Whats with the Ozone depowering system?

by Brian
(Bay City, Tx)

The Ozone Bar

I am looking at both the Rush Pro 300 and the Ozone 2.5 - I like the looks of the Rush third line depowering ball and it looks like it is very practical - but I am curious why ozone chose to have some sort of velcro apperatus on the control bar- ( I am not talking about the wrist strap) - the Ozone makes an excellent training kite and I am sure they put a lot of thought and design into their 3rd line depowering system - I am just trying to figure out how it works and what advantages over the Rush ball setup it may have- enlighen me - Thanks, Brian.

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Whats with the Ozone depowering system?

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Nov 11, 2011

The Ozone 3rd Line/Bar Interface
by: Glen - KiteboardingEvolution.com

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the question. I've uploaded two pictures to the post to illustrate what you're asking about. One is the Ozone bar where the third line passes through, and the other one is the Rush PRO.

Having flown both of these kites, I can say that there is no difference in performance between these two interfaces. And I mean none. As far as both kites go, the third line systems perform exactly the same.

The Ozone system is essentially a loop that passes around the bar, and then back through itself. At the end of this is a D ring, which is where the leash line passes through. The handle that you see in the picture (the one with Ozone written on it) is has another D ring that the safety leash and the third line connect. This handle is attached via velcro, and detaches if you drop the bar and activate the safety leash. There is a stopper ball further up the line that stops too much of the third line from being pulled (by blocking the D ring...the Rush has this as well - all 3 or 4 line trainer kites will).

The Rush on the other hand, has a channel that passes through the bar. It's a much simpler method.

When comparing it directly to the design the Rush Pro uses, there are some minor differences in convenience.

Pros of the Ozone setup:

The D rings are where the line makes contact, and they are smooth and unabrasive. If you buy a kite that uses the through-the-bar method, and they design it wrong, it can wear the lines quicker (this is not the case with the Rush...their through the bar system is smooth and does not wear the thrid line at all). The very first kite that I purchased had a metal tube installed through the bar that had a sharp edge, which ended up cutting my third line and sending my kite for a wild flight into some trees about 500m away.

The Con's of the Ozone Setup:

The only thing that I noticed that was a pain about this setup was that sometimes the velcro handle would detach from the bar and flop around. This was irritating because you needed to re-attach it to the bar. If left unattended, it at times would flip over the bar, under the thrid line, and could cause a blockage that impeded with the safety leashes effectiveness. This only happened to me once, but I was left quickly trying pull it out from under the third line while trying to use the third line. So, instead of just depowering the kite, I was left with a kite that I wanted depowered, but the third line was essentially blocked. It wasn't a huge deal, but it sure was annoying at the time.

The benefit of the Rush Pro setup is it's simplicity. You just drop the bar and the third line kicks in, and you never have to worry about the issue described above.

So, overall, the Ozone system does require a bit more supervision, but it performs just the same to the Rush Pro system.

Nov 11, 2011

Cont...
by: Glen - KiteboardingEvolution.com

Honestly, I think the real reason behind this system is overall simplicity from a manufacturing point of view. Ozone has a two-line trainer kite that uses the exact same bar that the three line kites do (minus the third line apparatus). They probably introduced this system so that they could easily use the same bar for the two and three line kites, and avoid the need of manufacturing a different bar. Given that it performs the same, and provides the same safety benefit as other three line systems, why not?

Of course, I can't speak for the company, and this is just what I suspect. I can only comment on the actual differences between these systems, and ultimately they perform the same.

Hope this answers your question, and let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Glen
KiteboardingEvolution.com

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