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

LOS ANGELES, CA, OCTOBER 5, 2011 – Noted environmentalist, adventurer and photographer Sebastian Copeland, along with Eric McNair-Landry, on October 27th,will be embarking on an unassisted 4,200 kilometer transcontinental crossing of Antarctica on skis and kites. The expedition begins on the East coast at the Russian Novo station, cross through the Pole of Inaccessibility (the farthest point from any coast) and the South Pole, and ending on the Western shore at Hercules Inlet, The mission purports to open a new transcontinental east-west route, over the period of 85-90 days without assistance in commemoration of the centennial of Amundsen’s and Scott’s discovery of the south pole in 1911.

100 years ago adventurers Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott made history with their first reach of the South Pole. To commemorate their extraordinary feat and courage, this historical crossing aims to honor their accomplishment by opening a never-before traveled course linking the Antarctic coast east to west. The trip will begin in Cape Town; from there a Russian Ilyushin 76 will transport Sebastian and Eric, and their 800 pounds of food and gear to the eastern coast of Antarctica at Novo Station. They will then set off on the estimated 85-90 day journey, through the coldest continent on Earth. The first major reaching point will be the Pole of Inaccessibility, and then they travel across the geographic South Pole, ending at Hercules Inlet. Among the many challenges they will face are the herculean effort of pulling 400 pounds up the glacier through treacherous hidden crevasse fields; -40C to -30C degree average temperatures outside of wind chill; frostbites; changing weather patterns that can turn to hurricane strength storms; the bone rattling hard ice and the sastrugi they will be skiing over at speed with their kites; and much more. How Sebastian and Eric overcome these, as well as the other many challenges, will be documented daily with photographs and the daily blog, and assembled into a documentary.

“There are few places on Earth that instantly conjure awe and a quiet respect. In 1911, Scott and Amundsen etched their name in history by being the first to conquer the South Pole. This Legacy crossing aims to honor their memory by linking, in one continuous trip, an East/West traverse of the most inhospitable environment on Earth, setting tracks where no man has been before.”

Sebastian will use iridium satellite technology to blog daily onto his website. Along with the daily entries, a GPS signal will also track the expedition’s progress on a dynamic map at sebastiancopeland.com. The entire adventure will be documented on HD for a planned documentary.

Sebastian will be photographing the ice along the way to document surface conditions that will provide valuable information for the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder Colorado, information that will help determine snow accumulation along some never before visited areas.

A tree will be planted for each kilometer traveled during this expedition, and the trip will be made Carbon Neutral thanks to Climate Partner.

Other sponsors include HP, Napapijri, Revo sunglasses, Lexar, Rossignol, Ozone Kites, Hilleberg tents, Herbalife and ColdAvenger.

Sebastian’s blog posts and updates during his voyage can be found at: www.sebastiancopeland.com
Sebastian on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/sebcopeland
Sebastian on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SCopelandAdventures
Sebastian has launched a Kickstarter Campaign:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1282530324/antarctica-2011-legacy-crossing

Here it is mid-October and I can’t believe that the winter of 2012 has begun.  It’s only been a scant 3 and a half months since I left the snow in mid-June (for work) and now I’m back in the Biggies ripping soft fall chowder, fully lit on my 9m Frenzy, snowkite season is ON!

Our first day we had warm, spring-like temps.  It was a great start to the season.  The second day was stormy and everyone bailed.  That left me for a solo session on Lil Baldy.  On Monday, the third day, I awoke to 4” of fresh pow, blue sky, and wind. As I made the morning commute from the Bear Lodge I’m awestruck with the beauty and magic of the Big Horns.  Best of all the wind is from the NW allowing me to easily climb both Bald and Lil Bald Mtns.  On both peaks I made tracks in soft, fluffy powder and made repeated laps wherever I found it deep.  Fresh powder, sunshine, wind made for a perfect day in the mountains of Wyoming.

Thanks for reading and see ya out there
Noah

Hi all,

This is the first time I’ve ever gone snowkiting so early in the season.

