Ozone Wing Waist Padded Belt v1 2024

At A Glance

As fast as the sport of winging is growing and evolving, so is the product line accompanying it. Sometimes, the brands bring us products we didn’t even know we needed, and other times; the brands deliver polished versions of the Macgyver creations of passionate riders. The wing harness category has experienced elements of both, largely thanks to so many wingers having prior experience in other action sports requiring using a harness and varying preferences.

Ozone has contributed excellently to this space through the new Wing Waist Padded Belt. It sits between a simple waist leash and a compact waist harness. The external load-bearing structure of the product is the thick webbing that we’re used to on waist leashes, but the internal areas that make contact with your back and sides have been padded with a minimalist contoured EVA foam padding. This leaves the front as only webbing, allowing a simple sliding hook to be used.

Ozone | View in Mag

Armstrong Foils | View in Mag

The harness closes via a strong buckle of a good size and is adjusted like any other webbing strap. It features two elasticated retainers to deal with excess webbing, and the exterior features an offset reinforced leash attachment point (you can have this on either side of your body by simply flipping the harness hook). The harness is feather-light, but as per all Ozone products, it feels built to last as long as you! The harness hook is rigid despite its weight and feels made from an engineering-grade polymer. This should withstand the friction of the harness line rubbing over time. The harness hook can be quickly removed in less than 30 seconds by taking the webbing strap out of the loop of the buckle, leaving you with a well-built, lightweight and comfortable waist leash.

On The Water

Ozone’s padded waist belt is as light as it claims and feels very similar to a straight-up waist leash when you put it on, i.e. it is barely noticeable. The webbing buckle feels strong and gives you confidence when you’re about to head into powerful white water! The harness adjusts easily; it is very easy to get nice and tight if that is your preference, and because the excess webbing folds back on itself and can be secured by two elastic retainers, it isn’t going to come loose.

Ozone makes a point in their marketing about being able to fold the hook behind the webbing to get it out of the way when laying on the board to paddle, for example. In my experience, although possible, I didn’t find this necessary and found it more straightforward to just slide the hook quickly to one side or the other when I needed it out of the way. So, unless you’ve got a super tiny waist and have to have the webbing adjusted so tight that you’ve got little side-to-side movement of the hook left, getting the hook out of the way is a doddle. Because the hook is compact, I only wanted it out of the way during the paddle out at the beginning; I didn’t find it ever got in the way when simply getting back on the board from the water.

When up and foiling, the hook tends to stay put when riding and during light crashes but will get knocked out of position during heavier crashes. It is little effort to get it back in the middle, but it is worth noting so you remember to do this before you mount the board if you’re not comfortable taking one hand off the wing momentarily to do so whilst riding.

As a harness, the padded belt does a good job. If you’ve got the webbing strap adjusted snugly, hooking in and out quickly and easily, and the hook doesn’t move too far away from your body when under tension. Compared to a fixed harness, it also has the advantage of a hook that can easily move out of the way and is less likely to damage brittle carbon boards. In the past, I’ve ridden hooked using slide-on hooks that slide over regular webbing waist belts, and Ozone’s padded belt is much more comfortable. The soft EVA alleviates the pressure massively and spreads the force over a slightly larger area of the back. The side eva prevents the belt from digging in, which is more comfortable and likely to keep your wetsuit in better condition for much longer.

Armstrong Foils | View in Mag

Ozone | View in Mag

I think Ozone's guidance for this ‘harness’ has been realistic. If you’re a rider who always flat water blasting at speed and doing upwind downwind courses, this probably isn’t your hooked-in solution. For everyone else, this is a perfect solution. It is lightweight, not noticeable when not in use (isn’t that the beauty of winging?!) and provides an opportunity to rest the arms and hands when needed. The slimmer you are and the stronger your core, the more willing you’ll be to use this for longer periods, hooked in with more power and vice versa.

Overall

This product would be a no-brainer, even if it were just a waist leash. An Ozone build quality waist belt that is comfortable and lightweight would have already been a good product, given the RRP. Still, having the modular option of using it as a harness as well (that will be more than comfortable and supportive enough for 90% of riders 90% of the time) makes it excellent value. If you haven’t yet tried hooking in, perhaps this was the product you were waiting for, to give it a go.

This review was in Issue 19 of Tonic Mag.