check out the video for the new Ozone Access, now available from your local dealer.

http://www.flyozone.com/snowkites/en/products/kites/access/info/

Cheers
Team Ozone

With the 2011 season coming to a close and the 2012 season fast approaching I’ve begun to reflect on my year and the awesome times I have had.

This year I’ve been very busy just riding in general and training to push land boarding as much as I can, we have seen many tricks landed this year that previously many people thought land boarders would never be able to do. I myself have been kite surfing a lot this year progressing quickly in an effort to then bring these tricks on to the land as my vision for land boarding in the future is a unity of old school hooked in tricks and new school tricks. Now any fully fledged kite surfer will be looking at this and shaking his/her head thinking I’m nuts. But that is the attitude that will never see land boarding progress and I will laugh at anyone who doubts us.

I’m committed to pushing myself and pushing this beautiful side of kiting further beyond what can be perceived. There is a whole library of tricks thanks to kite surfers that we can do. Already on land riders have landed; slim chances, railey to blinds, kiteloop passes, back mobes and front mobes, well I want to bring that to the main stream and show the world that it can look good, that it can be done.

In 2012 with the help of the new 2012 Ozone C4’s I aim to push myself beyond limits and see land boarding go further than ever before. I want one day there to be a world championships at on shore grass spots all over the world, and with mine and your beliefs we can see it go there.

Hers is to another great year, big up to Ozone kites, Trampaboards and the British kite surfing association for helping me do what I love.

See you on the grass!
Ash Garwood

check out the video for the new Frenzy and Frenzy Ultralite kites, now available from your local dealer.

http://www.flyozone.com/snowkites/en/products/kites/frenzy/info/

http://www.flyozone.com/snowkites/en/products/kites/frenzy-ultralite/info/

Cheers
Team Ozone

I’ve been getting in my last few sessions of the warm weather before the seasons change, and they have been some epic all day sessions with blue sky and sunshine all day.

Apart from riding my usual kites the awesome C4’s i have been out on the Frenzy 2012 and they are amazing, they have such a smooth feel to them and such a quick turn I was throwing kite loops, handle passes and all manner of board offs, spins and combos.

The kite was performing amazingly and I couldn’t believe how quick it was through the turns and how much pop it had. The new Ultralite Frenzy is just as amazing, it’s the same kite just been on a diet with lighter material, the blow out valves removed making it 25% lighter overall meaning it will fly in less wind so is great for the lighter wind sessions or when you want to pack an extra kite and don’t quite have the room.

One of the features I really like is the new 100% de-power safety meaning unhooked moves are now safer than ever as you can connect the leash to it so should you let go you get full 100% de-power so no mater the wind you can always feel safe.

Robbie has worked his wonders on these kites making them fly exactly like you would want them to with amazing hangtime, pop and stability. So contact your local dealer and demo one today.

Happy flying guys
AJ Philipsen

Jack Elston here reporting from my home town Southend on sea in Essex with the low down on how it went at the 3rd round of the British land boarding championships.

Ash Garwood and I set off around 6am Thursday for the 3rd Round of the British champs held at low green, Ayr, Scotland and with a 460 mile drive ahead of us we weren’t looking forward to it to say the least. The weather forecast wasn’t looking perfect but looked rideable with a cross shore wind varying from 15-20mph with low cloud. Having already won both the 1st and 2nd rounds this year all I needed was to place 1st this round to guarantee me the title of British land boarding champion 2nd year in a row so no pressure lol…

Friday at first didn’t look like it was going to happen but around about 12pm the wind started to pick up and switch from cross off to cross and the sun started to creep out so Ash and I pumped up our C4’s and stared having a practice session to get used to the variable wind conditions. After about an hour or so the competition started with me up against Greg Chilton in the first heat then Me Vs Ash Garwood then Greg Vs Ash in a round robin set up. All our riding was really good considering the gusty and wet conditions. After the comp was out the way we all chilled out and settled down for the night in the local bar.

Saturday Ash and I went out and put on a demo for the public which turned up in their hundreds to see us and with the wind cross on it was perfect conditions to put a good show on. After a whole day of non stop riding we where knackered and went back to the BnB to get our self’s ready for the prize giving evening which turned out to be a very messy night involving a bucking bronco. The positions went as follows…
3rd Greg Chilton, 2nd Ash Garwood and 1st Jack Elston, securing me the title for 2011 and putting Ash in a very good position for claiming 2nd overall this year.

Sunday was an afternoon start, waiting around for the official prize giving as it was raining and offshore. After the prize giving and debriefing was done Ash and I headed off for an 8 hour trip home through the night battered and bruised from a hard weekends riding.

