Tkb Review: 2022 CORE Section 4

Sizes Available: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.5m
Sizes Tested: 7, 9m

Core Says:

Your passion for waves is off the charts. A day doesn’t go by without checking tidal and weather apps because you can’t miss a good wave day. Take your passion to a whole new level with the CoreTex 2.0 powered Section 4 – a wave kiter’s kite.

A great surf kite gets you to the best waves and keeps you on them without a fuss. It needs excellent drift and quick loops to stay afloat in onshore wind conditions especially with big, fast waves. Offshore conditions require a fast kite with huge depower to stay in front of the window. The Specialized Series Section 4 ticks all the boxes with its improved wind range and steering.

Visit for more info: www.corekites.com/us/kite/kites/section-4

TKB Says:

The Section is really coming into its own as a premier surf kite with nimble flying that is super easy to control and good power on demand that allows you to surf the wave on your own terms. With a number of small changes to version 4, the latest model has trimmed some weight and increased its drift and maneuverability in ways that continue the Session’s path forward as a intuitive, yet precision tool for riding waves and casual freeride.

Inflation Valve: Standard pump hose without adapter
Attachments: Center bridle: Lark’s head loop / Wingtip bridle: Knot
Centerline Split: Low-V
Front Bridle Options: Three tuning options / two pulleys + one slider

Design and Features
The big change this year is the use of CoreTex 2, a new canopy material which offers some improvements in weight along with special treatments that reduce the canopy’s flutter. The struts are now built out of lighter grade Dacron that Core calls Exo Tex Light while the leading edge is built out of regular Exo Tex. The designers have modified the shape of the wingtip elbow that works with the overall reduction in material weight to increase the steering response and liveliness of the kite.

The Section 4 features Core’s Speed Valve 2, which is a proprietary inflation valve that requires a normal size pump hose without an attachment on the end to be inserted into the valve and needs to be rotated to lock. With the large size aperture, the kite inflates very quickly and the valve stays closed until you put the tethered plastic finger (hidden in a pocket of the center strut and attached by a small line) into the valve to let out air and allow the kite to deflate. The Section 4 comes with a triple setting front bridle that uses Core’s CIT settings to adjust between three different modes: ”˜offshore’, ”˜allround’ and ”˜onshore’ settings. Core has kept the bridle of the Section 4 relatively short and uses two pulleys and a stainless slider to help smooth the changes in the angle of attack. The front bridle ends in a lark’s head loop and the wingtip pigtail ends in a knot.

The wingtips offer three attachment points to adjust between ”˜medium’, ”˜easy’, and ”˜super easy’ sheeting settings with our kite coming stock from the factory in the super easy setting. Version 4 continues to use Dacron sparingly on the wingtip and employs a double ripstop trailing edge with a short batten between the tip and wingtip strut and a foam batten between the wingtip and center strut to help stabilize the trailing edge.

Impressions
The Section takes a step forward this year with a lighter canopy and subtle design changes that give you a more reactive feel at the bar and a faster turning kite that helps take the focus off the kite and put your attention back on the wave. Right off the bat we liked the bar pressure with its super comfortable light side of medium tension that helps keep your session feeling casual and easy on your arms. The turning felt super tight with pivot-style turns on the ”˜allround’ stock front bridle setting that made it super easy to manage the placement of the Section in the middle of the window. The steering response was really crisp and continued to respond to bar input even when the canopy was depowered. The changes to the strut material and wingtips seems to have paid off with better steering response that makes kite placement feel surgically precise for tearing into more challenging conditions.

The power delivery felt good for the two sizes we tested with power on demand and a sheet and go feel that was just enough but never overwhelming. We noticed an insane amount of depower as the canopy completely unloading on demand so that we never missed a turn because of unwanted pulling power. The drift on this latest version feels like a notable improvement as the kite would always float back into the wind window after we slacked the lines.

Having shifted through the CIT settings on the front bridle, we tended to gravitate towards the ”˜offshore’ setting with the front bridle balance point moved forward. ”˜Offshore’ tended to allow the kite to fly a bit farther forward in the window with faster access to complete depower. In this setting, it also seemed like the kite turned off the wingtip rather than around the center of the kite for a little rounder of a turn, yet still quite tight and responsive. On this setting, the bar travel felt slightly longer and the power delivery more gradual. When it came to relaunches, the Section 4’s relaunch remains quick and effortless. From nose down in the center of the window, just a bit of bar pressure caused the wingtip to flip and the kite to release from deep in the window for a very rapid and easy relaunch.

Overall the Section 4 scored high marks for its increased agility and comfortable bar feel that impressed testers of varying skill levels. With power that never overwhelmed along with precision steering, the Section 4 was fun and intuitive for jumping, although not explosive, but with its good drift capabilities and excellent power control, it comfortably doubled as a very user-friendly kitefoiling kite. When it comes to surfing, there’s quite a few schools of thought, but the Section, with its tuned-up steering performance and three CIT settings, is capable of covering a lot of ground.

We rode the Section 4 with Core’s Sensor 3 bar. Read the review here.