Ok so i picked up an Ozone Reo 6m from Todd at AKS yesterday. Cheers
I had hoped that the weather would be good to me and let me give the kite a whirl this morning.
Alas it did not so i can only pass on pictures and an opinion on an unflown kite.
So here we go
The 6m is a low aspect three strut nugget very similar in profile to the RRD Religion.
You can see the similarities to the religion here although i think the Religion has more canopy in the middle.
When i went to pump up the main valve is the big ass screw thing once common on Cabrinha's. F##k i said to myself how does this go up but a bit of quick thinking and one of these.......
up she went
heres the valve
and it has a nice neoprene cover making everything neat and tidy. I think the cover aids in keeping sand out. those valves as i remember were a pain in the ass. If you got a grain of sand in the seal then kite would slowly deflate. Maybe Ozone have improved the design. Whatever the kite went up in seconds and the big ass valve helped in deflating hugely.
As you'd expect its all one pump serviced with clip off tube thingos.
Bridled - with four attatchment points along the LE on each side.
There are also three settings on which you can put your front lines i guess this will improve turning speed and increase bar pressure?
Kite made from this stuff. Looks well made and usual good quality you'd expect from Ozone.
Packs away nicely in this adequatly sized bag
Compared to my 7m Rebel there are some great differences. The wingtips for instance are more square to the struts and the canopy is as large in the middle of the kite as the 7m Rebel.
The Reo has much more of a nuggety feel about it tho. i took a couple of shots to compare outlines but they havent come out as good as i expected.
So there we are. Low aspect bridled kite well made with some nice little touches. Looks like a fast turning kite from what i can see. Also no pulleys means direct feedback from the kite. The kite IMO is very similar to the RRD religion but perhaps not quite as much canopy in the middle
As is said earlier the weather was not kind so as soon as it blows i will add a review to this.
Regarding the inflate valve
"keeping sand out" and kiting don't go together in the same sentence
Looks like my camping blow up matress valve.
Anyway, looking forward to giving the reo a go
I have Ozones now and had Cabrinhas before that and have never had a hassle with the big valves. Once (in probably 300 sessions) I got sand under the seal and there was a slow leak but it takes a few seconds to clear it out and pump up again.
The Ozone nozzle does need to be pushed firmly into the valve but if you do that and take reasonable care to keep sand out you will have hassle free and super fast inflation.
It does pump up and deflate super quick for sure. Thats as much as i can review LOL
Just want some wind and waves so i can give the f^%ker a good workout
Finally today was the day i managed to get a spin on the 6m Reo
Only thing was conditions were fully sh!t
gusting from 15 - 30kn waves were just lumps coming from all directions - so no down the line wind was also swirly so WSW to SW to WWSW to S back to SW again
Bit of stuffing around to begin, the bar needed the back lines shortening - which i did by about 4 inches which improved the kite no end.
There is lots i can't say about the kite given the conditions and i only did 1 1/2 hours but thus far its fully fast turning, perfect bar pressure and for such a small kite it was super stable even in the big gusts. In fact the stability was insane, given its a sub 7m kite it was just not twitchy at all.
Feedback from the kite was good, although its bridled you still get direct feedback and know where it is.
Very well behaved in such crap conditions.
Anyway hopefully i can hold onto it for a wee bit longer and give it another workout in better winds and waves and improve this review.