2012 Ozone REO Kiteboarding Kites

2012 Ozone REO Kiteboarding Kites

Ozone has designed a new wave/surf kite for kiteboarding!

The pre-release of this kite is through Kitty Hawk Kites Kiteboarding Resort! Kitty Hawk Kites Kiteboarding Resort is proud to be able to offer you this kite before anyone else!

Available now at KHK!

Ozone Designer Rob Whittall has a real passion for riding waves and has designed a kite that will deliver!

From Ozone: Oh yeah, I’ve got good news for you all. We have officially finished with trimming and tuning the Reo’s. However for us the good news is that our feelings and impression of the Reo’s have been confirmed.

We sent a set of final protos to Western OZ for Nathan Ducker and Darren Marshall to try out and to get their feedback. For sure they already ride our products but still they are independent in terms of the fact that they know what they want and like. Remember, we are in the development stage so if they did not like something, now was the time to speak and they know I want to hear the truth.

Both Darren and Nathan reckon the Reo is amazing and performs fantastically in all aspects. They went to Gnaraloo for a week of solid riding and testing and they scored it good. Varied wind strengths got them out on all sizes except the 4m. Hooked or unhooked, down the line surfing was made easy according to them.

As you can imagine this is awesome news for Torrin and myself. We have been working on the project now for over a year and we have tested this kite more than any other kite we have developed so it is a great feeling of satisfaction to have finished the job. Now all we have to do is get out there and enjoy it on some beautiful waves.



REO kites: • Can be ridden comfortably hooked or unhooked without needing to adjust de-power settings • Can be effi ciently cranked to power through turns or parked to surf the power from the wave • Drift down the line handling fast sections, staying high in the air • Have light bar pressure with options to increase or decrease • Have direct steering that is smooth and precise with enough pressure to prevent accidental input on a wave or if getting worked • Have low end grunt and an excellent wind range • Can instantly dump all power for snappy top turns even in cross/offshore conditions • When sheeting in, provide a smooth, progressive and direct increase in power (combined with instant depower makes them ideal for riding unstrapped) • Smooth out the gusts and hold solid in the air • Relaunch easily and quickly • Have one pump, high fl ow valves and sturdy construction • Have a clean four-line setup without pulleys • Are of the highest quality materials and workmanship

We had perfect conditions for testing yet struggled to come up with constructive feedback to improve these kites. The best we could come up with (and we tried very hard) related to a fi ne adjustment of the de-power setting for optimum performance which is a very minor adjustment that Rob would always make toward the end of the development stage anyway.

The Ozone Reo kite will work well for all styles of wave riding. They were designed based on suggestions from team riders and other experienced wave riders (including comments made via online discussion threads to get a broader perspective). Between the few in our test team we had most wave riding styles covered and all of us are extremely ‘particular’ in our kite selection. It was very interesting to see everyone in our test team come in with equally big smiles having ridden the Reo kite.

On a wave, the Reo kite easily outperform every other kite ever tested by our team – which includes most reputable wave kites available in Australia. Basically the Reo seems so suited to riding waves that it feels like it’s part of you. On a wave, it is so balanced, smooth and responsive that you fi nd yourself concentrating more on riding the wave than ever before, signifi cantly improving the experience. This kite will likely develop its own reputation as a wave specifi c kite suitable for all conditions and styles of wave riding. Apparently everyone who tries them wants to own them and we’re sure most dedicated wave kiters who get a chance to demo the new Reo will agree.