Rider: 80 kg, intermediate

Hi everybody,

Looking for a good kite for oldschool (big airs, hangtime, stability...). Would appreciate any suggestions.
thanks a lot

wind speed?

i like the ozone edge for boosting big and floating around the sky.

Yep,

2nd vote for Ozone Edge. Mammoth boosting with uber hangtime. Simply awesome!

DM

Yeah expect to pay 2300 for an edge 13m.
The Takoon Chrono falls into the same race category.
Its a high aspect ratio kite with a clean middle section
(no centre strut). this is the sweet spot where the majority of the lift
is generated. Probably what I'm going to buy as the 2012s are
about to drop and I'm going to pay nearly a thousand bucks less than an Ozone

Select to expand quote

iRideWainman said...


Yeah expect to pay 2300 for an edge 13m.
The Takoon Chrono falls into the same race category.
Its a high aspect ratio kite with a clean middle section
(no centre strut). this is the sweet spot where the majority of the lift
is generated. Probably what I'm going to buy as the 2012s are
about to drop and I'm going to pay nearly a thousand bucks less than an Ozone

Keep in mind that the Edge will have great resale value thanks to Ozone's impeccable construction and the Edge's racing pedigree. Sure, it's more coin up front but you'll have the use of a brilliant kite and be able to sell it for a respectable amount too, unlike some less sought-after brands.

The Edge completely dominated the recent course racing world championships in Sylt, where Ozone riders John Heineken and Adam Koch traded 1st and 2nd places while the rest of the fleet were really just competing for 3rd.

Full results: http://results.extremience.com/sylt2011course.htm

There is indeed nothing better than an ozone edge 11m in 25 knots for boosting huge-stupid-mega-yeeha-cowabunga-airs.

You stay in the air for such a long time compared to any other kite i've ridden.
When you come in to land it's so gentle and soft people think you're actually really skilled, when all you did was send it as hard as possible and hang on for dear life.

If all you want to do is boost large then there are a lot of widespan bow kites that would do the job,just look for a high aspect bow or most modern delta bows also go large and have mega float,you dont need to spend the earth to get a big boosting hangtime kite.

Best Nemesis XP were good for boosting big and as far as i know have re released the kite this year. But the Edge is as everyone said an awesome option. I have even seen guys on Swithchblades gettin good hang time in the right conditions.

Rebel works well for me

If you want to boost get an Ozone Edge. Its that simple.

Pretty much any flat high aspect kite should fit the bill. For max hangtime, stability and slow turning, racing kites like Edge or Switchblade are probably the ones to choose. Jumps will be floaty, and it's gonna take you up slowly elevator-style rather than with an aggressive yank.

The most fun jumping and freeriding kites I have tried are probably the 2009 Ocean Rodeo Rise and 2009 Best Nemesis. Both go large, but also catapult you up aggressively, which I find is the most fun part about jumping. You can also send them from relatively low in the window, so the pop from the board and pull from the kite are in sync. IMO a crucial factor, since jumping is all about the take-off.

Select to expand quote

djdojo said...

iRideWainman said...


Yeah expect to pay 2300 for an edge 13m.
The Takoon Chrono falls into the same race category.
Its a high aspect ratio kite with a clean middle section
(no centre strut). this is the sweet spot where the majority of the lift
is generated. Probably what I'm going to buy as the 2012s are
about to drop and I'm going to pay nearly a thousand bucks less than an Ozone

Keep in mind that the Edge will have great resale value thanks to Ozone's impeccable construction and the Edge's racing pedigree. Sure, it's more coin up front but you'll have the use of a brilliant kite and be able to sell it for a respectable amount too, unlike some less sought-after brands.

The Edge completely dominated the recent course racing world championships in Sylt, where Ozone riders John Heineken and Adam Koch traded 1st and 2nd places while the rest of the fleet were really just competing for 3rd.

Full results: http://results.extremience.com/sylt2011course.htm

No idea about either kite, just wanted to say the re-sale thing is the biggest myth I've seen recently.

About 2 months ago I went through the for sale section and collected as many prices as I could for as many different brands as I could find (including ozone) that were less than 2 years old and then compared the asking price (so not even what they actually sold for) to their original RRP, interesting thing is that all brands came in about the same (50% if one year and 45% if two years) with a max variation of about 5% of the original RRP meaning that the diffefence in resale value is between $50 and $100, so it's something but hardly enough to make the decision around which kite you buy, especially when you consider the difference in your original outlay is likely to be more than $300.

