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.

squiznick - What a brilliant top tip! Turned up at Bude beach today for a standard kids day at the beach in the rain and couldn't believe my luck - the beach was completely empty. Time to try out your theory! I had already bought a 60cm giant bungie lead from Halfords (the type you would use to strap stuff to your roof rack on the car). Tied that into the ikea bag handles so I had one hook for kite handle left brake loop, one for the right. Filled it with sand using a small bucket rather than a beach spade (easier to pack). Worked absolutely brilliantly. Never moved an inch even though the 4m Beamer was very eager to go in the wind while parked up. Thanks for the top tip! HQ spike would have been completely useless. Geoff.

Still in shock! Just come back from what was going to be a standard day at the beach with the kids - very light rain with overcast sky. But what is this? NOBODY ON BUDE BEACH! 18mph for the taking with nobody in sight! Don't believe me? Here are five raw photos from today:- Bude photos Loads of fun! Didn't risk the Toxic 6.5 in this wind (I'm not good enough flying it yet in wind speeds much over 16mph at the moment - working on it!), ended up flying and jumping the Beamer V 4m. Geoff

slam777 - if only all dog owners had your brains!! I cannot stand dog owners that seem to believe their little Fido would never hurt a flea. I speak from experience, I visited the delights of Cheltenham A&E after being bitten by a Rottweiler many years ago, there is ALWAYS the possibility that any dog may bite or harm someone at any time because just something might set them off out of the norm. They are dogs. In my case, it was being in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to pick up some keys that I think annoyed the dog due to the noise they made when I picked them up. My middle son is autistic and dogs know it! They learn how people react when they approach them but my son does not behave ‘normally’ so it sets them off. Just last week I had a women yell at her dog endlessly to try and stop it using my kite bag as a toilet and she had no effect on what the dog was doing. She then claimed she had full control over her dog. Did I laugh when moments later, the dog ran over and jumped all over an old man going out for an evening walk, she had absolutely no control over her dog whatsoever. Geoff.

Sell them all on ebay and buy a decent kite? Geoff.

Good point Batz. Let's just say that JAckD's jump was 10 feet in the video - but in the real world, it would have been 1.2 feet if you took into account he wasn't carrying the weight of a helmet. Geoff.

GeorgeFromDevon: That I think is Crooklets beach, Bude. However, can be quite soft sand, full of kids with buckets and spades this time of year. Very nice rock pooling for the kids though. This is where my son Jason got his first taste of two line power kiting! [video=youtube;g_0fast-dCQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_0fast-dCQ I’ll be there end of this week with any luck though, as at low tide, a nice bit of sand opens up just to the north there for a spot of static flying as the bucket and spade brigade do not bother to walk. Watch out for occasional dog walkers though. Look for a blue 6.5 Toxic (or if the wind gets up, a 4m Beamer V). Geoff.

Thanks wenglish for your top tips there! I am NOT a top kite jumping expert and am still in the learning phase of this power kiting activity myself so I can't give out qualified advice on the subject to my son! However, based on a bucket load of research on the subject, there are lots of things you can learn before you start and safety is obviously one of those things. Knowing how to handle your kite well in plenty of different wind conditions is the big number one requirement I reckon to kite jump safely. Then there is bad technique that will land you in trouble, such as failing to redirect, redirecting too far and diving it, blasting it up to the edge of the wind window and stalling it while in the air, and of course taking your kite out in awful conditions (gusty or far too much wind). The one area where there seems to be mass confusion for all newcomers is in what to actually do! Your description is correct but as you know, it is more subtle than that because there is a great deal of carefully timing involved with each phase of the jump which is why two jumps are rarely exactly the same. And the advise chucked out on the internet is all over the place. Probably the most viewed video on kite jumping is that naff videojugs thing where they present how to do a jump WITHOUT mentioning redirecting your kite at all!! I wonder how many people have seen that, belted down to their local field and super-manned there first efforts. There is one rather good FLASH animation that shows what to do in symbolic form and another video which tries to show the flyer and the kite on screen at the same time but the jumps are not good ones and if you look closely, the mixed video streams look like they have been taken by a single camera covering two separate jumps and the video sequences combined into a single jump picture in the final piece – they don't line up! What I reckon we need is the KiteCrowd definitive guide to getting up there! There are so many talented folks on this site who could actually do or claim they can do this properly (some of you know who you are on the now famous “8.5 blade” thread!!). Come on then, two cameras, one pointed at the flyer, one on the kite, mixed picture in picture for the final creation. Spot of audio or text description of the various phases, sorted! It would become one of the most watched videos on kiting on the net. Geoff.

My son has now worked out that if the wind gets up and daddy doesn’t let him fly the 6.5m Toxic anymore, he’s found something else to do. Yes, try to jump our HQ Beamer V 4m while I wrestle the Toxic around the sky! I know he hasn’t got up there very high yet, but not too awful for some first efforts I thought, and the Beamer is not know for its lift. Just needs to work on the technique a bit like the rest of us (more redirect would be useful for a start). He's loving it! Geoff

Loved the video and I loved the waves to the crowds, especially at 2:02! I know that was all done with a mobile phone type thing but you did a very good job of hanging on to the buggy and your little one whilst framing some pretty decent angles during the ride – well done. Looks like he can't wait to go again! Geoff.

Thanks CWB! (he's asleep now so we are all safe!) Geoff.