help ID year and de-power problem

[Kevin Brooker]

A friend gave me a 5 meter Ozone Frenzy which has been branded by Eastern Mountain Sports. EMS doesn't claim the kite as thiers but the EMS logo is on the tips. Any idea of the year? He picked up the kite off Ebay and has almost no knowledge of the kite.

Second question is the depow seems backwards. The kite loses a lot of pull when the bar is drawn to the loop and pulls quite well with it pushed all the way out. The lines are properly attached and everything looks correct according to the manuals. The kite is obviously out of rig and any help getting it to work properly will be greatly appreciated.

[socommk23]

Are you sure the the centre lines are connected to the main front lines on the kite? Or are you flying in low winds where powering up is actually just back stalling the kite and releasing is depowering but increasing kite speed and it's power that way?

[kitexpert]

Frenzys can be dated by their design. Oldest ones had 5 line rows, primitive bridle and simple speed system. They had high bar pressure, low turning speed and did poor upwind, actually pretty terrible kites.

Then they got 1:2:4 mixer, some internal structures and they got rid of D line row. These later models (was it after 2010 ?) are decent kites in their class.

Shortly, if kite has two pulleys per side it is usable kite, if just one and 5 line rows it is old piece of... Some fool may still pay it good money, because it reads Frenzy

[Kevin Brooker]

Thanks for the help. The kite is older w/ 5 line rows.

[foilholio]

Sounds like your lines are on in reverse. There is no inside outside on foil kite lines, only front and back.

[kitexpert]

Your kite is a small one and that small kite is hardly ever too slow or too dull to use. If old Frenzy must be had, your size belongs in most interesting ones.

There is very probably quite a lot room for improvement by bridle/mixer work, but if you don't have experience it is probably best leave like it is.

Some possibilities:

1. A+B together fixed, C+D together and pulled 1:2 by one pulley per side

2. A separately fixed, B+C together and pulled 1:4 and D pulled 1:2, two pulleys per side

3. A separately fixed, B pulled 1:4, C+D together pulled 1:2, two pulleys per side

These are the simplest and most usable mixers for five line row kite.

[Kevin Brooker]

The last time I built or fussed w/ bridles was making a few fixed bridle kites back in the mid 90s. I am relatively clueless, but very appreciative of kitexperts suggestions. Any links for schematics of what kitexpert is suggesting? I'll take a shot at it and if all goes bad I'm not too worried about it.

[PugetSoundKiter]

Not sure how to identify the year from the description.

I had a 2006 5m Montana version1 kite I bought many years ago used from a guy after he broke his foot trying to landboard with it. I flew it static several times without much luck in winds 20mph or lower, then I tried it in 25mph winds. The HQ manual said it was for high winds in 20-30mph but I was being too cautious. I found it to be a park & pull buggy type kite with very little depower, unstable if turned quickly, and lines/depower had a narrow useable range. My guess was you could use it in a buggy but it was too unpredictable to be balancing on your feet. I notice Ozone still sells a 5m Frenzy and the wind range is 20-27knots. So my suggestion is try it static in 25mph winds, when you think you have it sorted out, as it may not be controllable/useable in less wind. That was the end of my small depower foil kite adventures. Needing stability and control in medium to high winds I switched to LEIs and never looked back.

The reverse direction depower foil kite description also reminded me of using an Ozone Turbo Bar (for fixed bridle kites) with a 5m Ozone Flow (10-18mph range) kite. This setup has good turning control and the ability to handle much more power (with a CL & Harness) than using handles. At first your habits make you think moving the bar should change the AOA and you should feel depower. But you are moving the brake lines relative to the fixed bridle, stalling the trailing edges, which gives this backwards control and a limited (very limited) depower/stall feel. Even so, I'd much rather use this setup than that 10year old 5m depower foil kite I had.

Good luck, and let us know if you sort it out.

[Kevin Brooker]

After a bit of research the EMS branding tells me it is an 04. The depower issue was mitigated by shortening the front lines about 2" which made the trip cleat actually able to fie tune the kite. More wind did help and in 15kts the kite flies pretty good. Even though it is old technology and not too goodby modern standards, it kicks the crap out of my fixed bridle PKD 5m Buster (flown on handles) and 7m Flexifoil Bullet.

Was out on these kites today had a decent session. The Bullet parks and pulls pretty good but is slow and a PIA to relaunch.

[Hardwater Kiter]

If it's got the EMS logo screen printed it can be an '04 or 05. Depends on the bar set up and the color pattern on the wing. The EMS branding was the result of EMS's attempt to get into the snowkite business after seeing how successful Stormboarding (the local Ozone dealer at the time, based in Burlington VT.) Was with thier Kitestorm events. The US distributor came to the event at some point and made a deal with EMS in hopes of selling more units I guess without telling thier already established dealer. Another case of brands going for quantity, not quality and putting thier faith in a big sale from a buyer who knows nothing about what they are buying.

You can't be much use as a snowkite dealer if you dont snowkite. Since EMS didn't really know anything about kites or snow kiting and had nobody in the company that did, thier effort to get into snowkite failed. Resulting in the liquidation of thier inventory of kites, mostly fixed bridle Samurais (still have our 2m) and a few Frenzies at cost. Maybe even below cost when you factor in the screen printing. Almost everyone who's been a committed snowkiter here in New England has owned one of those EMS kites. Some still do mostly for sentimental reasons. The 7m was the sweet spot.

Historically the 5m Frenzy 04-05 have been some of the fastest kites on snow. They generate a ton of grunt and move pretty zippy. The safety works pretty poorly in 30kts plus asw the brakes can still drag you after the hat is pulled. That kite is tougher than anything on the current market. Uber tough fabric, assembled to take a beating. Good for Ozone for being the first company to really embrace the snowkite segment and stick with it.