IAIN HANNAY, GENERAL MANAGER

Iain Hannay has been Ozone’s General Manager for a decade. His relationship with the brand first began after a chance meeting with a pair on a Mediterranean beach and grew from there.

He has always been enthralled by kites since ripping around his native Scotland’s muddy fields as a teenager. On moving to Spain in the early 2000’s with his kites strapped to his back, he began kitesurfing. His Ozone journey began after he tried a prototype Frenzy foil kite Robbie Whittall was testing on a French beach and never looked back.

His passion for all styles of kiting—kitesurfing, kitefoiling and snowkiting—and now wingfoiling, is found across the whole Ozone team. Barcelona-based, he sees his role as General Manager as harnessing that passion and creative drive to make products that inspire customers, distributors and dealers.

OZONE IS UNUSUAL, PERHAPS UNIQUE, IN PRODUCING FOR ITSELF. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES FOR THE COMPANY AND THE CUSTOMER OF THAT SET UP?

The factory has benefits for all people involved in Ozone, from our design team, distributors to the end customers.

The design team can send off designs to our specific prototype department and they can help sort out the production techniques to help us make the highest quality wings and kites. We then have the protos shipped to the places where we need to have them tested with a very quick turn around. Once our design team has a product ready for sign-off, we can release on our order system and we can start production straight away.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PIECES OF OZONE EQUIPMENT?

I THINK IT BEGAN WITH KITES AND THEY'RE STILL YOUR BIGGEST PASSION. WHY? I'M TOLD YOU'RE ALWAYS FIRST ON THE WATER AS SOON AS IT'S WINDY.

We are involved in so many sports it is hard to say which kite is my favourite. In strong winds and waves it has to be the Reo or the Edge 9m . .. or a foil with a 6m Alpha ... or a 4m Wasp ... or a 5m Subzero on the snow! Anything and everything that harnesses that invisible force of the wind really! I get my quiet times when I am flying kites, it is hypnotic, demanding and mediative at the same time.

AS A FAMILY MAN, SHARING THOSE PASSIONS WITH YOUR CHILDREN SEEMS TO BE A BIG PART OF YOUR LIFE. WHAT DO YOU CHERISH MOST DOING WITH YOUR FAMILY? WHAT ARE YOU FAVOURITE SPOTS?

We had an amazing family holiday in Mauritius one year when both my boys and Jill were all riding in the lagoon for the first time all together. I stood on the beach in amazement and gingerly launched my own kite. It was around 10 years of teaching all coming together in that moment. We have also had some insane trips to the Hardangervidda Plateau in Norway. If you can spend some time at Born Kaupang's place in Haugastol,
you won't regret it.