ghatto

The Toxic is quite reactive to brake input. If you are flying on handles (recommended for first flights) you can abuse them a bit to sort of give yourself a little bit of depower! Well, not quite but we find it useful. If you take off and fly normally with your hands in the correct position on the handles and then when you want to spice the power up bit (especially for jumping), move your fingers down one position on the handle so your power line sits on top of your index finger. This applies some bias to the brake line. Works with HQ Beamers too! Geoff.

Now that's interesting Batz. Jason keeps asking for a board (of course!!) but my feeble excuse has always been it is expensive to buy one for him and one for me due to the fact that he is 10 now and I'm a FB (and we are not talking Fixed Bridle here are we Batz). Would you say it is possible (although obviously not optimum) to use one board for both of us? And no - not at the same time!!!! Geoff.

I forgot to ask, what board was she using there? Didn't look too overpowering for her. Geoff.

Looks like she has fast reactions and very good concentration to keep that Sting in just the right place to avert disaster despite the obvious four-legged distractions around her! Looked pretty windy so yes, the 3m was probably a no go. It is amazing what they can hold down though. You are absolutely right, anything ‘daddy’ gets out of a bag to fly is fair game, regardless of wind speed!!! I nipped over to our local for a quick blast around with our 2m a while back, and my son Jason (9 at the time) seized his chance to ‘have a little go’. (Sorry to those that have seen this before) Geoff

Looks like she is having lots of fun - whilst coping with a whole pack of dogs there I notice runing around! What kite was she flying? Geoff.

The key bit is "I want to go and play in the park". Unless his park is particularly large with no obstacles for miles around, and is almost on the sea front, then you are talking gusts. Going from a 3m Beamer to a Blade 4.9/6.5 is not a trivial step, especially if the wind gets up. Kites like the HQ Beamer V series soak up gusts inland a treat and even if they do luff, they tend to recover reasonable easily. Lose it with the Blade, it flutters down to about 30 degrees, powers up and bam, might as well slip the Lycra on now to look completely like Superman. I would love a Blade V 6.5 but:- (a) I would kill myself on our local field this far inland. (b) My kids would never be allowed to touch it (Jason is age 10 now but loves flying Daddy's kites). It would no longer a 'family' hobby and it is a lot of money to spend just on me. Sorry if you have seen this before, but would I let Jason do this with a Blade 6.5? This was only the second day out with this kite. He now takes it off me and jumps the Toxic 6.5 in 8 to 10mph!! Geoff.

Well, my HQ Toxic 5m comes highly recommended and you can certainly jump that without too much drama. Trouble is, they are not cheap. It isn't a Flexifoil Blade so won't rip your arms and legs off with your first attempt. It also works static in VERY low wind speeds. Very notable that when we go out to our local field with all these light winds recently, we are the only ones flying - everyone else is parked up waiting for more. Geoff.

Also had a good static session this morning (sun glasses on!) with my HQ Toxic 6.5m and my son Jason on the Toxic 5m. Wasn't too lumpy, we got a few feeble jumps in too! (10 to 12mph).

I can't wait for some decent weather! If it's not good at the weekends I'm a bit stuffed at the moment. It is too dark to start a session after work and lunchtimes around here can get a bit muddy so you spend most of the time cleaning up. Prepared to travel a bit to get a session in though. Travelled to worthing the other day with the kit in the back and got quite a nice static session with the Toxic 6.5m in Marine Cresent there. Geoff.

This was first posted in the NEw HQ UK face book page thread, but I guess it should go here. It certainly was cold on Saturday! "] Geoff

We NEARLY didn't go out today to test the HQ Toxic because of a distinct lack of wind. Windfinder reporting 2mph 'gusting' to 4mph at our local airport. I looked out the window at my favourite tree (OK, I have one too) and it was doing absolutely nothing. But we did go out “just to connect up the lines”. When we got to the field we connected up and decided to just run backwards like mad to see if it would launch. But what's this? It actually flew in next to nothing!! We probably didn't launch into wind because we didn't know which way it was blowing initially. Not much pull most of the time and so I let my son take the controls....but it was actually pretty responsive for a 5m kite as long as you kept it moving. Very impressed so far – bring on the wind! "] Geoff

Well it's all here Bash, http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7039/6853341607_4089504b3a_d.jpg Just waiting for the weather! Good luck with your snow kiting on Sunday BTW. Geoff

Just signed the delivery man's electronic thingy for a nice brown box containing an HQ Toxic 5m! Will try and get some pics of it up on your site soon. Impatient now. Can you fly a kite tonight in negative temperatures in the dark with a field full of ice/slush/mud? - you know what, it's tempting! Geoff.

I'm with badgerjc, I love my HQ Toxic 6.5 too! However, as Doug comes from Hastings, he might not have to put up with the high gust to decent wind ratio we have here inland. I considered the 6.5 Blade for here but to be honest, I get lofted enough accidentally with the Toxic when the wind suddenly ups the pace here. I would be still up there now if I was on the Blade 6.5. The Toxic is pretty dammed good at keeping its shape when everything else is falling out of the sky in our field. I love it so much, I've just ordered a Toxic 5.0 for when the wind is just too brutal for the 6.5 but I note that at the moment, everyone in Germany and indeed Poland for some reason is snapping them up so there if very little stock left for us here in the UK. Waiting impatiently for more stock to arrive! Regards, Geoff.

Might want to take a look at the HQ Toxic 6.5 as well. Don't own a landboard yet but the kite is nice and stable when the winds get gusty and will certainly get you going even in light winds I would think. Geoff.