The foil kite noob and his Ozone Chrono UL 15m

[Pedro Marcos]

Yes, the kite is here and already got my first session on it, please keep in mind that i never ever tried a foil kite before.

Wind 5-8 knots side-onshore, Hidrofoil Moses Vorace with 550+330.

Out of the bag the kite was almost ready to go, took me around 10min to check the bridles and setup the bar.

Launched in the middle of the window without any pre-inflation, super easy, the kite was fully inflated in less then 20 seconds.

The first feeling is that ive no kite, zero pull with the kite parked, zero grunt, this feels really weird. But when you fly it, there is constant massive pull, very very easy to control.

On the water immediately started foiling, plently of power in the wind but very easy to control, ive the race bar and i didnt had to use the deepower at all.

Its a bit strange on jibes, i was not underlooping it, and the kite was loosing all the power when i lost the speed in the turn, took me a while to be able to jibe and keep tension on the lines, on the other hand, foiling tacks are way easier on this, when i fully deepower the kite at the tack it pull me up, its so strange (LEIs dont do this), but so much easier.

Then the wind picked up to around 10-11 knots, no problem at all, i could handle much more wind it seems, and after it dropped to around 5-6 and i was still going, just having more problems on jibes, very hard to not touch down, ive to work on this as it is quite diferent from the LEIs.

The kite is incredible, ofc i didnt dropped in the water, but its so easy, no drama, very user friendly. Now i want to try it in really marginal winds, 4-5 knots, to see how it goes, my guess is that jibes will be a nightmare and only tacks will work for me.

I recommend this kite over any LEI ive tried for lightwinds, anything less then 9 knots.

Packing was a mess, ive to work on that also

[opie]

Nice! Sounds like you adapted quickly.

[Pedro Marcos]

Nice! Sounds like you adapted quickly.

Yes, the only thing i found harder was to keep line tension on jibes, still need to sort that out.

[windrider1]

Been flying kites for more than 12 years and been telling folks these new race kites are the shitz. is like driving a luxury car vs a sporty miata. just a different level of experience. Smooth powerfull and just does the job I need it to do and very efficiently . Ive flown it all and choose to fly these as my everyday kites. Sometimes I just laugh when I see folks lugging around those heavy backpacks filled with tubes pumps and dacron.

[TomW]

I'm interested, and thinking I'll get a foil kite this spring. Looking to replace my 12m North Mono. I'll go out in 8 knots, not lower, and I'd like to be able to use it comfortable up to 16-18 knots. I'm 80 kg and 25+ sessions on foil learning transitions now.
Hyperlink 12 looks great. but many saying here that higher aspect foil is better, like the Chrono or Sonic 2.
I'd actually pay someone to let me test kites, it's completely impossible to test these kites in a way to make selection.

[Pedro Marcos]

I'm interested, and thinking I'll get a foil kite this spring. Looking to replace my 12m North Mono. I'll go out in 8 knots, not lower, and I'd like to be able to use it comfortable up to 16-18 knots. I'm 80 kg and 25+ sessions on foil learning transitions now.
Hyperlink 12 looks great. but many saying here that higher aspect foil is better, like the Chrono or Sonic 2.
I'd actually pay someone to let me test kites, it's completely impossible to test these kites in a way to make selection.

Im 75kg and i can tell you that the 15m its not too big, but 16-18 knots its too much for it on a foil, unless you run a full race setup. With 16 knots im on my 6m

[TomW]

I don't know where you guys kite but around here at 56N in Sweden, wind is never even. It blows 8knts to 14 knts, within 1- 10 minutes, then 60 min later it's dead or its 14-18. It's rare that wind is 8-12 or 14-16. There's far more variability in the wind within a given moment, and changes over the course of an hour(s).
In addition, I'm not at all experiencing what people are saying going out in 16 knots on 6m kite. I'm going out on my 9m kite because it's like 12-18 knots. Perhaps I'm not experienced enough or some other reason.
But I'll go out on my 12 mono in 12 knots. 9m Mono won't get me going. Then the wind is gusting ( more like variable) to 16. Then I'm out, wind range can either go up 2-4 knots or down.
So I want a kite that gets me going in 8-10knots, but will depower at 16-18.
If a foil won't do that, I'll stick to my Mono 12 which actually does, but it flutters a lot at high end due to depower.

[Pedro Marcos]

I rarely have gusty or unstable wind, so cant really help you on that. But i can go out on my 6m in anything over 12knots, that i can assure you, underpowered, but easily riding.

[davesails7]

Glad you liked it! You pretty much just made a list of all the reasons why these kites are so great haha.

I think downlooping through the jibes is your answer. I definitely downloop for all jibes (touchdown or foiling) unless I'm way overpowered. Otherwise, like you said, you slow down too much and these kites don't have much static grunt.

The kite is incredible, ofc i didnt dropped in the water, but its so easy, no drama, very user friendly. Now i want to try it in really marginal winds, 4-5 knots, to see how it goes, my guess is that jibes will be a nightmare and only tacks will work for me.

When it gets really light, I've found the touchdown jibe with downloop to be the best way to keep moving through the transitions. I can foiling tack and jibe with consistency when the conditions are good, but they're both tough when it's super light.

[cglazier]

I think downlooping through the jibes is your answer. I definitely downloop for all jibes (touchdown or foiling) unless I'm way overpowered. ...

Agreed. I always downloop my 13m Chrono in light winds when I jibe. I use 20m lines and have no problems as long as I start with my kite high.

Actually I also downloop sometimes when I tack in light winds. I shouldn't really need to, but it can save the tack and keep me from falling in.

CG