A new company: a passionate philosophy.
Paragliding is at a crossroads. For ten years it has been led by competition development, resulting in generations of equipment that require increasing amounts of skill to use. This has gone hand-in-hand with a culture which encourages pilots to keep 'graduating up' to higher-performance gliders. We have seen the effect of this type of development in hang gliding and windsurfing: vast amounts of research effort go into producing equipment which can be handled only by a few top performers, while the needs of the great mass of enthusiasts tend to be neglected. Both those sports are in decline.

Philosophy
Ozone's design philosophy is to shift the emphasis away from ever-increasing top speed. We are concentrating the research effort of our young company on improving the low-speed and mid-range characteristics of paragliders. We believe that a real reduction in minimum stall speed is of much greater value than a small speed increase at the top end of the range - especially when that speed is bought at the expense of stability throughout. The result will be safer gliders which are more fun to fly. Which equals more people staying in the sport, with smiles on their faces. Don't imagine from all this that we are setting out to build slow gliders. They will go very well indeed, but not at any price. We believe the market is already moving in line with our philosophy. In the paragliding competition scene, there is acceptance of a series-production class. This is a big step into realism at the highest levels of international competition - levels where the endless search for speed sometimes showed little respect for pilot safety.

Extended Brake Range
For years, designers have been concentrating on the high-speed elements of glide performance and we now know how to make paragliders fly really quite fast. Yet, when paragliding, we spend most of our time with brakes on to some extent, flying around at the lower end of our gliders' speed ranges. Think about it: how fast are you flying when thermalling? Or when you are taking off and landing? Or what about when soaring a cliff face? So surely the handling and feel of the glider is extra important at low speed? As designs have advanced, the brake-travel range between hands-up and the stall has reduced. This has made it all too easy to overcorrect from, say, a deflation. You know the sort of thing - glider hits turbulence and has a leading edge deflation. You try to correct the turn so that you don't hit the cliff face, push the brake a little too far (as the brake range is so small), stall the other side of the wing, enter a spin and ruin your day... So what is the answer? Using all the design experience of the members of the OZONE team, we have been working hard on the low speed controllability to produce designs that have a low stall speed, large brake range and very low negative tendency (i.e. it is hard to get them to enter a spin). We have not compromised the handling characteristics in normal flight situations, and the brakes still feel very progressive to the extended stall point. What does this mean for the pilot? Put simply, the low stall speed means the gliders are really easy to land in tight places (one of the original advantages of paragliders over hang gliders). In thermals, the pilot can turn with confidence as it is harder to enter a spin. If the glider suffers a deflation, the pilot can use more brake to correct the resulting turn and to pump out the deflation without stalling the glider. In other words, long-travel gliders are safer to fly, more fun to fly and give the pilots greater confidence.

Materials
The best part about starting a new company is that you get the opportunity to create a philosophy and product that suits you. From the start our idea was to be here for the pilots, to offer great product, safety, quality and an acceptable price.

Sailcloth
We started to develop our first wing on a clean sheet of paper. Choice of materials was one of the first problems to solve. Do we go for long life? Or cloth stability? Or ease of handling? Or cheapness. In the end we chose the material that we knew would do its particular job best. End of story.

Here's what OZONE gliders are made of: 

Upper - surface- Gelvenor silicone-coated sailcloth from South Africa. We consider that this has the best resistance to aging of any sailcloth currently on the market.

Lower-surface- Porcher-Marine sailcloth (France). This is the most stable cloth we know of, so it is perfect for the high loads met on the under-surface.

Ribs Porcher-Marine again, selected for stability and resistance to stretch - vital if a wing is to keep its safe-flying characteristics for a long time.

Lines
EdelRid has long been one of the market leaders in the manufacture of suspension line. We chose their High Modulus Aramid for its stretch resistance, high thermal tolerance and acknowledged durability.