Review: Ozone C4 2014

Rider: 85kg, advanced
Style: Freestyle hooked and unhooked
Weather: 15-35knots
Build Quality: Between 9.731 and 9.865/10
Satisfaction: Do people really put a number on that? Just read below
Disclosure: I'm a very happy Kitepower Australia team rider

My Comments:

First impressions out of the bag:
- Bag is very large and strong yet light, big top opening without zipper, because we all know zippers break or get salt-stuck too easily
- construction is top-notch as usual with Ozone: the kite feels strong and sturdy when pumped up thanks to what looks like high quality stiching and panneling with profiled and segmented strut
- one-pump tubes have been reworked to follow the angle of the strut/leading edge connection, and look much stronger
- badass look with bright colors, the green/blue/white is especially stunning, and the "rasta" red/yellow/green is really cool as well.

Note on construction:
On contrary to some brands which put huge patches of heavy Dacron all over the place to sustain their "bombproof" marketing speech, I've always been amazed at how little reinforcements there are on Ozone kites. The struts and leading edge are also noticeably thinner than most other kites of the same size. Somehow Ozone construction process manages to make their kites as strong as any other, if not more, but with much less fabric. This is great cause it means they are much lighter. And lighter/thinner kites fly better and faster, and as a bonus they are also easier to pack and travel with!

My background: been kiting since 2001 but lived far from the sea, gotten serious about freestyle/wakestyle in the last couple of years after moving to Sydney.
Obviously started on C-shapes back in the days, and after getting my first bow kites in 2006 I progressively made my way back to more freestyle orientated hybrid SLEs kites from different brands up until the 2013 C4 last year which I really enjoyed.
At 1.95m/85kg I'm bigger than most freestylers, so I've settled for a 9 and 12m which I ride comfortably between 16 and 30knots with a 138*42 twintip.

What I liked about the earlier C4:
- very direct feeling with great feedback (thanks to no pulley and minimal bridle)
- power through the turns
=> These 2 are critical for old school where you need to fly the kite very finely to get it at the right spot at the right time to boost high and land smoothly
- flies well unhooked and gives lot of slack after pop
=>Make it easier to pop unhooked and pass that bar
- decent relaunch
=> cause I try hard and crash often
- no fifth line
=> that's 20% less tangling potential

My riding progressed a lot during the time I rode the C4 and I can now land most unhooked rotations and a few simple passes, so I was eager to try the 2014 model.

Now on the 2014 C4 and here's my take after 1 month of riding the 9 and 12m as well, on the wakestyle setting (furthest knot on the top bridle attachment, factory default):

- noticeably more C-shape than the 2013 with a higher aspect ratio, closer to the 2011/2012 from what I've seen (but not ridden). Unlike the 2013 You can see the tips starting to spread out when you sheet in completely, but the kite doesn't oversheet and flies just perfectly then => very stable for unhooking

- that higher ratio gives a more constant bar pressure, instead of a progressive one like last year. - It does make riding a bit harder on the arms, especially on the 12m in lighter wind when you need to move it a lot. I felt right at home with the 9 but I've moved the back line attachement point on the furthest setting on the 12 to make it lighter

- this different bar pressure makes it a lot better for unhooked trick as the kite doesn't react differently when you're fully sheeted in, and I feel my hooked jumped are even easier to control and land smoothly because it gives great feedback.

- hard to quantify but I'd say there's also a tad more slack for unhooked trick and a bit more boosting in jumps compared to the 2013

- kite being less "round" it can take slightly more time to relaunch from water compared to the 2013. The good thing is that as with any Ozone kite the reverse launch is very effective and I find myself doing it a easily in light wind.

The bar

- Better than a variable size bar, the C4 of all sizes from 6 to 14m are designed to fly with a unique 45cm bar. That's one of these great Ozone tricks to make your life easier. Coming with 23m lines and also 2 meter extensions if you need some extra power.

- The 2014 quick release is now push away and works really with minimum effort to release and easy reassembling. It's all plastic excepted the little metal bit at the end of the loop which is locked under the QR. The release is still on one front-line, with the same super clean stopper ball system, no extra line to get wrapped around.

- Icing on the cake, the new bar comes with the largest chicken loop you've ever seen, making easy to re-hook. It comes with the now fairly standard "safe-suicide" mode where the leash is connected the leash to a ring that goes around the chicken loop so you can ride suicide but still be able to trigger the quick release to flag the kite.

- An extra swivel on that flagging line to prevent wrapping is one of those small details that makes Ozone stands out

Overall I'm super happy with the kite which improves again on what I liked last year. The 2014 C4 is definitely the closest you can get to a C-shape without giving up on the comfort of a good relaunch and a decent depower ability. I'm confident this kite will help me progress even further and would highly recommend it to anyone who's looking at pushing their limits in wakestyle or oldschool!
Wether you look at the bag, kite, bar and lines, the Ozone products philosophy is to keep things simple, strong and light to focus on what matters: great feel and great performances.

Cheers,
Antoine

Couple of pics taken in NSW and WA:

kites under 10m need a smaller bar as there far too responsive in the steering for free/wakestyle
a 40cm would be nice .
spent some time on the 10m and that seemed to be the money size for 14

nice review!
another thing i noticed with my 10m is that even overpowered you feel comfortable to unhook
and i dont know compared to ther year models but that kite pops really good!

You could well get away with a 7 10 c4 I can be nicely powered on my 7 in about 22knots and I'm 83kgs