Jest of Eve Trident Standard

Jest of Eve Trident Standard

At last a really nice dual line trick kite. It has always been my intention to get a high quality trick kite when I have finally mastered trick flying. Well I decided to get one anyway!

I first came across the Trident at the MKF Family Fun Weekend in June 2006 when I saw a chap flying this beautiful looking kite which was doing all manner of graceful tricks. Upon getting chatting to the flyer I discovered that it was in fact his own design. A few months later I discover that Mark (the flyer/designer) has started a business building these kites. After ages wondering if I should get one, then ages wondering what colour scheme I should get (there is a considerable choice of colour schemes - along with the possibility of custom colours) I finally put the order in for the green colour scheme. And a couple of weeks before Christmas a nice box turned up with a nice green kite inside.

However since this was supposed to be a Christmas present I wasn't allowed to look at it again (let alone fly it) until Christmas day. Sadly Christmas day had no wind, along with Boxing day, the 27th, and then it either rained or had extremely strong wind (or both at the same time) so the kite wasn't actually flown until the 6th January.

Purchased: December 2006

Details

Width : 225 cm Height : 80 cm Depth : - Weight : 300 g

Spars : Carbon Fibre Sail : Icarex

Wind Range : Medium

Cost :£150 direct from Jest of Eve Kites

Good Things

Extremely well made.
High quality components (Skyshark spars, Icarex, etc).
Stunning sail design.
Lots of sail designs and colour combinations.
Very very trickable - especially yo-yos and other pitch based tricks.
For a radical trick kite it seems quite accurate as well.
All the new features incorporated - rollbars, covered leading edge, snagless design etc.

Bad Things

Nothing really...
... but because of the roll bars it doesn't stay on it's back so it needs pegging down before dropping the handles.
Not a precsion kite.
I have the feeling that it favours some tricks over others - so not an all round trick kite.

Final Thoughts

Excellent - excellent performance, excellent value for money.

My skill level isn't that high so its going to be a long time before I get to explore all that this kite can do - it really is a beautiful piece of work. It reminds me a lot of the Benson Gemini - not so much in looks, but more in how it feels when flying. I also 'clicked' with the Gemini (should have got one of those years ago) - and I seemed to 'click' with the Trident. I have to say I was almost nervous before I flew it - it seemed too good for the likes of me, and I was afraid of breaking it on it's first flight (I have a girt in this area). But the kite behaved beautifully. Because of the length's Mark has gone to to make the design as 'snagless' as possible I found I could recover from mangled attempts at flic-flacs and yo-yos really easily - and the roll-bars really helps in this.

In short an excellent kite that is going to be fun learning! Get one.

Update 2007

I think over the course of the year this is the dual line kite I have flown the most - I find the attention to detail in it's construction, it's graceful performance, it's general 'trickability' - all perfect. It's also been rather robust with just one upper leading edge that has been broken (caused by a piece of careless flying).

I understand that the Trident is now more or less superseded by Jest of Eve's new Talon (which according to what I have heard is much more of an all rounder than the Trident), although the Trident is still available. (KiteJan 11/10/07)

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