Hello friends,
Just couple of days ago the New Ozone Catalyst 12m landed in front of my door.
Yesterday we had some westerly wind and we had the first chance to try it.
I also brought to the beach my Light XC 12m so that we could do a back to back test.
Wind was extremely gusty with about 1 hour of 11-16 knots, 1 hour of 13-20 knots and again another 45 minutes back to 10-15 knots.
We had 4 different riders to try the kite back to back and we have similar impressions.
The kite apart from the one pump, the graphic and colors are really similar in shape...
Can’t really tell the difference.
The new bar is nice and much cleaner, the depower throw is a bit longer, maybe 6-7cm and the depower strap is easy to reach. The side adjusters are gone and now you have a 3 knots adjustment under the floater to choose for the back line length.
Once you launch the kite the only difference you feel is that the bar pressure is lighter.
Flying characteristic are really same…
The way it turns with power, constant pull, progressive depower and amazing stability.
The general consensus was that the Catalyst turn a little little bit faster and has a little little bit less low end power.
But it could be that this impression is given by the bar been lighter.
(We use the attachment point closer to the TE that say lighter bar pressure)
Another thing that I notice when the wind got stronger is that the kite appear to have slighter more high end and depower but hard to say as it could have been the gusty wind and for sure the longer depower throw help too…
Our conclusion… The new Catalyst is a refinement of what was already a great kite.
If you are in the market for an easy free ride kite that will not hold you back then the new Ozone has probably the best value for performance in the market.
If you already have a Light XC and you are not a maniac of changing a kite every season there is no reason to upgrade to the new one, maybe get the new bar...
The kite is available at our beach for test and demo.
Bye Jankie
Rider: Weight 72 kilos,advanced
Style: Freeriding, Surf
Weather: 11-20 knots
Build Quality: 10
Satisfaction: 10
Disclosure: Ozone Distributor for Indonesia
Hi Jankie
I have been waiting for reports in the Catalyst, so thanks for the post.
How would you rate this kite for pure wave riding?
Woof 
Ciao Woof,
very good for wave riding.. Last year Light XC was my choice and for me the best kite I had use in the waves.
This year it will be a battle between the C-4 and Catalyst..
I need to use it a bit more to decide the one I will use in waves.
Bye Jankie
Hi Zendog,
We received our first shipment of Ozone Catalyst today in 10m and 12m. They'll be at the beach from tomorrow onwards if you want to come and play .
They look pretty sweet thus far .....
Cheers,
KH
I was out riding the new 10M catalyst between 3pm and 6pm, so I had a decent amount of time on this kite.
Conditions were a bit gusty and while I was out we had 2 rains squalls as well. There were small waves breaking at Dolls, so I had a chance to test the kites wave riding potential. The waves were very small maybe 1/2M, but still they gave me a chance to feel what the kite was like for riding towards it and then quickly changing direction and riding against it. Direction of the wind was cross on to the waves.
When the wind was stronger and the tide higher I stayed in the flat water area behind one of the rock walls and tested the boosting ability, which was easy and excellent.
The C4 would jump higher and hang longer but there was nothing shabby about the size and hang time of the jumps.
I think the Catalyst will be a better pure wave kite than the C4, just because of the added wind range.
I did not test the kite unhooked, but have no doubt that it will handle well with a fair bit of grunt (more than C4).
It is a lot more stable than last years Light XC, it has a bigger wind range and handles better over that wind range, even when getting up to its top end.
The Catalyst is a great all rounder, I gave the kite to another rider with less than a years experience who had just tested the C4 11M as well and he preferred the Catalyst, but was also frothing over the C4!
The new bar is so clean to use, one of the simplest cleanest designs on the market IMO. Relaunch is simple as pull one rear line, self launching and landing are also very easy, even in strong wind the below bar front line flag out kills the kite and lands it very fast.
I'll post some pics soon, overall I think I will be using the catalyst 10 for waves as much as possible, I had nor trouble staying upwind over that entire period on an Underground Styx 1.28x38
