Tkb Review: 2021 DUOTONE Juice

Sizes Available: 13, 15, 17m
Sizes Tested: 13m

Duotone Says:

The Juice has been a favorite among the light wind warriors for many years now, dubbed the session saver by the pro team, it’s the kite everyone needs in the trunk of their car when they head to the beach. There is nothing worse than arriving at the spot to find you need a few more knots of wind, the Juice puts an end to that, it is almost always windy enough when you have the Juice! Designed for extremely light wind freeriding, the smaller sizes are also optimized for foil kiters. What sets the Juice apart from other large kites out there is the incredible handling, a characteristic produced by its unique shape and profile and also the reduced weight. The Flex Struts really help the kite to respond instantly to rider input, giving the Juice a very active and lively feel, while the unique tip design offers plenty of turning speed.

There was a time when large kites were slow, uninspiring and hard to relaunch, the Juice rewrites the rule book giving the rider a dynamic flying experience and a kite that can relaunch in the lightest of breezes. The bar pressure is surprisingly light, and the kite has less drag than before, making it faster through the air and allowing it to generate even more low-end power. When the wind picks up, the Juice has an impressive range, enabling you to stay on the water for longer and jump higher. Don’t just plan to mow the lawn on the light wind days, nail all your tricks with a massive smile on your face and feel the power of the Juice!

Visit for more info: www.duotonesports.com/kiteboarding/kites/juice/

TKB Says:

The Juice is the light wind weapon you want up your sleeve when all your friends are shame walking up the beach. With some subtle improvements this year to handling and power generation, the Juice remains the twin tip session saver and a foilboard companion to dominate those threshold sessions that would otherwise be impossible.

Inflation Valve: Proprietary nozzle + separate dump valve
Flying Line Attachments: Center bridle: Knot / Wingtip bridle: Larks head
Centerline Split: High-V
Front Bridle Options: Single setting

Design and Features
The Juice’s 3-strut airframe trims out a higher aspect canopy with a slightly different wingtip shape this year and a fairly narrow leading edge that delivers really impressive efficiency moving across the window in lighter wind sessions. The Juice uses Duotone’s large diameter inflation valve dubbed the ”˜Max Flow’ system which connects directly with Duotone’s pump hose without the use of a nozzle; the inflation system’s twist valve rotates with the insertion of the hose to keep air locked in the kite. Deflation can happen through both the inflation valve and a dump valve on one side of the kite, making both inflation and deflation quick and easy. The bridle is a single setting fixed bridle that doesn’t use a slider/pulley to change the angle of attack, the bridle lines being noticeably thin diameter, part of the Juice’s streamlined efficiency. The front bridle attachment ends in a knot, with the wingtip pigtail ending in a larks head. The wingtip offers three attachment points that allow you to select between bar feeling of ”˜hard, medium and soft,’ with the stock setting dialed to ”˜medium.’ The trailing edge gets four hard battens, two on each side and the wingtip uses a very little amount of Dacron at the edges and a trailing edge that uses the newer lighter Dacron””all material decisions that make the Juice feel incredibly light for its size.

Impressions
The key question for us this year is how do the Juice’s mods move it towards light wind twin tip riding versus foil kiting. Keep in mind that Duotone has the Mono which has become much more popular in the last few years for its foil-specific handling. Sliding the 13m out of its slim kite bag, it struck us how compact this large kite can fold up, and more so how the Juice pushes the envelope of keeping weight down while offering the canopy surface area you need to rock and roll those lighter sessions. The bar pressure rings in on the lighter side of medium with the factory setting, which allows you to tweak that to be lighter with the outboard wingtip option, but for a 13m kite, we found the factory setting comfortable and balanced for input and feedback. The steering input feels fairly crisp, but the turning speed is on par with a 13m kite, particularly one with such a high-aspect airframe. With turning in wider arcs, it feels like the Juice produces power throughout the turn, which is crucial for wringing every inch out of a threshold session. We found ourselves screaming upwind when other people were walking the beach with slightly smaller kites on surfboards. The upwind ability is really high on this kite, partly because it feels like it flies a little forward in the window; everything from the thin diameter bridles and narrower leading edge seems to promote lower windage and efficiency. Combine that feel with a canopy that loves apparent wind and you can really feel the power when you get the Juice moving through the window. We were busting jumps and air transitions while staying upwind in really unimpressive conditions. In some respects, we feel like the Juice offers some of the freeride performance you get out of the Evo at a significantly lower wind threshold. In addition to the grunt, the Juice had plenty of depower built into the end of the bar throw, and the canopy didn’t get washy or flatulent when you needed to let go of the pulling power. The hangtime offered up opportunities for extra rotations and our jump heights were much higher than we would have expected.

