ghatto

The Geoff - I've passed your kind comments on to Jason who is currently sitting beside me! I have to say I am very impressed with the low wind performance of this thing. As you well know, the trick is to keep the kite moving (hence I yelled at him early on to remind him – sorry Jason!). We have not cheated, you can clearly see (especially toward the end of the video) he is able to pull a turn to direct it back into the wind window without anything collapsing in the turn at the top. It remains beautifully inflated and hence still controllable even at this obviously very low wind speed. I'm guessing a peak of 6 mph would be absolute tops for him at the moment as at this speed, the kite speed starts to build up fast and then from 6 or 7 mph onward it's daddy's go only! Bottom line is, he is absolutely loving this kite, and guess what, so am I because I did consider a Blade V6.5 for a low wind kite but whilst I'm guessing that is technically a very much better kite, I really could not see it being flown safely by Jason in any wind speed, and it is a lot of money to spend if only I could fly it. Needed more of a 'family' low wind kite for when the Beamer 4m is not enough and Jason (and maybe my older daughter when she's ready) can enjoy in the right wind conditions. So we compromised and went for the Toxic – and I'm rather glad we did! Geoff.

Worse still, you require say 600 quid from them, they pay you £1000, drop you an email instantly saying, "very sorry, due to an administration error, we have overpaid you. Please can you refund us the £400 difference". As The Geoff says, you look in your account, find £1000 of cleared funds have arrived so you think everything is OK, make a payment to them (which of course, you won't be able to stop!!!) and much later you find the £1000 has been withdraw as it was not cleared and you are now down £400!!! Geoff.

...Yes, and this particular winged preditor's favourite food is 2m HQ Beamers. Take a look at this, a Toxic sneaking up on a 2m Beamer while it is asleep on the floor. Engulfs it whole through one of the large air intakes when it gets close enough! http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6130/5988336971_ee30f423b1_z_d.jpg Geoff.

That was in response to shadowhound's comment, not yours. You were doing your lovely jump the right way around!!! Geoff.

shadowhound "a lid" is a slightly silly way of saying "a helmet". People who are a lot better qualified than me to talk about kite jumping will tell you to always wear some kind of head protection AS A MINIMUM when doing kite jumping. If you are intending to jump a Flexifoil Blade 8.5m by standing facing into wind at the start I wish you luck, and I'm sure we will all get to see your efforts on BBC News 24. Geoff.

Up a hill, with a blade, with no lid on? I wonder if you've been keeping up with the news recently?

OK, so this is the last of these for a bit, I'll give you all a rest! Yes, Jason has finally got his hands on daddy's new HQ Toxic 6.5m (we've only had it two days!) and given it a quick blast around the sky. We have had ideal conditions this evening for him, around 4 to 5mph. Later the wind dropped to just above 3mph I am guessing because my wind speed meter was only showing 2.2 at ground level and we were still going!! This kite is still fun in this low wind speed, even for daddy. Anyway, here he is having LOADS of fun (but in the right conditions with the correct gear on of course):- Geoff.

Bash, thanks for the extra info. I'm sure you can understand why there is some confusion out there over the Toxic kites. You mentioned the Crossfire, but Chris from HQ USA stated on the PowerKiteForum when talking about the Toxic:- “…I would not call it a lifty kite. Not once did it threaten to rip me out of my buggy. Comparisons to the Crossfire II or Blade are a misrepresentation….” And from the HQ dealer catalogue (and hence cut and pasted on many shop web sites):- "When you're ready to challenge gravity, the Toxic provides the speed and power to take a flying leap" Somebody in HQ land has got their lines crossed. However, as you know, it does have some good lift similar to a twister. Here is one of the Kitecrowd members (Drew - who loved the demo on the Toxic by the way) getting air on the 6.5m in 10mph. Guess who took the photograph? Yes, Chris Shultz from HQ kites! Geoff.

Placed the video online as promised! Have a look in the video section on Kitecrowd here Geoff.

Good point! I think I am correct in saying that if you look all over the internet you will find that Kitecrowd are the proud owners of the ONLY video/review of any production HQ Toxic kite flying in the world at the moment – any size! Why? Well, you would think that HQ would not like anyone to know they sell them! There are only a very small number of photos/clips out there in the real world of pre-production units, including my own video of a 4m version I recorded at Wallop Reloaded. I got mine from the Powerkiteshop who did an excellent job of getting their hands on one via special order but it now appears the two main UK kite distributors (that supply the UK shops) have at least up to the 5m in stock. However, it is obvious that HQ are not promoting or wanting you to know the Toxic is available at the moment as they don't mention its release on their own web site (“Out now, Matrixx” on the home page) and parts of the Toxic pages are still in German from way back. There are no proper pictures of the toxic kite itself and only momentary glimpses of the kite in any videos produced. They also DO NOT mention you can use the Toxic for recreational flying! (Have a look at the Flexifoil web site HQ). I know when I was phoning around originally there was one kite shop in the UK that now refuses to stock them as they were always “two weeks away” from being available from way back in January. Toxic's are great kites though, but keep it a secret, don't tell anyone else! Geoff.

