The Ozone Instinct 06 13m cursed kite:
Bought the kite and had a lession, all seemed well,
- found that the photocopied instructions were hard to read from.
- about 1month from buying the kite (only used during teh lession as it was winter and i was kite landboarding not kite surfing. Had the bar replaced as everyone had been complaining about it and it was not as safe as it could have been.
- set up my gear and was teaching someone how to launch kite surfing kites when i noticed that there was then a 3 inch tear in teh leading edge that was not there before hand (this was at Edithvale in Melbourne which is a sand beach), Had seen Goshen about the repair and kitepower did a good job fixing the tear (could not understand tho because there is more sharp shells etc at Pt Henry for example then Edithvale)
- The main bladder for teh leading edge leaked through teh inlet valve. Think this was because i have a black car which gets hot in summer and left my Instict in teh car and this melted/damaged teh valve.
- Then was my last session with teh kite was described below.
It all happened on Thursday night. wind was a slightly gusty 18knots going down to about 13knots at times, slight cross on shore at Altona. I was having a great session easily going upwind and through the chop which was further out. I had been out for about 1hr15min having a great time and thought that i would try some small jumps to see how my legs handled the landing. So i was going out to deeper water and doing some small jumps , landing pretty much each one and pointing down wind each jump so as not to put much pressure on my legs, after landing then i would sink down a bit and put the kite through the window and keep going . It did not worry me at the time that i was pointing down wind but not putting the kite through the window before i land so as to keep the lines tense and remain on the top of the water (i understood that having the kite above me when i landed would provide more lift and thus a softer landing so that i could see how i legs took the impact. I had done this a few times without any problems but earlier on i once came off my board when it got hit side on by a wave and the kite hit the water but there was no problem.
The last jump of the day that i did i was a bit higher and when i landed i pointed the board downwind as before, i landed and then went a few meters across teh water down wind and then proceeded to sink into teh water. The lines went loose as per expected but i pulled teh bar fully towards me and turned the bar to my right until it was parallel with where the lines should have been . But unfortunately the lines were just too loose and teh kite was already falling from teh sky. It inverted and kept coming down with the lines getting even looser at which point in time i fully sheeted out so that the bar was all the way out (away from me) and in the safety (no power) position . Then about 2 seconds later the kite hit the water. So then i waited for the kite to go downwind a bit so that the lines would tighten and i pulled in the bar and got the kite out of the water. As it was about 2m out of teh water i noticed at first that the shape was not quite write and that it was not flying properly. Then i noticed that i could see straight through my kite . The next 5 seconds was me swearing followed by me pulling the safety because teh kite was not flying in a very controllable way. I got the kite in to shore with the help of one of teh local kite surfers and inspected the damaged before taking teh photo. I was perfectly fine but the kite sure wasn't. The main strut had the bladder punctured and the left hand strut next to it had the material rip just below the stitching near the leading edge (although the bladder was ok. To the left of this strut was the massive rip which can be see in the photo. It goes from teh leading edge to the rip stop mylar. Nothing was wrong with the leading edge which actually took the impact.
All in all i only flew this kite a handfull of times due to the fact that i used to landboard more and when i did go out teh wind was either too strong or not strong enough for this kite Ozone instinct06 13m so i would have a go on my mates kites instead.
This was the 3rd Ozone kite that i have, 1st kite surfing kite. I think that Ozone make great kites but on this occasion i think that the approx. $2,000 that i spent buying this kite was not worth just a hand full of sessions that i had with it. It can probably be fix but the integrity of the kite compared with the amount of pressure/power that the kite is put through during normal flying means that i would not have confidence in jumping with it (when the pressure/power is even greater). I need to know that i can rely on something when i am meters in the air doing a jump (even if it is just over water). So Steve I don't know that having it fixed would be the best thing for me to do? even if it would not cost much.
Thanks
Lee