Here in France we had a surprising snow shower on September 19th and I went with a friend of mine to a special spot in France near my place, this spot is called Col de la Croix de Fer which means Iron Cross Pass. We used to go there for our first snowkiting sessions every year as the road is normally closed during winter, but in autumn it remains open so we can reach this 2.000m high spot. Unfortunately, the weather came back warm the day after and it was only the one open window for this incredible session.

Then, the next snowfall came three weeks later, on October 10th and once again, only one day was OK for snowkiting this same spot, with flat light and strong gusty wind, but cool anyway to go on the snow so early in the season. Now, we are ready for a great winter.
So many people get on fire about snowkiting now with the winter so close to us, looking at the videos and chatting a lot on the forums.

This is the right moment I choose to edit a video about our last session in spring, on April 20th, with friends Johann Civel and Wareck Arnaud, I call it  SPRING AFFAIRS and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Well, while waiting for the next fresh snow powder coming, I started editing a huge video series about our last trip in USA with Chasta at Brian Schenck’s place in Utah. Very great videos coming soon….so stay tuned dudes.

Cheers
Pascal

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

this is our new snowkiting video filmed by my friends Wareck Arnaud (www.rideupmountains.com) and Valentina during some great days at our home spot during the end of the 2011 season.

Freeride in high mountains and freestyle … that’s what we love to do…

Mega thank’s to Wareck for these images.

The winter is soon arriving here in the Alps, and I hope it will be another crazy white season with our new Ozone toys…I’m ready.

Ciao
Simone
www.snowkiters.it

Kiteboarding Magazine’s current November 2011 issue ran an article “Inspired To Ride” by Cimeron Morrissey.  Featured were Ruben Lenten, Lou Wainman, Clarissa Hempel along with other famous kiters.  Among those others were 3 Montana kiters who fly Ozone foils all winter long: Joel Beatty, Cale Benson and yours truly, Noah Poritz!

Some choice quotes were included in the article, my favorite being: “Even when it’s 100 degrees out and I’m slaving away in the sun… …my mind is thinking about kiting.  It keeps me motivated when life hands me a bad deal.  The draw to kite is a drug.  I need my fix.  And a day of snowkiting is main-lining that drug—nothing else matters.”

Yes, I said that.  While the story was mostly factual there were a few errors.  One was calling me a snowboarder!  Oh, well, maybe that will improve my cred!

Other news from the Rockies:  The 2012 snowkite season has begun!  Last weekend 14 inches of snow fell in the Big Horns of Wyoming and kiters from Billings and Cody were flying their Frenzys to harvest the first session of the winter!  With that first layer of white, every kiter in Montana and Wyoming is chomping at the bit to head to the Biggies.

Thanks for reading and see ya out there,
Noah

We are proud to announce to you that our video “Ride Up”  has been selected at the flying festival film of Saint Hilaire, “La Coupe Icare”.

Here you can find the link of the teaser: http://vimeo.com/29221986 , and the link of the festival: www.coupe-icare.org/films.html

We will show it at two other festivals of mountaineering films during autumn.

Now “Ride Up” is an association, our goal is to promote the freeride aspect of the sport.

This winter we will carry on filming with Wareck. Ozone and new partners will help us to finalise a documentary about freeriding for festivals and TV.

The “Ride Up” team:
Johann Civel, Wareck Arnaud, Sebastien Bocos, Rémi Dineur and Valère Bouchaud.

See You

check out the online Issue #1 of White Kite Magazine from Ozone team rider Pascal Boulgakoff.

This issue features the Erciyes Snowkite Festival in Turkey, stay tuned for the next issue with a Turkey video and more snowkite trips!

Cheers
Team Ozone

The Ozone 2012 Snowkite 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 snow kite. It has been designed for riders looking for an incredibly versatile and easy kite to ride for freeriding and backcountry exploring. The new Access also incorporates the 100% flag out system.

This new total flag out option is extremely useful when landing the kite at the top of a mountain. It allows you to completely kill the power and pack up in safety, ready to Freeride down the mountain. We still recommend that you land using the webbing brake handle to cleanly stall your kite, i.e. when taking a short break.

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

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

Cheers
Team Ozone