Spartan - 6-4-2011 at 01:31 PM
Ozone Frenzy 2011 Review
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Well I have just bought the last kite for my Quiver. Yes it’s the Frenzy.
I now have the 9m, 11m, and 13m.
You might say but you are sponsored by Kite power, so no wonder you are buying and writing about the Frenzy.
And I’ll say back to you, NO, Im no longer contracted to Kite Power and even when I was, Kite Power do also stock the Ozone Manta 3, Flexifoil Blade ,
Flysurfer Speed3, Psycho4, and Outlaw, and all the Peter Lynn kites. But the Frenzy is the kite I preferred out of all the kites that were available.
The big question before I bought any new model kite for myself is, what kite would I buy, and want to own for myself. With out the kiss ass.
I could have bought any kite, and from any manufacturer.
So WHY did you decide on the Frenzy? I’m glad you asked!
Well I’ve tried all the latest kites around at the moment, from the Flysurfer Speed, the HQ Montana, and Ozone Manta 3, these kites need to be worked
to get them going in their lighter wind range and that is not what I’M looking for.
What I need is a kite that I can fly without having to work to get it going. With down low grunt and without needing speed to pull off freestyle moves
and still have enough depower to be able to keep it safe when the wind picks up.
Before I went out to buy the next model Frenzy (cause I already owned the FYX Frenzy 7, 9,11,13m ) I could have kept my FYX’s and save my dollars.
The Ozone crew said that the 2011 Frenzy is all new from the ground up, a totally new construction to the FYX. So I needed to try the kite out for
myself to see if I would go to the trouble of changing to the new model. So I grabbed the Demo 2011 Frenzy and my 11m 2010 Frenzy and headed to my
local park, I flew the new 11m and the FYX 11m kites side by side.
Well there’s no comparison, the difference is like Chalk and Cheese, night and day, wet and dry, black and white, single and married.
Starting from the bottom up.
The Bag
The Bag looks good style wise, and is like the Tardis from Dr Who, nice medium size and big enough to hold three depower kites.
The bar
The Megatron loop, no change from last model. The chicken loop is thick and made of a tougher polymer, there’s a huge improvement on the swivel, which
is even easier to spin to untwist the centre line.
The set up of the new bar, is now is thicker again with extra meat around the centre hole for extra strength, by looking at it you can see that it
would be virtually impossible to break.
The Original Ozone Y-Line design with 3 lines from bar splitting to 4 at kite.
The bar and lines are colored red left grey centre lines, and blue for right.
They’ve removed the trimmer strap on the back lines and added three knots to be ale to adjust the back lines, and covering the knots are floater
rubbers that you find on the water kites. I personally liked the trimmer straps they had on the previous model. The idea of adjusting the back lines
on the fly suited me fine.
The safety system
The safety system (the top hat) cuts the power to the kite by releasing the front lines and the kite just drops to the ground and sits there waiting
for you. This kite has extra two back lines to bring the kite down evenly as it backs down onto the ground when the safety top hat is activated. The
centre line is blocked with a stopper ring to keep it from getting to far out of reach, which makes it so much easer and safer to reload just like the
previous model.
The kite
The canopy is all new redesign based on Ozone’s paragliding technology.
There are more cells added to this kite which helps keep its thin shape through the air,which makes for a faster kite.
There’s less bridling than previous models in this kite and Ozone have added internal diagonal ribs to compensate for the less bridling and the
internal ribs also would keep the kite from distorting under load. Less bridling also would allow the kite to fly faster through the air without the
extra drag.
The other feature I love about this kite is the use of the Ronsan Orbit Block style pulleys that have been used as the safest pulley on the market. If
you look at this pulley up close you will see how the two connecting lines run through each other. So incase of pulley failure i.e. the pulley snaps
and falls apart, the lines connecting through the pulley will still be attached. In those big jumps above the ground you want to be attached to your
kite to come down safely.
The X lines are gone and replaced by a horizontal line running from the two centre lines that keeps the kites shape while turning with no distortion.
The leading edge has now been altered with only a few openings with mesh to keep out debris.
This model has unique blow out valves added under the canopy close to the leading edge, in the event of the kite being crashed into the ground, the
valves would just open instantly to save the kite from exploding internally.
The First Flight
As I let go of the brake lines to get the kite in the air, the kite slowly filled with air slowly inflating as it rose up to the zenith.
Put it on its side, pull the bar and off you go.
The maneuverability of this years model is incredible, as you put it into a turn it just about rotates on its axis, yet there is no hint of any back
stalling like the last model and other depower kites out there. The frenzy just accelerated out of every turn perfectly and with just enough
controlled power to keep you moving forward without having to redirect the kite back into the power zone to get moving again.
The up wind ability on this kite is unbelievable; you are just about flying into the wind without any sign of the leading edge collapsing.
Te bar pressure on this kite is not to light that you don’t know where your kite is sitting, and not to heavy that you need to be a power lifter to
use.
The depower on this kite is also had a massive improvement from the last model, there is no need to keep fiddling with the depower trimmer there’s
enough depower range in the control bar that you can take so much power away from the kite just by letting go of the bar slightly.
The big difference with this new Frenzy, is there’s not as much side ways pull to the old Frenzy. Its mostly forward motion, and because there’s
hardly much side ways pull I can hold the line with less effort, then redirect and you’ll freak out with the amount of pop you get from this Kite, you
then just literally float back to the ground like a feather. The other reason I love this kite is because of the down low grunt you can use as you are
coming down to land, you just pull on the bar and the kite just brings you down to a soft landing. The high aspect kites only do this when you are at
speed or in higher winds. Which is ok in the nice and soft snow, but when you’re freestyling on hard ground under you, speed is not your friend,
Unhooked, these’s no back stall.
If you are a freestyler you’ve got to get yourself one of these babies.
This kite has a MASSIVE DEPOWER range, ye you’ve heard it before about the huge depower range but you need to try it to believe it, to give you some
idea I’ve had the 13m in between 20-25kts, no bull crap, and has the float of the Manta and with the down low grunt of the FYX Frenzy’s that we’re
used to, this is an awesome kite.
The new graffix for the Frenzy look good and colors are ok till I saw that they have used a shade of green which I call sneeze green. There are 4
sizes in the Frenzy range so they should have four colours not three, to make it even more economical for themselves, Ozone should have one size one
colour. Instead of having all sizes in all three colours.
In Summery.
After the first couple of days I could not find any fault with this kite and a few months down the track I bought all sizes. So the verdict is…. you
guessed it, the 2011 Frenzy is my kite of choice with out a doubt.
If you are a freestyler you’ve got to get yourself one of these babies.
This kite is that good that I also take it out kitesurfing. I'd love to see valves on this kite to get it out in the water more often....hint hint
OZONE
Spartan...
PBKiteboarding - 30-5-2011 at 06:19 AM
Great Review... Sounds like you had the greatest time on it.
I ride the 7m and 11m.
Amazing how much power the have for the size and so much faster than
than last year and for Kite Loops too!