Worth noting too, that many of the kites had been listed for some time so my guess is that the difference is even smaller than above, as the stuff that sells tends to be on the lower side of the info that I found.

My 2c for the grinder

Select to expand quote

djdojo said...

iRideWainman said...


Yeah expect to pay 2300 for an edge 13m.
The Takoon Chrono falls into the same race category.
Its a high aspect ratio kite with a clean middle section
(no centre strut). this is the sweet spot where the majority of the lift
is generated. Probably what I'm going to buy as the 2012s are
about to drop and I'm going to pay nearly a thousand bucks less than an Ozone

Keep in mind that the Edge will have great resale value thanks to Ozone's impeccable construction and the Edge's racing pedigree. Sure, it's more coin up front but you'll have the use of a brilliant kite and be able to sell it for a respectable amount too, unlike some less sought-after brands.

The Edge completely dominated the recent course racing world championships in Sylt, where Ozone riders John Heineken and Adam Koch traded 1st and 2nd places while the rest of the fleet were really just competing for 3rd.

Full results: http://results.extremience.com/sylt2011course.htm

You could have chosen to show this result:

results.extremience.com/lamezia2011course.htm

Albeit, not the world championship, but Julien Kerneur from France came first on a Takoon and the next Ozone racer was 8 places behind him; but then, who really cares? By the sounds of it ducksoup isn't going to be course racing or selling his Kite in the next 12 months (unless he wants to bleed cash like blueprint pointed out).

If you are worried about how much money your going to end up spending you better find another sport.

No matter which way you look at it kiting is not cheap!

In answer to the original question my suggestion would be, buy an Ozone Edge.

Back to the Question ...BIG AIR , HANGTIME , STABLE.

Have been kiting for 11 years and in the old days Slingy Fuels went big with the longer lines. Honestly the Best Nemi 2008/9 were the biggest jumping and hang time kite for me in the last 5 years until i got my new Best Kahoona V3 . Now this thing fits the list. Have never had so much hang time and loft ever !!
Anyone want to back me up ?

thank you very much for all advices,

I will take a look to the Ozones and Best kites...see what can i find...One more thing...would you go for a small tiny board?, like the old 120´s, 115´s..? (i am afraid in that case, i will have to buy second hand)

Select to expand quote

ducksoup said...

thank you very much for all advices,

I will take a look to the Ozones and Best kites...see what can i find...One more thing...would you go for a small tiny board?, like the old 120´s, 115´s..? (i am afraid in that case, i will have to buy second hand)

I don't think you need a tiny board, so long as you can edge hard at speed you'll be fine on your regular twintip.

if you want to go big on an 11m ozone edge you crank as fast as you can 50kph or more if your brave and send it hard in the afformentioned 25 knots. then you will go HIGH.

^^^Sounds like he will need to take his own in-flight meal?

hehehe. i've had some sweet sweet air by this method. Really good coming into shore riding a 8foot wave face cranking down in then off into the distance at warp factor 9 then sending it. slamming through the air and break neck speed then landing on the wave face infront of you....
Oh yeah!
That is the wholy grail for me. Can't say i've pulled that one off too many times. but when you do! yeah.

PS i like going fast high and long. straight up and down doesn't interest me that much

There is a reason why old school dangling is passé: it doesn't require skill.
Not having a dig at anyone specific here. The Wainman Smoke seemed to have sent me a lot higher than my 10m RPM, but drops you out of the sky unless u resend quite aggressively or loop the thing on the way down. Probably like the C4 in comparison to an Edge? Pendulum effect vs. an efficient high aspect kite to keep you aloft.

Select to expand quote

easto said...

Back to the Question ...BIG AIR , HANGTIME , STABLE.

Have been kiting for 11 years and in the old days Slingy Fuels went big with the longer lines. Honestly the Best Nemi 2008/9 were the biggest jumping and hang time kite for me in the last 5 years until i got my new Best Kahoona V3 . Now this thing fits the list. Have never had so much hang time and loft ever !!
Anyone want to back me up ?

