Ozone Instinct Sport II 15 meter review
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:54 am
Now that I've had a chance to ride this kite in different conditions, I can give a more thorough review.
PROS:
Range: AWESOME, particulary the top end. Ozone Instincts have been well known for their wind range, and this kite is no exception. I'm not sure what the high-end on this kite is, but it's pretty high for a 15 meter kite. I was out on this kite in 10-12 meter conditions at Jetty the other day, and I only had to pull my depower strap maybe a few centimeters. The low-end is respectable. I could hold my ground upwind (but not point significantly upwind) in 8-10 mph on a Slingshot SX 137 x 38.5 cm board (I weight 175 lbs). This is the ultimate 1-kite quiver for Jetty Island where I ride (wind can be anywhere from 8 mph to low 20's).
Up-wind performance: AWESOME when powered. With my SX board, I can point much more upwind than many riders, and I can get waayyy out from the beach on only a few tacks.
Turning: Good for a 15 meter kite. Turns WAY faster than the '06 Instinct. Half the time in light wind on the '06 Instinct, I would crash the kite in the water doing a downloop transition because I couldn't get the kite to loop fast enough. It was like driving a bus. This kite is different...it loops quickly for a big kite, and I've dozens of downloops now and only crashed the kite once in the water when trying to loop it in very light wind.
Relaunch: Way better than the '06 Instinct. The '06 was so heavy, it just didn't want to lift off the water. I crashed this in the water a few times, and had an easier time relaunching it than I remember having with the '06. It's pretty much a matter of just pointing the bar or pulling an outside line. Still takes some patience and it's not as quick to relaunch as a smaller kite would be, but it's good relaunch for a 15-meter kite.
Setup: Much faster than the '06 with the one-pump and smaller leading edge/struts. I'm out on the water in half the time I was on the '06, and pack-up time is the same.
Stability: This kite doesn't hindenburg or fall out of the air, unless you really screw up. My '06 was heavy and would fall out of the sky on occasion if the wind was a bit too light. I didn't get much relaunch testing of this kite because I didn't have to! It stayed in the air pretty easy. The kite is very well-behaved in the air. Nothing funky going on at all. This kite is rock-solid stable. But what else would you expect from a kite designer with a PhD in aerodynamics?
Responsiveness: In light wind, the kite is not very responsive if you have the back-lines adjusted to the factory settings...this kite flies heavily off the front lines. When I first started riding it on the factory settings, bar pressure was very light, but when I would jump, I had trouble redirecting the kite after I sent it. I pulled in the back-line adjusters all the way in, and the problem was solved. However, once the wind picked up to mid-teens and beyond, I put the back-line readjusters back to factory settings to improve my depower, and the kite was perfectly responsive. Unfortunately I didn't try jumping in this situation as I had strained my abdominals so I didn't have a chance to test the kite's ability to redirect in the air.
Bar Pressure: Light, even when the back-line adjusters are pulled all the way in. No need to ride with a stopper ball on this kite.
Beal line: The new beal line is awesome, and makes sheeting really smooth. Some of my kite friends were looking at the beal line and thought it was really cool, wishing they had it on their kites! It looks like it's going to hold up really well against wear. I wouldn't be surprised to see other kite manufacturers go to this type of chicken loop line.
Back-line adjusters: These things are SWEET. When the wind was light, I would just pull in the back-line adjusters to improve my power and low-end. When the wind starting getting beyond the mid-teens, I was able to loosen them back up. You can't do this "on the fly" while you're riding, but you can do it out on the water. Just park the kite at 12 and fiddle with the adjusters to your liking. No need to come in and re-rig! I wouldn't be surprised to see other kite manufacturers go to this type of set-up...I heard that the '09 Slingshot Revs are going to have a similar feature.
CONS:
Most of the cons are pretty minor. I found the depower strap a bit hard to reach when riding sometimes. It's good in that there's not tons of strap dangling around anymore like on the old bars, though, so I would still prefer the new setup to the previous setups that Ozone used to have.
I found the press stud for the front-line safety wouldn't stay on on hard crashes sometimes, but this is minor. In fact, I wouldn't want it to stick too much because it's important for this to release if you ever have to release to the front-line safety.
There are limited options where to connect your leash. You can either do it to the front-line safety, or to the suicide ring on the chicken loop. If you hook up to the front-line safety, you do not have a spinnable setup. So if you want a spinnable safety, you have to connect suicide-style, which doesn't give you a true flag-out if you need to release the chicken loop. There is no below-the-bar front-line flag-out like there is on the Slingshot Rev. I hooked to the front-line safety when launching/landing, or when the wind hit 10-12 m conditions. Otherwise I connected suicide style.
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Overall, Ozone nailed it with the Sport II this year. I haven't flown the other sizes (all my other sizes are '06's and '07's), but for me, the 15 meter Sport II is the ultimate 1-kite quiver for winds from the single digits to the low-mid 20's.
