Not good news for the bank balance, any suggestions on how to hide transactions from the missus would be appreciated, on the subject of blatant copies is the any way that a kite company can protect their design, if so I reckon Mr whitall would be in court with Mr cabrinha

Was it not Mr Bruno Legainoux that holds the patent for the SLE shape and Mr Salles that holds the Delta Patent.....I believe most other brands pay some kind of royalty for the use of the designs and then build on it? Interestingly I read an article about how all the kite manufactures who use factories in Asia would have their lasts Kites all made under the same roof and would regularly make visits partly to check out what the other brands were doing and get ideas!!! Wonder if it as bad as Cabs to the left Ozone to the right, i guess if they all getting made by the same workers you would hope the workmanship would at least be the same between brands which should be a good thing?

Except ozone have their own factory

I don't think North make other kites in their factory..

I think Slingshot follow the same with the factory still in the US, but what I don't get is say take a catalyst, or say a slingshot Rally or north Rebel are they not all delta/sle hybrids, my intention here is not to brand bash, I very much like ozones, just think the lines are sometimes blurred... I have used kite cad software before so I understand how much you can tweak things but I also have experienced how easy it is to make a kite that ends up looking just like a mix of your fav shapes.......... Anyone got any news about the ozone bars I am so close to buying one just need a few changes on the bar......

Yo plummet my credit card was stolen, so i phoned the missus and asked her to report it to the bank, when I got home I asked her if shed done what I asked, she said no cause the thrief was spending less with it than what i did on my kiting gear

Slingshot TT boards are made in the USA, kites are made in China. Back in 2006 Ozone factorys did produce some Slingshot kites but only for one season, from then on a decision was made not to manufacture for other brands. The whole design copyright thing seems to have died away, like you say the differences are very small, and cost a lot to argue in court! Fairly sure none of the bands except the top 5-6 are actually making enough money to pursue patents. All I know is that Ozone withdrew from a factory in China that was making bars for several brands due to quality and production/supply issues when they first started to work on a push away cloop last year. That factory has recently gone bust, leaving many brands struggling to source bars (and TT boards). There is a new Cloop coming this year, when is the unknown, but it will be brilliant and well tested when it is finally released. In the meantime I'm more than happy with the current bar, as are thousands of other people who ride Ozone. There have been a number of smaller running changes made to the current bar and the new race bar just released is based on the current bar. I have been told that the new Cloop will be able to be retrofitted to all current bars.

Will be keeping a close eye out for it then........

Theres a few pics floating around on the web atm......heres one I found with a quick google search Ive got a 2013 11m on order..........cant wait to send it!!!

^^^ Not a fan of that colour scheme. I, for one, liked their simple classy designs. It seems that every year they're trying to make it a little cooler and just making it a bit more messy and losing a bit of the timeless classic design. KP, there was a 10 page spread about North's Sri Lanka factory in a kiteworld a year or two ago. They must have hidden all the other brands for the pics, sure looked and sounded like it was North's flagship. I stand corrected.

pheww and there was i thinking i was gonna have to buy one, cant believe my f*****G luck

Some delta in it, yes it seems that way. Improve it's turning and this kite would be unstoppable.

Its a big factory! I have not been there, but have seen footage in online videos. Depending on the layout the factory manufacturing for different brands may be spread into different sheds or floors? It was quite funny when I visited the "Performance" factory, which is owned by Neil Pryde, to hear one of the factory managers ask some of us what we saw on our tour, we of course said cabrinha kites, he then said great, yesterday we were making best kites in that part of the factory!! LOL. Strangely enough they use different techniques to construct different kites in the same factory, but the way we in the industry can tell is from a few things, a major one being the cartons the kites come in, then the stitching and other small details that are dependent on actual machinery that is unique to that particular factory. Visit http://www.kitepower.com.au/ozone-edge-2013.html to see the other colors

Also very interested to see the first (p)reviews of the 2013 Edge. Still flying the 2011's, love these btw, and since there were no major changes last year I did not upgrade to the 2012 models. So let the reviews coming so I can (or can not) open my wallet to start spreading some benjamins

@ walshd - The Bridle is not aramid, it is unsheathed dyneema. The bridle is very thin and low drag, the kite has been considerably lightened, and this alone will give a significant improvement over last your for racing. @kitelordtgb - Unfortunately no-one up here in Sydney has ridden them yet as far as I know. They will be finding their way on the water asap though and I'm sure the owners will report here on their findings. @ eppo - No delta, definitely not thats just a photo angle thing, but I can't see it? The turn rate has been improved a bit (so I'm told), but it is a high aspect kite, still the 2012's turn plenty quick IMO.