The kahoona is a beast. It is a jumping machine

Select to expand quote

dave...... said...

easto said...

Back to the Question ...BIG AIR , HANGTIME , STABLE.

Have been kiting for 11 years and in the old days Slingy Fuels went big with the longer lines. Honestly the Best Nemi 2008/9 were the biggest jumping and hang time kite for me in the last 5 years until i got my new Best Kahoona V3 . Now this thing fits the list. Have never had so much hang time and loft ever !!
Anyone want to back me up ?

The kahoona is a beast. It is a jumping machine

Same report I get from EVERY demo. And almost always the first thing mentioned.
Its the one thing everyone agrees on - Kahoona V3 is a jumping demon.

Agree totally that the kahoona V3 goes big. Also the new nemesis hp goes big too.

cmon Joe...news on V4 Kahoona... pleaseeeeeeeeee

Select to expand quote

BarryDawson said...

If you are worried about how much money your going to end up spending you better find another sport.

No matter which way you look at it kiting is not cheap!

In answer to the original question my suggestion would be, buy an Ozone Edge.

Demoed the Edge 13m yesterday, 85kg rider; 135 TT; max wind around 20ish knots.

I was overpowered in the gusts (as expected) but maintained no more than 25% depower - in saying this, a 10m was sufficient for this amount of wind, but I wanted to have a go on the Edge...

The kite does boost quite nicely, loads of hang-time (and easily out-jumping my mate on his old 12m Cab Omega, not a very fair or reliable comparison of performance as there could be a multitude of factors influencing this, such as technique).

You do still need to re-send it, which surprised me as at first, as it seemed like the kite was going to do all the work for me. Also, bearing in mind 20+ knots is reasonable amount of wind for a kite this size, so if you're expecting anything more than this (i.e. big jumps) in less wind, you will probably be disappointed.

As you sit under the kite, its profile looks remarkably like a wing, probably owing to it's good flight characteristics, this unfortunately translated to a disappointingly slow turning speed. But, if you just wanna get out, go for a cruise, or do some floaty jumps (albeit, not as high as you would on a smaller kite, in higher wind) then sure, get one of these kites. I't does seem like an exorbitant amount of money to blow just to mow the lawn. Perhaps just buying a surfboard would be a more economical option if just getting out was your main objective; or if you were happy to settle with one of the "less sought-after brands" to quote djdojo - which are considerably more cost effective than Ozone.

Closing remarks:
I dont believe this kite is light years ahead of a Takoon Chrono, Cab Crossbow, or a Best Kahoona as all the other Ozone pushers/dealers/team riders would have you believe. Nor was the bar and safety system anything to lose your mind over. A simple butterbox style push-release like what Slingy use is much more intuitive, and faster to actuate as it doesn't rely on you having to locate the asymmetric release featured on the Ozone bar.

Wow thats a lot of wind for the 13m, think the 11m would have given better boost as you could have edged harder against it. Re bar, yep it is looking a bit dated and the new bar, with a push release, is due out sept/oct.

Yeah edging was a workout when the wind was nearing 20 knots, whereas, when it was more like 15 knots I felt more comfortable. The guy riding it before me was at least 10kg heavier, and was staying upwind just fine.

I kited at the back end of the season in March with DM after a busy saturday at the AKS shop in Scarborogh, I was struggling edging against a 8m Rebel and was boosting about 5-7 metres, Charldv was on i think a 7m C4 boosting about 10 metres, when Darren on a 11m edge boosted almost a line length, it was about 28 knots gusting to 35.
And for those that know Pinnaroo, he could see into the car park!!

Give the Griffin Argo 10 or 11.5m a go in the same sort of wind,just about the biggest boost i've ever done was on an 11.5 in 20+ knots,hung up there for so long i nearly got a parking ticket

Select to expand quote

toddws said...

I kited at the back end of the season in March with DM after a busy saturday at the AKS shop in Scarborogh, I was struggling edging against a 8m Rebel and was boosting about 5-7 metres, Charldv was on i think a 7m C4 boosting about 10 metres, when Darren on a 11m edge boosted almost a line length, it was about 28 knots gusting to 35.
And for those that know Pinnaroo, he could see into the car park!!

Darren can boost any kite line length, with the right size kite for the wind. So can VB man