First day out with my new HQ Toxic 6.5m power kite! Didn't quite know what to expect as I had not flown this exact model before. Biggest kite in my collection to date was an HQ Beamer V 4m which I fly regularly and I have my son's HQ Beamer V 2m to blast all over the sky when it is howling a gale. Have flown (for a very short duration) a Flexifoil Blade IV 4.9m in winds when I was wondering whether or not I should have been flying the Beamer(!), a Blade MKII 4.9m in light winds which to be honest was not impressive in the turning circle department (set up wrong?) and an Apex II 7.5m depower. Did not need to worry, it really does fly well - certainly in light winds anyway. I have been extremely lucky to be able to fly this on the day it arrived at my house and unbelievably, the weather for tomorrow looks good for another quick trip out as well! Geoff

The HQ Toxic bag is massive! That's a good thing as there is plenty of room to fit the kite, helmet, pads, large food selection, keys camera, kitchen sink, the lot! No need to take 36 bags to the flying site any more. Miles bigger than the HQ Beamer bags I am used to. Geoff.

Just got back from our local field where we tested out our brand new HQ Toxic 6.5m for the first time. What a kite! Yes, it's a big bloke but surprisingly agile if you throw a touch of break into the turns, it really flies through the air with ease. Out in 6mph touching 8mph winds this evening and it certainly gives you a nice workout but is still very controllable. The weird thing is, you feel like you have flown this kite many times before, it's that easy but still bucket loads of fun and pulls like a truck when the flying speed builds up even in this light wind. It looks absolutely fabulous in the sky in blue. The kids have shot some video footage of my first attempts so if I'm still awake later tonight I'll stick something on youtube. I'll try and throw together a mini review later with my first thoughts, but for now I'm gone to slump in a chair for a few moments with a very large smile on my face! Geoff.

Just got a phone call from my daughter. I now have a lovely HQ Toxic 6.5m sitting at home waiting for me to come home from work!!! OK, so I’m a bit excited. Now I have something to do when Jason is off with my Beamer 4m in light winds. Geoff.

Batz, sounds like you have one hell of a full car load of gear whenever you go out for a session with the family! Bet they think you're a great dad though. Geoff.

nightfly, that's half the problem, we don't live that near to the sea or a stretch of water where we could give it a bash. Given that you are in Hereford, you sound like you are not exactly on the coast either! Where do you fly? Batz, yep – I've already been asked the question “daddy, can I have a land board”. It's his birthday in August and I can just see him passing me a present wish list with the following on it:- 1. New set of flying gloves 2. Flexifoil Blade 8.5 VIP Geoff

Good job I have ordered a decent sized low wind kite that should arrive later this week as I think I may have lost my 4m Beamer to my son Jason when the wind drops a bit! [video=youtube;vFHD-uqvjQQ] Geoff.

I normally fly inland in amongst the gusts and so I have always had to dab the brakes slightly as it approaches zenith or tries to surge forward when already at zenith. The trick is not to apply too much brake otherwise you will slow the kite down too much and the effective wind reduces until the foil starts to sag and then you drift backward and flop out of the sky! What shocked me was taking my kite (Beamer V 4m) on its first trip to the coast. Of course I had to attend as well! Steady 14mph winds at Hayling Island were something else, it was absolutely rock solid at zenith and you could very reliably hold it at the side a couple of feet above the sand without any sign of luffing, sag or dropping out the sky. Sounds like you are lucky having more regular access to the coast! Geoff.

Well its 23:13 now and pretty dark - good luck!!!! Geoff.

Hello Festa, Yes, anyone who thinks there is “only 0.9 difference between a Beamer 4.0 and a Blade 4.9” is in for a bit of a shock! The trick here as you say is he is making it look so easy. It wasn't clear to me how he gets the redirect to work given the lack of handle pulling you might think he would need to do to turn a Beamer at the point of take-off for the redirect. His only other video he posted on YouTube shows he doesn't always look quite so silky smooth... Geoff.

He's saying Bft 5, so yes, you are correct, he wouldn't be standing next to a guy with a 7.7m Twister!! Geoff.

I would guess that just about everyone who visits this forum at one time or another has watched YouTube videos of people kite jumping. Some of them end in disaster, others are pretty entry level and some try to teach you how to do it. We all know that small kites in enough wind will get you up there, but will then drop you like a brick, big ones (5m and above) have increasing levels of float so you can come down nicely. Also, we know to get a smooth landing with plenty of float (and for safety) you must redirect your kite if you are doing a pendulum jump. So what is this bloke doing? He's jumping a 4m Beamer (IV?) in reasonable winds and getting a jump that looks better than most peoples first attempts on a Blade 4.9! The kite is not known for its lift and I think from the text he is 105kg as well, so he isn't a light teenager on a small kite. The jump he starts at around 30 seconds for example does not seem to involve any redirection at all but is pretty smooth with a good landing. Can't see him pulling at all on his lines for a redirect. The kite ends up overhead but on the side he starts running from, (not redirected) and he is getting away with it! How is this possible? If you are the chap who was flying that day, good job, you made it all look effortless! Wish I could do that with my Beamer 4m. Geoff.

Thanks chris.d.w! It was really good fun actually, with a great sense of achievement when it worked. If the truth was known, I also tried a 720 - but the wind was not quite so kind to me on the second circuit!! Geoff.

Thank you Flowlovva, I will pass your kind comments on. Actually, his first go on a four line power kite was at the recent Wallop Reloaded event at Middle Wallop airfield when he got to try one of the new HQ Alpha series kites, namely, the 2.5m (not released yet). As he managed to handle that without killing himself I tried him with the Beamer 2m which actually has more pull and is a better kite and he hung on to that too. Geoff

Wind was a bit low today so I thought I would have a go at flying a horizontal 360 degree turn with my Beamer V 4m. I thought I may have needed a bigger kite but no, it worked fine. It went around like it was on rails! Geoff.