Kitestock is Australia’s Largest kite festival with tickets for 300 kiters and non-kiters. There were 250 registered kiters and 50 non-kiters attending this years event which is a three day festival of all things fun about kitsurfing.

Traditionally, many kite related suppliers use Kitestock to demo new or current equipment to kiters as the concentration of kiters willing to try new equipment is unmatched anywhere in Australia.

This is a new area for AKS (Australian Kiteboarding Sales and School), as we have recently taken on the distribution of Ozone land and water kites. We placed orders for 13, 11 and 9m Edge II’s.  13, 11, 9 and 7m Sport II’s and 12, 9, 7 and 5m  Light II’s. With all the kites showing up only a few days before the event and having a bad run of weather prior to Kitestock, we were unable to try the kites before unveiling them to the kiters of kitestock. We were gambling with the kites and their acceptability. Kitestock can either make or break you depending upon the quality of the products you are demoing.

The first day saw possibly 200 of the 300 riders show up for the breakfast at the beach. Wind filled in at around 12 knots at 10am and continued to increase steadily all day to a peak of around 20-25 knots. We were the first company up with a 13m Edge II in the light winds with most other companies waiting for stronger winds to demo their gear.  The rider was able to hold ground upwind and made the conditions look good. This began a stream of demo riders approaching us to try different kites. Next up was the 13m Sport II followed by the other sizes as the wind became stronger. The rest of the day was pumping kites and landing launching and discussing the bars and differences between kites. At the end of day 1, we had demoed all of our Sports and Edges and one of the Lights (12m). The response was the same from all riders… Smooth, easy and fun to ride, great upwind ability and super hangtime.

First night at the pub, people were approaching me and saying that the discussion around the crowd was that the Ozone kites were really nice and that they must be tried! The dark horse! Many riders in Western Australia had not heard of Ozone kites … Don’t they make foil kites? Was the general question.

Day 2 saw the wind again show up at around 12 knots at 10am and this time we had kites prepared for the onslaught of demoers. Again Ozone was the predominant kite in the sky as we rode pretty much straight out the front of the main event area. With as many as 6 kites in the air at the one time, we had quite the impact and often had riders waiting around for kites to come in for their turn on the new kites. Later that afternoon, a big air comp was called and an informal system was adopted. Just jump in the vicinity of the judges and we’ll time you. I went to grab the 11m Instinct Edge II but was beaten to it by a keen demoer. My second choice was the 13m Edge II. I was unsure if I could even hold the kite in the 20-25 knot winds. I launched it with the trim fully out and had no issues holding the power just with the bar depower. Unable to find a good launching ramp in the choppy conditions I had to be content with a winning time of 6.19 sec, but am sure some of the jumps outside the judging area were bigger and longer. The crowd took note of the big Ozone kite flying very high and gliding at altitude! Many were impressed with the 13m turning ability saying it turned as fast as the other two Edges flying in the comp (11m Edge II and 9m Edge II which were also clocking big height and hangtime).

That night at the hotel, we were to give away the 9m Edge II. We decided to give the kite to the most enthusiastic kiter who tried our kites. Mike Holmes was by far the standout in this area and was ecstatic at his win. He took home a 9m, red Instinct Edge II for taking the trouble to try the new kites and rave enthusiastically to as many people as he could. The band fired up and the talk around the place was that tomorrow would be the final day to get down and try the new Instincts, so don’t miss out.

Sunday and Day 3 was the final day, we figured we’d be busy ‘til lunchtime and then the crowd would wane and we would pack up at around 2-3pm and head home to Perth. As it was, the wind again filled in at around 10am and built more solidly to around 25 knots by early afternoon, we found ourselves extremely busy again preparing and demoing kites. For many other exhibitors, they packed up and were gone by 4pm. We were still busy right up until 5.30 when our last demo kite came back in and we decided to pack up whilst we had the chance.  The beach was nearly deserted by the time our last kite landed.

Over the entire weekend, we had only one person who didn’t like the kites (saying the bar pressure was too light), everyone else had the same thing to say; amazing kites, great stability, good jumping, light bar pressure, nice simple and effective bar system, easy relaunch (even on the Edge II’s), smooth flying, very floaty jumps  and predictable in flight. We didn’t receive any negative feedback apart from; the Light’s could have had a bit more low end power, this aside, the kites behaved incredibly and the overall response was phenomenal. We could not have hoped for a better weekend. Many of the serial testers found Ozone to be the top if not 2nd top kite overall. This is impressive considering we were up against brands such as; Slingshot, North, Best, Airush, Caution, RRD, New, Cabrinha and others less well represented.

I had the opportunity to ride all Edges and Sports in all sizes and have trouble in deciding which is my favourite kite. Possibly the 7m Sport II or the 11m Edge II, but picking one would mean I had issues with the others which I didn’t. All sizes were awesome and I know  we are onto a winning brand. 

We spoke to the winner of the 9m Instinct Edge II on Sunday after he had been riding it all Sunday and he was practically speechless with the way it was flying. A top effort from David Pilkington in design as the bars, bags and kites received nothing but high praise all weekend from almost every rider. Many thanks to Ozone for donating such an awesome prize for Kitestock and we look forward to our next Kitestock where we’ll be better represented and even more prepared for a great weekend of kiting and fun.

Darren Marshall – AKS and Ozone Distributor (Western Australia)

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