Ronny Bollhalder, Ozone rider since the early days has showed once again the performance of the R1-V4. He has proved what has probably been the best and most stylish hydrofoil water exit we have seen in the last year.
Let's read some of his story:
I have been flying kites since 2002 and I was lucky enough to discover a lot of snowkitespots in Switzerland together with Patrick Stahel. At that time there was no Google Earth and halfway usable wind forecasts so all we had was a map, research and some luck, must say that created what it was the best time of my life as a kiter! That was the reason of how the spotguide Unhooked.ch was born with over 100 spots in Switzerland. After I got bored for a long time, I started snowkite racing, tore my ACL 2x and finally won the Wissa World Cup in Estonia with the first R1V1 in 2016 with skis. This was followed by the victory with snowboard at the World Cup on the Reschen.
New times come and a new adventure with the foil era initiated. Hard and tricky start but when I realized I could do many of the old twintip tricks with the foil, the whole thing became exciting. To this day I'm always trying to find new tricks to keep the sport interesting. For this project there is no better kite than my current 13m R1V4 so it is just perfect for what I do. In the future I will hopefully discover new spots, learn new tricks, have no injuries and in addition always have a good beer available after the session 🙂
Last year I was a bit bored because I didn't have any ideas for new jumps, whereupon a colleague said jump sitting and continue foiling. I thought, yes that's a good idea, but wanted to make it a little more stylish and added a 360 rotation. I learned the jump faster than others and knew I would eventually get off like that. At Sihlsee you can jump onto a soft meadow and that's where I wanted to do it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of rocks at the exit, but at high tide they are covered and you can get pretty close to the shore, which makes it much easier. But the Sihlsee always has very little wind and is perfect for the 13 R1. But with a smaller kite, the 13, the jump goes much better because the takeoff phase is more explosive. So I waited for a little more wind so 12kn. And then after a week of much rain and no thermals it was time, the lake was full and the first thermal day brought me the 12kn for the jump and the 13er R1V4, my absolute favorite for oldschool and foil! No people on the beach, briefed a colleague and off we went! The first attempt worked, but the 360 rotation was not completed cleanly. The second was then perfect and I came my project satisfied check off. No idea what comes next, but it will not be easy to top the trick!