PROS:
Range: AWESOME, particulary the top end. Ozone Instincts have been well known for their wind range, and this kite is no exception. I'm not sure what the high-end on this kite is, but it's pretty high for a 15 meter kite. I was out on this kite in 10-12 meter conditions at Jetty the other day, and I only had to pull my depower strap maybe a few centimeters. The low-end is respectable. I could hold my ground upwind (but not point significantly upwind) in 8-10 mph on a Slingshot SX 137 x 38.5 cm board (I weight 175 lbs). This is the ultimate 1-kite quiver for Jetty Island where I ride (wind can be anywhere from 8 mph to low 20's).
Up-wind performance: AWESOME when powered. With my SX board, I can point much more upwind than many riders, and I can get waayyy out from the beach on only a few tacks.
Turning: Good for a 15 meter kite. Turns WAY faster than the '06 Instinct. Half the time in light wind on the '06 Instinct, I would crash the kite in the water doing a downloop transition because I couldn't get the kite to loop fast enough. It was like driving a bus. This kite is different...it loops quickly for a big kite, and I've dozens of downloops now and only crashed the kite once in the water when trying to loop it in very light wind.
Relaunch: Way better than the '06 Instinct. The '06 was so heavy, it just didn't want to lift off the water. I crashed this in the water a few times, and had an easier time relaunching it than I remember having with the '06. It's pretty much a matter of just pointing the bar or pulling an outside line. Still takes some patience and it's not as quick to relaunch as a smaller kite would be, but it's good relaunch for a 15-meter kite.
Setup: Much faster than the '06 with the one-pump and smaller leading edge/struts. I'm out on the water in half the time I was on the '06, and pack-up time is the same.
Stability: This kite doesn't hindenburg or fall out of the air, unless you really screw up. My '06 was heavy and would fall out of the sky on occasion if the wind was a bit too light. I didn't get much relaunch testing of this kite because I didn't have to! It stayed in the air pretty easy. The kite is very well-behaved in the air. Nothing funky going on at all. This kite is rock-solid stable. But what else would you expect from a kite designer with a PhD in aerodynamics?
Responsiveness: In light wind, the kite is not very responsive if you have the back-lines adjusted to the factory settings...this kite flies heavily off the front lines. When I first started riding it on the factory settings, bar pressure was very light, but when I would jump, I had trouble redirecting the kite after I sent it. I pulled in the back-line adjusters all the way in, and the problem was solved. However, once the wind picked up to mid-teens and beyond, I put the back-line readjusters back to factory settings to improve my depower, and the kite was perfectly responsive. Unfortunately I didn't try jumping in this situation as I had strained my abdominals so I didn't have a chance to test the kite's ability to redirect in the air.
Bar Pressure: Light, even when the back-line adjusters are pulled all the way in. No need to ride with a stopper ball on this kite.
Beal line: The new beal line is awesome, and makes sheeting really smooth. Some of my kite friends were looking at the beal line and thought it was really cool, wishing they had it on their kites! It looks like it's going to hold up really well against wear. I wouldn't be surprised to see other kite manufacturers go to this type of chicken loop line.
Back-line adjusters: These things are SWEET. When the wind was light, I would just pull in the back-line adjusters to improve my power and low-end. When the wind starting getting beyond the mid-teens, I was able to loosen them back up. You can't do this "on the fly" while you're riding, but you can do it out on the water. Just park the kite at 12 and fiddle with the adjusters to your liking. No need to come in and re-rig! I wouldn't be surprised to see other kite manufacturers go to this type of set-up...I heard that the '09 Slingshot Revs are going to have a similar feature.
CONS:
Most of the cons are pretty minor. I found the depower strap a bit hard to reach when riding sometimes. It's good in that there's not tons of strap dangling around anymore like on the old bars, though, so I would still prefer the new setup to the previous setups that Ozone used to have.
I found the press stud for the front-line safety wouldn't stay on on hard crashes sometimes, but this is minor. In fact, I wouldn't want it to stick too much because it's important for this to release if you ever have to release to the front-line safety.
There are limited options where to connect your leash. You can either do it to the front-line safety, or to the suicide ring on the chicken loop. If you hook up to the front-line safety, you do not have a spinnable setup. So if you want a spinnable safety, you have to connect suicide-style, which doesn't give you a true flag-out if you need to release the chicken loop. There is no below-the-bar front-line flag-out like there is on the Slingshot Rev. I hooked to the front-line safety when launching/landing, or when the wind hit 10-12 m conditions. Otherwise I connected suicide style.
----------
Overall, Ozone nailed it with the Sport II this year. I haven't flown the other sizes (all my other sizes are '06's and '07's), but for me, the 15 meter Sport II is the ultimate 1-kite quiver for winds from the single digits to the low-mid 20's.