When it comes to suitability to foiling, our thoughts are mixed because on one hand, it has the depower that surpasses or defies what we would expect for a kite of this size and pulling power, so that makes it foil friendly, but with the 13m being the smallest kite in the Juice lineup, it’s really geared toward threshold kite foiling conditions (6-9knots) or bigger riders that need some grunt to get going. On the whole, the Juice has evolved as a twin tip light wind session saver that’s true calling keeps the freeride bump, jump and carving smiles rolling when the wind isn’t quite up to par. If that is its bread and butter, the Juice is user-friendly enough to double duty just fine as a foil kite in threshold conditions, but dedicated foilers will probably want to finish their quiver off with a smaller sized Mono for more advanced kite foiling.

Featured Control Bar
The Click Bar got an upgraded line set this year along with a more subdued colorway but keeps much of the successful formula from last year’s design. The new kite lines boast a smaller diameter, stronger breaking force and less stretch to increase the crisp communication of control inputs directly into the airframe. Available in two sizes, either the smaller fixed-length 42cm wide bar with 22m (20m+2m extension) lines or the original 49cm length with 24m (22m+2m extension) lines, the bar features a single centerline safety depower system and an adjustable attachment point that allows you to swap the height of the center lines’ V (it’s worth noting that you don’t have to re-thread the entire length of a line through a ring to accomplish the change). The outside lines end in knots and the center lines end in loops. The Click Bar features a molded plastic throw line that untwists itself after you spin, a sliding stopper to adjust the length of throw and Duotone’s proven push away quick release. The quick release, when opened horizontally, locks into an open position, holding the gate open. Reassembly is easy: one hand inserts the loop back into position and pushes on the catch button while the other hand raises the quick release handle so the catch can move back into its closed position and then the handle is moved back into the locked position.

The Click Bar can be purchased with one of the four chicken/connection loop options that are tailored to your specific style of riding. Most freeride-oriented kiters might choose the Freeride connection loop which is the smallest option, keeping the bar close to your body. The historically normal-sized loop is now called the ”˜Freestyle Kit,’ which is sized in the middle for both hooked and unhooked riding. For riders that unhook all day long, there is a large ”˜Wakestyle’ loop and for those that only ride with a surf slider rope, there is the ”˜Rope Harness Kit,’ which is a small loop with an integrated metal slider to reduce friction and keep the bar close to the rider. Swapping the loops out is easy; you just need a fin key to remove a ¾ inch set screw to change out the desired loop. The Click Bar settles the debate between above or below the bar tuning by placing it exactly at your fingertips. The twisting motion for powering up takes a little bit of focus while riding at first and the button for depower is easily accessed at all times. While it’s a big shift from the systems we have come to know, seamless controls like this are the future of the sport. The ratchet knob built into the bar end is easy to grab a hold of and easy to rotate once you have some familiarity with it and works while kiting with easy tuning on the fly. The Click Bar also integrates two visual indicators that reveal the power position the bar is set to; one is located on the bar itself, moving left to right, and the second is a small red indicator on the leader line for the right outside line. You don’t realize how you visually assess the trim strap’s position until it is gone, so these indicators are actually a very nice feature. Compared to other systems, the mechanics of Duotone’s Click bar is entirely closed, which means you won’t be washing it out. The Click Bar features retractable bar bungees, soft bar ends with integrated floats, a fairly dense EVA grip that feels asymmetrical in your palm with subtle raised bumps between your fingers, and a very comfortable stamp pattern running the entire length of the bar. This year the colorway gets more subdued with overall gray and white tones mixed with red highlights to ensure visual awareness for polarity.

Visit for more info on the bar: www.duotonesports.com/kiteboarding/bars/click-bar/