me go back in and fix it during my 90-minute session.

Because of my experiences with my old Click bar and my Sensor 3 Pro bar, I can't help but wonder how long before these parts start to show some wear in the auto-unwind, and that might hinder the clean flow of it. Having seen some of the "tech talk" videos on the materials used, and feeling the robust nature of it in person, it certainly looks up to the challenge to last a little longer. I do have a friend who has been riding his for a few months now since release, and he rides a lot and is as heavy as I am, and so far there are no signs of wear or delay in the auto-unwind for him, which is a great sign of the potential longevity.

Another feature North is marketing is that this is the most functional bar on the market because you can add a High-V option and make it work with High-V kites (except for Core because of their unique flag-out system that I mentioned before). Because I have Duotone kites, this is actually how I've been testing the bar for the most part, and on its face it seems spot-on. When you don't have the pigtails on, the V-splitter slides onto your lines and moves around really easily, screwing into the fixed position you desire, in my case 4.5 m from the start of the lines on the rider side.

I was loving riding my D/LABs with this bar. In particular, the grip and the functionality of it was great for everyday riding and big air with board-offs and anything where I would use only one hand.

Navigator Pro Nitpicks

However, after about 10 to 12 sessions, when I went to move the V-splitter as you are supposed to do to reduce the wear in one spot, I did notice that there was already a very small but noticeable amount of wear on both sides of the V-splitter. Now, with other High-V bars, they have some kind of sleeving in that area, but so far North is just attaching the V-Splitter to the line itself, so I'm not sure what this is doing to the lines and how long you can get away with it before it becomes risky.

Needless to say, I took the V-Splitter off to avoid causing more wear, and I did let North know about it, so we may see an update to this system in the near future. Of course, it could just be that I'm overly pedantic after the Trust bar line snaps that I've had. At my age and level, I do scare quite easily when it comes to line wear, and odds are if you are moving the V-splitter around a bit more often, say, every 3 - 4 sessions, then you would be a lot less likely to see the kind of wear in a single place like I did, but I've not had time to experiment with this so I can't really comment for sure whether it would be an issue to worry about.

If I was doing a little more nitpicking, although this is no longer something that really applies to my riding style, I probably wouldn't go for this bar for freestyle because the two-piece auto-unwind does add a bit of girth to the gap in the middle where the lines run through, which could mean that if you were trying to pass the bar, you could potentially stick a finger in there.

Nitpicking aside, there are just so many little improvements, new features, and components to this bar, from the floaters to the new secure chicken loop and safety line attachment. They're all tasty little bonuses, but you can hear about those on any number of other tech talk videos that are already on YouTube.

Summary

The main thing for me is that it's so easy to use and it just feels really great while you're using it. Although this is certainly my new favorite bar on the market and I'm looking forward to testing it with a variety of other kites over the winter season, for now I might only use it with testing High-V kites in smaller quantities, just to play it safe by sticking with Trust bars I already own for my day-to-day kiting with my Duotone kites.

I will do a lot more regular updates on my Instagram if anything changes in terms of the High-V and I learn a bit more about it. I will also cover my experiences testing this bar with the Line Smith lines to see if I can pick up any differences in terms of elongation or feel and performance. In my experience, the North lines are among the top of the market and seem to be super durable for me. Thanks to North for supplying me with this bar to test, and of course check out MACkiteboarding to see if you want to buy one yourself. I'll see you again soon.

Shop North Gear

MACkite Subscription Links:

YouTube  |   Instagram  |   Spotify Oddcasts

Contact MACkite Below:

800.622.4655  |   Kiteboarder@MACkite.com  |   LIVE Chat Messenger

Follow Jason on Instagram