3rd round positions:

1st Jack Elston
2nd Ash Garwood
3rd Greg Chilton

Keep your eyes out for the write up on the Finals in two weeks time happening in Blackpool 6th-8th October, should be a Sick weekend!

Peace

Jack Elston

Photos: Blue Juice Media

We have just arrived back from a great 3 day trip to Berlin Germany where we exhibited the new Ozone Foil Kite Range at the KLB International Open. It took place at the Tempelhof airport, which is not used as much anymore since 3 years. Located right in the city the airport offers an amazing opportunity for people to do whatever on such a huge area. Two 2km long runways are the perfect playground not just for kiters but also longboarders, landsailers, cyclists, skaters, sagways etc.

The event area was set up at the western end of one of the runways with the competition area right in front on the green. The weather played ball with temperatures up to 25C° and loads of sun. The wind kicked in a little on Sunday and Monday just enough to get the kites flying. Down to the weather the airport was packed with visitors and our IMP Range, Flows and the all new Depower Kites, the Frenzy and Access were out being tested all day.

People loved the simplicity of the IMPs especially the Trainer with Bar. But the kite that amazed the most was the Frenzy Ultralite. Especially in the light winds everyone really could feel a huge difference to the standard Frenzy. Apart from an easier launch the Ultralite also stays up in the zenith in the lightest breeze and even after a small loss of airflow it starts accelerating again straight away, it just does everything even a bit better.

Overall the event was really well organized and helped to get new people into kiting. Unfortunately the wind was too light to show off a freestyle comp but they managed three races on Monday and loads of side events to keep the audience amused.

We’ll be back next year for sure. Check out more info on the website http://www.klb-open.com/

Cheers Dom, Iain, AJ

The upper handle is molded from bright red ABS plastic to be durable and clearly visible. The upper section of the stake has molded ribs that help the stake to stay fixed in soft soil, sand or snow.

The lower section of the stake is made from 8mm diameter 316 Stainless Steel so it will penetrate hard soil surfaces easily.

A unique feature of Ozone’s ground stake are the molded tabs on the sides that allow you to attach your lines and run them out easily to test for line stretch or the like.

An ergonomic top handle makes the stake easy to both push in and remove from the ground.

The Ozone ground stake comes in a sturdy pouch that keeps the sharp end away from your delicate kite material. It features Velcro on the back top and bottom so you can secure your stake onto a buggy frame up to 60mm in diameter.

Stake length - 30cm

MORE INFO HERE

This year, the Ozone team was present at the European Championship 2011 in Hoylake, UK.

After a long trip from the North of Antwerp. Robert Smits and I arrived in Hoylake on Saturday the 3rd of September. Stretching your legs after 12 grueling hours was more than welcome!

The obvious first thing you do, is checking out the beach. Well, check was done in 1 minute! Wet, muddy and most of all : wet. Flooded with water, our training session really fell in the water. Bummer! Well, luckily, we brought the good Belgian beer. So after meeting up with some riders we could go loose on that J.

The same story was on Sunday, rain and flooded beach, well… We did the same after the arrival on Saturday…

We met up with Thierry Guibal (France) and Mark Van den Berg (Netherlands) and had a chat with a lot of laughing (maybe partially induced by the Belgian beer). Having fun is our second priority after racing.

Day 1: Very short. Walked up the beach, 500m in the mud and exhausted. No racing because of bad weather conditions and walking back 500m up and over the mud. 25 Minutes relaxing before doing anything.

Day 2: Good!  Onshore hard winds (6-7-8 bf) and a dry race course really made me happy . These are my conditions. The first race went quite good and I ended up 5th place. Racing with the 3m² Yakuza GT was great!

After a pause of 2 hours we did the 2nd lap of the day. This race was even more exciting. Took the Yakuza GT 3,7m² and was fighting all the time for 3rd and 4rd place. After 30 minutes I was on place 2 and fighting to keep this one. The racetime was 60min this race and in these conditions it is crazy! I was sweating all my body because I was switching places all the time with number 3. Going downwind at 80km/h and loosening the brakes after the turn to go upwind gave me some extra momentum, so I managed to overtake the 2nd place, just before the finish line, which made me 3rd overall! Fully Awesome! Of course the walk thru the mud made it lots easier after knowing this. Thierry was also rocking it with an 7th and 10th place. All the Ozone guys made it to the top 20. Day 2: Success!

