Dominik Zimmermann

Nationality:

Germany
Current location:

Mauritius for 1/2 year, other half based in Switzerland
Joined Ozone:

2005

What is your background and previous experience?

I discovered land based kiting back in 1999 when a friend rocked up with a kite and buggy which we started to mess around with anytime we had some wind. Beside school and once I graduated high school I was working for one of the biggest kite buggy and land kite manufactures before becoming a sales rep for Ozone in Germany in 2005. Did that for some years and as I was also racing kite-buggies and snowkites at that time I was in close contact to Rob for the testing and development of the race kites. This grew into a closer and more fruitful connection over the years and I became part of the R&D team in 2013 full time.

Which Ozone related discipline are you most passionate about?

Grown up in the mountains I feel a stronger bond to them than I do to the sea. So snowkiting is without a doubt one of the most fun and adventurous sports in the winter. Kiting in waves is also loads of fun. But I think it’s the versatility that kiting has on offer that keeps the sport exciting to me. Also being involved in creating new ways the sport develops towards keeps me motivated. Lately I really enjoy the wing foiling loads – as it’s something new and offers so many different options compare to kiting.

Describe what snowkiting means to you?

Kitesports have had a big impact to my live – it basically became my life and is surrounding me on a daily basis. I’m very grateful being able to do what we do with an amazing team of talented people. It can be tough at times but when looking at the big picture it’s still pretty good fun. I do enjoy a lot of other sports too. That helps me to clear my head from kiting/work and keeps the motivation going. I do regain a lot of energy from being outside doing other sports than kiting. I try to spend sufficient time in nature away from crowds as this levels me and rewards with loads of inspiration.

What’s your favourite part of working for Ozone?

Well let’s face it – we are building toys for other people to have a good time on. Seeing people enjoying the products you have been involved creating is very rewarding.

What is your favourite Ozone piece of equipment and why?

That pretty much depends on the conditions and style of riding. For the snow I really like the Hyperlink as it offers quite some good gliding performance for flying down mountains as well as not being too high aspect so they can be tightly looped. On the water if I had to pick just one model it would be the Enduro as I can cover all my preferred riding styles with just that one model.

I also love the R1 even tho I’m not a good enough racer to take it anywhere close to it’s limits. But I like working with our team riders such as Axel and Nico to see them flying on them. It’s incredible to see them in full control with so much power and speed. It’s been a hard and rough road to get them registered for the olympic games but so rewarding if you have the guys and girls winning on them. I do have a lot of respect for them and their dedication for racing. Will be very interesting where we are going in the future…

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