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Sizes Available: 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14m
Sizes Tested: 8, 10, 12m

Blade Says:

Following a decade-long journey of meticulously perfecting each and every aspect of the kite, the Trigger enters a new era of versatile, high-flying, attention-grabbing rides. Fit for all level riders and virtually any weather condition, this kite allows you to perform smooth sequences while constantly adding new tricks to your arsenal, while taking advantage of its great jumping ability, quick turning and skill building attributes. Don’t be surprised if you find an upgraded version of yourself each time you go out there. No matter where your kiting spot is, expect to see the yellower-than-ever Trigger shining bright in the sky, popping out of bags all over the beach or pulling you up high for another big air maneuver.

Visit for more info: www.bladekites.com/kite/trigger

Our Testers Say:

“I was delightfully surprised at how well this kite performed, it being a new brand for me. I would definitely fly this kite again with it surprisingly solid feel, easy handling and decent turning speed.” // Kristin Vincenzo

“Boosts, very stable and turns well, where do I get one? Medium bar pressure, excellent boost, hangtime and great upwind ability. This kite was a nice surprise – stepped up and performed!” // Kiter Mike

“Always a sleeper in the test but never fails to impress. Quick responsive turning that will shoot you into orbit, with performance that is not for the faint of heart. Like the adjustable length throw, slick QR system; swivel can be hard to turn.” // Dray Murray

Meet Our Testers

TKB Says:

The Blade Trigger is the classic all-around performance freestyle kite with its 3-strut air frame and medium to high aspect canopy with a soft sweptback leading edge and pulled back wingtips. For the last few years the Trigger has boasted a small diameter leading edge and a light canopy with reduced dacron usage on the trailing edge for a solid but lightweight build. The Trigger features a single pulley front bridle with two adjustments to switch between ”˜standard’ and ”˜advanced wave’ trim modes. The advanced wave mode will move the attachment point farther forward on the leading edge and gives you a bit more depower, but for the majority of our freeride testing we rode the Trigger in the standard mode which means the kite had less depower, a little less bar pressure and bigger jumping. The wingtip features a single attachment setting while inflation is quick and easy with the Max Flow inflation system. This is probably one of the most efficient and fastest inflation valves, but it does require a proprietary wide-mouth pump nozzle attachment to make it work (although you can fake it with the skillful use of a lot of duct tape). Testers cited the Trigger’s light to medium bar pressure with exceptional crisp steering response. When you put any pressure on the bar this kite wants to turn and turn fast. The Trigger wants to fly relatively forward in the window and seems to want to pull and accelerate yet with good stability. The power delivery across the bar throw is fairly smooth and intuitive. The Trigger does feel like a kite that wants to be flown more aggressively to find the power, rather than the ”˜sheet and go’ type of progression kite, but when it comes to boosting airs the Trigger delivers the goods. This kite truly shines when you go for load and send jumps, with the lifting boost that the Trigger airframe generates being of the kind that borders on insane. Some of the first jumps on the Trigger made us rethink our flight pattern and work in a kiteloop to keep the landing fairly soft and easy. In terms of relaunch, the leading edge isn’t quite as sweptback as some of the other freeride kites and as a result the relaunch requires a bit more input when its nose down in the bottom of the window. We still classify the Trigger as fairly easy to relaunch, but it’s not quite as willing to roll up off its nose when directly downwind as say a delta kite, at least not without grabbing a leader line and applying pressure to one wingtip. Once you apply some pressure the Trigger flips up and taxis to the edge of the window and releases from the water, and it did this reliably every time. The Trigger continues to impress testers with its performance freeride lift abilities combined in a generally user-friendly package that makes this kite a great option for generally more aggressive freeriders and those that like an active surf kite.

The Trigger came with Blade’s Unibar which features a single center-line safety depower system on a fixed length bar (45, 52, 60cm) which has the center lines end in a knot for rigging purposes. The Unibar features a low-V split on the center lines and an above the bar cleat with a magnet built into the power toggle to secure excess slack to the metal cleat for no-mess riding in depowered conditions. Blade removed the above the bar swivel from the past and integrated it into the quick release body for a below the bar hand swivel that cleans up the rigging quite a bit. The new system is an auto-rotating system that un-swivels the center lines when you sheet in the bar. Like most auto untwists systems, we found ourselves intentionally sheeting the bar in all the way just to initiate the auto-swivel, otherwise twists left in the throw line tended to create additional friction in the travel of the bar and this was noted by many of the testers. The quick release handle is visually easy to see with its bumble bee yellow coloring; the release handle has enough tension that it won’t prematurely release and the system is fairly easy to reset with two hands, one holding the handle open, the other inserting the end of the loop back into position and releasing the handle back to normal position. The Unibar has a Spectra depower/throw line that doesn’t feature a sliding stopper but the Unibar does have an adjustable length throw to dial in the distance between the tuning cleat and the rider. This bar comes with 23m lines that utilize 19m base lengths with 4m extensions to get to 23m. The outside steering lines end in loops (pigtails color coded black and yellow) and the center lines end in knots (color coded gray). The bar ends feature integrated floats that are relatively compact and molded into the soft bar ends which are a nice feature if your forehead unexpectedly meets the bar. There is a semi-retractable bungee for stowing the lines after wrap up. The outside lines are not adjustable in length. The bar grip stands out with its medium diameter and its angled upward bow as it approaches the bar ends. The bottom of the grip is a smooth but firm EVA and the top is a softer ridge line with bumps dividing finger holds. The color coding on the bar is fairly obvious with yellow coloring on the grip indicating the left side, and the insert shows a Blade logo on the insert when you are holding the bar in the proper orientation. Overall, once you figure out the auto-untwist feature the Trigger has a good mix of functional features combined with a good comfortable grip.

Visit for more info on the bar: www.bladekites.com/unibar3rd


With the help of 14 testers from all walks of kiteboarding, Tkb’s staff assembled detailed gear reviews with objective performance criteria of the latest 2019 kites, twin tips and foilboards all packed into one neat and tidy 180-page digital package. Get all the reviews in convenient digital guide here: https://www.thekiteboarder.com/product/2019-freeride-gear-review-guide/