Build construction 10/10? Ppfffttt! My mate has 6 & 8m Reo's and both are broken. The 6m hit the water hard causing the canopy to split in half, and the 8's inlet valve internally twisted and broke. Even looking at it compared to a Religion, Park, etc, it looks weak and poorly reinforced, if at all. Sure its light and nimble and made by a company who is good at making paragliders, but wave kites need to be really strong as a priority. All this hype about the Reo is great for inflating the resale when you realise that they're actually crap and decide to pass it on to some other chump. I'm gonna rage on my torches and continue to watch all the Reo's fall to bits...
Hey Live to Fly.
Really, you must be on mushrooms for the last 12 months or so...
Yo live to fly I tried to follow your advice about buying an ozone reo that people don't want,I could only find 2 in the country, but i did find over 4 pages of naish torches
Cauncy there are actually only 4 current model torches for sale compared to 2 Reo's which is the same order of magnitude and actually alot for a line that hasn't been running for a full season yet. Anyway, Im not trying to have a competetion who can piss the highest up the wall. Just saying that my experience with them leads me to doubt that their durability is fit for purpose.
Also just saying that reading this thread makes me do a little vom in my mouth. My opinion is that bridled kites drift as good as a corolla, when depowered are as responsive as a motorcyclist in a coma, and are about as predicatable and wobbly as a cut kiwi.
Live to fly ozone would not release a kite that would as you say fall to bits,they tested the kite for over a year , with a large portion of that in aus , I've seen other brands also split when they have been crashed hard , I've got a reo on trial and yes it does look a bit lightweight,but if you covered it in heavy reinforcement it wouldn't perform the same, its a dedicated wave kite ,so you'd be better comparing it against the drifter or bws, if you like your naishes that's fine with me , I've given most brands a go but i wouldn't part with my ozones
Anyone else had any problems with their Reo,s?
A good wave kite should be kept in the air not in the water, a decent wave can damage any kite - no matter how much Dacron you throw on it.
Agreed, you can't have your cake and eat it as well. You want performance, or do you want a crash proof kite!
Fair points guys. I'll organise a demo and see for myself. I'm always pushing myself and crashing the kite regularly so maybe what i want and need is different to those who are happy in their comfort zone and who's priorities are keeping their kite dry.
Hey Live to Kite,
We have had the same 6 Reo's (2 x 6's, 2 x 8's and 2 x 10's) in demo since we received them off the first production line in July 2011.
They have been out in almost constant demo since we first got them. We have sold heaps of Reo's on the back of demo's. The thing with demo's is you don't know what the skills are like of the person demoing, so they have been used hard by noobs, intermediate and skilled wave riders in all conditions.
Some of the demo's have been to Albany, Margaret River, Gnaraloo, Geraldton, Lancelin and all up and down metro Perth beaches and we have not done a single repair to ANY of them. ALL are in top condition.
I don't know what you do to your kites, but there are so many Reo's out there being ridden every day that I'm sure there would have been more said about any durability issues.
If you build a wave kite to handle all manner of abuse, it won't fly. Ozone build a great kite with exceptional wave performance and more than adequate strength for the designed use. As others have said, any kite can rip from ar$ehole to breakfast in the wrong predicament.
DM
loving my little 6 reo. if i was going to find something to complain about its the fact that it has to be pumped up real hard or you can get some canopy colapsing going on in hard out conditions. oh yeah it could have a little more lift too... but then you can't have everything on one kite.
nope. i run the 50cm bar on all my ozones. she's pretty speedy but not uncontrollably so.
Will be interesting to see what changes are made to the Reo in its next generation.
My guess,
Obviously - new bar (finally) & colours etc.
Maybe sort the canopy flutter out & improve its jumping capabilities, hope they don't mess with it too much.
Such a sweet kite for riding strapless.
Thoughts?
^^^ Who cares if it boosts or not I just want it to ride waves better. Soft bar ends would of been handy yesterday when I dinged my board.
^^ I agree TH but it has been mentioned previously on this thread so thought I,d add it as something Ozone could potentially be looking at. I think it boosts ok as it is in its upper range.
the thing is toppleover if they make it boost better it will then drag you off the face of the wave if you get too much speed. I guess I am lucky that I have a kite for the twintip and the reo for the surfboard but there are also many who only ride a surfboard and a dedicated wave kite is all they want. I don't know what could be done but I would prefer it to just get better for catching waves.
A little less flutter would be nice if it doesn't detract from it's surfability though.
Totally agree TH, I pretty much only ride strapless these days so dont give a toss about boosting anyway....
Not really sure what I was thinking when I wrote that earlier post.
