This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit Hunter Brown and Paul Debakker and take the two newest kites from Focus Designs out for a test drive. The flagship of the Focus line, a full-sized competition kite, the Jinx (and it’s UL counterpart) have been redesigned, and the outcome is simply incredible. While the Hydra was originally designed as a trickier Jinx, I can safely say from my perspective, the new Jinx is a more precise Hydra.

In terms of construction, all the lessons from the Hydra are in play here. The new Jinx supports more mylar on the trailing edge, the new P3X (P1X for the UL) spars from SkyShark, and a fantastic new sail panel layout that brings it visually in line with the newer Focus kites. The bridle is the same Dynamic-Static bridle featured on the previous Jinx, but the stock settings have changed. Like the Hydra, the kite features only a single adjustment point at the upper leading edge. The new kite’s stock setting puts the nose slightly back, on the lower knot. And, when the wind is up, it has that distinctive, throaty roar of a Focus dual line kite.

Sunday’s winds started strong (8-12mph) so we started out with the Standard. The Jinx flew slowly and deliberately, even in stronger winds. The square corners were very clean, and the Jinx would fly a remarkably straight line across the wind window, as though it were on rails. The nose-back setting means that the kite will stall easily, even in the higher winds. Control is largely in the wrists, rotating quickly into a snap stall from any aspect, even a screaming dive. I ran through my competition figures and was very impressed with how well the kite tracked, even at the edges and top of the wind window.

The Jinx is a kite that requires very clean, specific inputs. It has a nice, tight turning radius without any oversteer. The side slides look (and feel) just great. But, one area where I struggled was in the Cascade. That’s the cornerstone of my technical routine, and while I was hitting the half axels without any trouble, I had a very hard time chaining them together into a cascade. After working at it for a while, they started to come together, but the kite didn’t go out of it’s way to hand me this trick.

Mid-afternoon, the winds dropped down to about 4-5mph and it was time to take the Jinx UL out for a spin. The first thing I noticed was that the UL felt much lighter on the end of the lines, both compared to the standard and compared to the previous generation Jinx UL. It doesn’t feel as light as a Talon, but it’s definitely an improvement. It’s flight characteristics largely matched that of the standard, straight tracking, sharp square corners, awe-inspiring side slides, and powerful snap stalls. It rolls up a little slower on the pitch axis than the standard does, but that’s to be expected from a lighter kite.

So who is the kite for? Well, any serious competitor should check this kite out. Rumor has it that a number of pairs teams have already placed their orders for the Jinx, some having waited for this new version to come out. In addition, any intermediate to advanced flyer looking to improve his skills, to sharpen his inputs, or interested in carving rail-straight lines across the sky should take the Jinx out for a spin.

-Jared