Day 3: The wind dropped a bit and we got out on the 4,5 till 6,8m² kites. We did 2 races but in the last race I got swooped out of the air which made me finish on place 18 (buuuh). First race was place 7 after catching up peeps. Mark Van den Berg did some good racing with ending up top 15 in this day. All Ozone guys still top 20. No stress… 5th overall for myself.

Day 4: Friday the last day of the Championship, It was going to happen. 2 Races to go. But low winds and rising temperatures. The First race went quite okay after a bad start but the 2nd race was a disaster! Starting with the 10m² after the wind dropped and with the start the wind came up with 10 knots! Switched to the 8.3 and after 1 lap to the 6.8 which was still a bit to big. Talking about a bad race! In this race a Scottish racer got pulled out of his buggy and the helicopter came over. Luckily  the injures were minor so he could join us at the ceremony on the evening. Robert had a lot of bad luck this raceday, breaking 2 sets of lines after getting no right of way.

Well, the ceremony. This was a worthy closing ceremony after a great Championship. Fun with all the countries and laughing all the time! Some pictures are going round on the Internet but it’s NSFW

After the dinner we got the results.

Overall:
David Van Boven       8th place
Thierry Guibal           14th place
Mark Van den Berg    20th place
Robert Smits             25th place

Check out the pics and get an idea of the Championship.

Thanks to Alan Vidow and Lauren Mcgavin for the use of their pictures.

Sunday was an early start, left home about 7am to get the Amarok packed with my Libre dragster, 9m and 11m Ozone Frenzy 2011, and 6m Ozone Access as well as an 8m Ozone MantaIII 2011, with a couple of Ozone Methods in even smaller sizes in case it nuked, ya gotta go prepared!!! Then there was all the 4WD recovery gear as this was the first trip to the sand for the new VW Amarok, finally I had everything, check!

Headed up the freeway at 8.00am, had a text from the new Troy (another Ozone buggyer) as I hit the F3 freeway towards Newcastle north of Sydney, so called into Bateau Bay for a cuppa, eventually getting onto the beach at Anna Bay around 12.30pm. Geoff was waiting patiently for me as I had the new longer bolts for his rear wheels, which are as I mentioned, monster Kenda Beach racers on 8″ asymmetric wide rims. Once we assembled Geoff’s VMaxII buggy we found it is only a few cms narrower than the Libre Dragster that I use, so it was going to handle the dunes with ease.

Quick gear/harness set up and chat, some water, discuss wind strength and decide to err on the big side for the winds, Geoff opting for a 9M Frenzy and me the 8M Manta 3. We were well powered! Headed off into the dunes as the wind was NW to WNW, with a change predicted to hit later that would see the wind shift SW to SSE. We buggied for about an hour in the dunes having a great time, the lee side of the dunes were very steep due to lots of W and NW winds over winter and we had to take a lot of care threading our way across the dunes. I had a minor OBE when I first started and banged my recovering sprained ankle, nothing serious, just annoying, but after about an hour up in one of the dunes a bigger gust pulled me quite forcefully from my buggy again and I banged my ankle even harder, ouch! Nothing broken but now very sore, I took this as a sign to give up on buggying for the day and decided to take pics instead.

Geoff is a brilliant and very experienced photographer so I was keen to pick his brain anyway. The sky was layered with a light high cloud so the sun was filtered and the light was very nice, added to this was some smoke from pre summer burnoffs and the light on the dunes was very attractive. Geoff suggested I learn how to compose shots that conveyed speed, so he taught me how to do “motion blurr” and also later motion blurr with infill flash, the results speak for themselves.

We left the beach well after sunset having to find the exit by the light of the cars, feeling tired and slightly sore, however the buzz and glow of a day well spent doing what we both loved lifted us and made the drive home easy, dreaming of the next adventure to Stockton in October.

Photos: Steve McCormack

The Ozone 2012 Depower range is now available!

The Frenzy incorporates secret technologies from Ozone’s world leading paraglider designs, as well as a new bridal plan design offering a 100% flag out option.

The Access is the ultimate entry level to intermediate kite. It has been designed for riders looking for an incredibly versatile and easy kite to ride for freeriding. The new Access also incorporates the 100% flag out system.

The Frenzy Ultralite is based from the Frenzy design but produced with lighter materials mainly to reduce weight and packing size.
This new total flag out option is extremely useful when landing the kite. It allows you to completely kill the power and pack up in safety. We still recommend that you land using the webbing brake handle to cleanly stall your kite, i.e. when taking a short break.

Frenzy, Frenzy Ultralite and Access have new control systems, the Contact-Snow Control System for the Frenzy/Ultralite and the Access Control System for the Access.

Check out the product pages for more info, and enjoy the ride…

Cheers
Team Ozone