Still Snowy! and the JHK Ozone Chrono first impressions...

[knewschool]

May 12 2014, first ride with the Ozone Chrono 12m.
We still have a lot of snow up there

The Chrono…Pure race efficiency



The Ozone Chrono 12 showed up in the mail and the next day we ran out to give it a try for ourselves. 24 hours later we’ve made a short video and wrote this review. This is a testament to how exciting it is to fly possibly the most technically advanced race kite in the world.

Testing the new Ozone Chrono 12m was undoubtedly memorable experience. The Chrono design is an ultra high performance and high aspect closed cell foil. It’s a dedicated light wind race kite design with pure efficiency in mind. Rolling it out for the first time we were immediately impressed with the details. We’ve never seen a kite like this before with such attention to detail. Immediately the thin and flat design impresses. The bridal lines are so thin you could floss your teeth with them. The airflow efficiency is obviously the focus of the design.

We tested this kite in ideal light wind and fast snow conditions. The wind was 7 to 12 mph or so and on the ground it was even less. At first we didn’t know if we were going to have a session at all the wind was so light. It was sort of a “hail marry” forecast wise, but our excitement fueled our hopes and we were pleasantly surprised to test out the light wind capabilities of the Chrono 12.

At first it took us a bit to fill the cells up with air since the wind was so light on the ground; we were even confused about what direction it actually was as we were filling the cells. After a few good tugs to reach the wind and fill the rest of the kite with air we were charging all over the place.

The Ozone Edge and Summit are the 2 kites we ride the most on snow, and it’s safe to say that the Chrono is similar in feel to the Edge. The feel of the kite racing along with the fast snow conditions was an impressive feeling. You can feel the efficiency of the kite building with speed so predictably and it carried power through the bottom turn better than the Edge. This is the first kite we’ve ever ridden that can compete in upwind, speed, and apparent wind efficiency with the Edge and even surpassing the light wind abilities as far as we can tell. The notable advantage of the Chrono is when the kite is low at the edge of the window. The Edge requires more turn in the bar to hold it from dropping and you feel the loss of power at that point the most. The Chrono successfully holds pull and needs only slight steering input and keeps energy more even in the wing.

As you can imagine there are some eccentricities to such a thin leading edge and high aspect design. First off, the tips collapse into the bridal easier in a luff or when you let pressure off the kite. I managed to keep enough tension to avoid it as a problem as any experienced kiter would. Also a gust rolled through that flopped the wingtip into the bridal, but I just edged against the wing and gave a couple shakes and it popped back out. You can tell the kite can overfly if you’re not careful and likely collapse frontal as any high aspect wing would. When you backstall land the kite in a lull the wingtips can fall forward making it hard to yank back up into the wind. The kite will flat spin with too sharp a turn just as any high aspect wing. These are all flying details you’d expect from a design like this and we are very impressed with how well the Ozone design team overcame them.

This kite isn’t for everyone, but any experienced kiter who understands and loves the feel of ultra efficient high aspect wings will drool over this design. The Chrono is a step forward in making a kite that is actually fun in light wind no doubt. The Chrono simply magnifies the speed and feel of wind in your hands. Just watching this kite fly will make you want to feel it for yourself.

Cheers,

Jackson Hole Kiters