Ozone Frenzy 14M

Just got my 14m 06 Frenzy as my 1st de-power foil. now I,m not going to bother with the usual Bag, kite build quality, bar set up, as this has been all covered before in other reviews.

Bit of my back ground might help, been kiting for 8 or 9 years now so I consider myself quite an experienced kiter, I kite surf, landboard and occasionally buggy to. My favorite activity is landboarding in the hills and this is pretty much one of the reasons I bought this kite, although I wont get a chance to use it on the hills till I get back to NZ in December. At the moment I fly Blades in various sizes ( my favorite kites ), Ocean Rodeo Bronco,s and I still have an old PL Arc for really windy days.

OK , 1st flight was static, on the beach with very steady 9-10 knots. Set up was remarkabley easy, possibly because of my previous experience with foils, but even so, pretty much idiot proof. Quick check of the lines and safeties, hook in, did not use the donkey, never do.

Sharp tug on the bar 1 step back and up she came. This is where I was expecting it to take a while to fill to max internal pressure with all the tip curling I have heard so much about, not a bit of it, 2 or 3 sweeps across the window and she was rock solid, pleasantly suprised I was.

She looks fairly big above your head, but I was surprised by the little amount of pull she was producing, compared to a big Blade that is. Tried the hand brake to land it again, this required some not inconsiderable effort before she finally started to lose power and drift down to the ground and a couple of times after she would tend to want to go one way or the other across the window and I would have to release the brake again. Sure it will all come naturally after more practice.

The primary release worked well and gave me heaps of confidence that I might never need to use the chicken loop release. Reconect was easy, so down time does not look like its going to be much of an issue. Ozone have made a very user friendly kite here.

After all that fiddling with safeties it was time to see what she could do. At 1st I thought she turned like an oil tanker and that this was going to be a major dissadvantage. I found that with the bar "out "she turned like a pig, but after some experimentation I found that she turned much quicker with the bar pulled in. This requires much more effort on the pilots behalf, but I found it not too much of a problem after a while. I would say she turned slightly quicker that my 16m LEI as a comparison.

Now I had that sorted it was time for a few pendulum jumps. I am very used to the Blades sometimes violent antics and at 14m I was unsure what to expect, however this kite picks you up on command and seems to gently float you across the ground to a near perfect landing EVERY time, its almost too easy which is where I suspect the real danger with this kite lies

I was so confident with it after my 1st, 2 hour session. It was only when I packed away and thought about it.

I was flying in near perfect conditions. Time will tell and I will update this review when I have found out how she behaves at the top end of her wind range, this is where she might become a completly different beast.

On the whole a highly enjoyable kite to fly and I have no worries about landboarding or taking her out on the water, it certainly inspires confidence and I dont get the impression that this kite wants to kick my ass every 5 minutes like the Blades do.

Watch this space for future updates.

Happy Flying Dixie

By : dixie