Ozone Yakuza GT - Extreme Kites News and Reviews

Ozone Yakuza GT

Friday, 11 July 2008 | Written by Joel Theodore

The murmurings were that Ozone was working on a new kite called the Yakuza GT. Well at the most recent 24 hour SPO in Europe the GT was unveiled, and boy was it hard not to notice! The new Ozone Yakuza GT has similar a theme to the Ozone Frenzy FX with the "bubble" or "tear drop" type look to it, making it stand out from all the other race kites. Ozone has taken a while to make an update to it's current Yakuza, which at the time of release set the benchmark in performace. Over the past couple of years that gap has been reigned in by other brands releasing newer kites based on new designs to suit the current range of pilots and the evolution of their piloting skills and race styles.

Ozone reminded us during the release of the Yakuza how hard it was to produce a kite that was better performing then the Razor, and how much expectation there was for the Yakuza. Ozone surpassed this expectation and brought a kite that dominated the race scene for years. Now the expectation for the Yakuza GT is greater then it was for the Yakuza, for Ozone to repeat history they would need to bring out a kite that sets the benchmark just as the Yakuza did for the Razor and the rest of the racing industry.

Competition in the race scene is more fierce then it was during the release of the original Yakuza, with more then 8 brands producing race winning kites, and the emergence of smaller local designers creating competitive race kites. If the Yakuza GT goes as well as it looks it will send a number of people back to their chairs inking pens for their next race kite design.