2023 North Code Zero On-Water Review

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This is Pat from MACkiteboarding.com talking about the new Code Zero from North Kiteboarding. What is it? What are you going to get out of it? Who's it for? And why should you consider buying this kite this year?

What is the Code Zero?

It's a single-strut leading edge inflatable foiling kite. It's also surprisingly good in the waves, but that being said, it is designed for light wind foiling. Looking at single-strut versus strutless or three-strut, they opted for some weight savings with a single strut. They are also using their brand new Dyneema that they developed this year. With a lighter weight Dyneema and a lighter weight bladder, this really goes after that weight savings. You'll notice that most in lighter winds with the low end on this kite.

What are you going to get out of it?

The light wind ability on this kite is pretty phenomenal. I was on a 9 meter the other day in about 12 knots. I had absolutely no problem staying up on foil, and it relaunched like a dream every time I crashed it, which I happened to do a lot. I was really impressed with the light wind ability of this kite. It has a surprising amount of power per square meter, so I probably would size down, even on that day. If I'd had a 7 meter, I would have used that, though I had no problem with the 9 meter.

It has good downline drift. You could run right at the thing and it would stay in the air and still be fairly reactive, as far as turning and steering. No matter what I tried to do to get the kite to fall out of the sky, it was really hard to get it to do it.

When we were over in Portugal at the North dealer meeting, a lot of guys were actually using this in the waves. It did surprisingly well as a down-the-line wave kite. Granted, we had somewhat offshore conditions there, so it did tend to be a little bit more forgiving in the waves with that, but a lot of guys were loving it for that. On windier days they were opting for this just as much as the Carve from North, so it was really neat to see the ability to cross over with this kite.

It's really light in the bar feel. Steering has a dampened feel, but it's still pretty intuitive as you do know where the kite's at in the sky without having to look at it, which is really awesome with a foiling kite. You can focus more on what you're doing with the foil and not have to worry about flying the kite. It's very mindless flying and really makes you want to fly it single-handed. I'm just impressed with how this kite handled.

It also has good power. You might have to loop it once to get up on foil in those really light wind conditions. I was on a 9 meter in around 12, 13 knots, and I had absolutely no problem popping up on foil right away with it. It's got good, grunty low-end power, but not a heavy bar feel at all, so it's creating that power without having that pull in the bar, which is nice to feel and keeps the kite nice and light in the air and light-feeling in the bar.

Another thing I noticed about the Code Zero is that, for a single-strut kite, there's not too much flutter. Obviously, if you fully sheet out, it's going to flutter at you; even three-strut kites will do that. But for a single-strut kite, it's pretty rock solid.

When self-landing on this, it clamshells down fine and lays flat on the beach. Some of those other foil kites have a little bit of bump up in the leading edge to help with relaunch, and they can be a bit tricky to get to sit on the beach well, but you don't have that with this being a single strut. It does lay flat in the water, but that single strut helps keep the canopy up out of the water for your relaunching as well.

Who's the Code Zero for?

Really, it's for any riders looking to expand their foiling potential. It'd be a great first foil kite after you've learned to foil, or even to learn to foil with. It's going to help you take your foiling into the next level with a really stable kite that inspires a lot of confidence in your riding. I would toss anybody on this thing in a heartbeat. It's a really fun, easy-to-use kite with dynamic flying. It's forgiving and stable.

Why should you consider buying the Code Zero?

You might be buying it as a foil kite, but you're buying that smaller size anyways so it'll work in higher wind conditions for surf kiting as well. It really lends itself to be more multi-purpose than just a foil kite. I didn't get it out in the waves myself, but everybody was raving about the thing in the waves. A lot of the qualities that make a good foil kite make a good wave kite, though I think that one like this has an advantage over three-strut wave kites because of the light weight for these lighter wind days.

This has been Pat from MACkite talking about the new Code Zero from North Kiteboarding. If you want to check it out, we have more info on our website. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us.

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