Focus Kites Hydra

[DaveA]

Ok, I know KaoS will roll his eyes at this, but does anyone here have any experiences with the Hydra ?

Ive been coveting one for ages and nearly pulled the trigger earlier on before finally opting for a JoE Talon (thats yet to be flown due to the appalling wind conditions we've had down here lately) after relentless rave reviews.

Anyway, im still very interested in the Hydra but reviews are thin on the ground.

Its either that, or a Prism E3

[KaoS]

Hi Dave

I'm meeting Hunter Brown and Paul De Bakker in Colombia next month. I'll try the Hydra out and let you know. If they are any good, I might even bring one back for you

[Jared]

Hey Dave,

I've had one for the past 2 or 3 months and I absolutely love it. The wind range is incredible, it'll fly as low as 2-3mph (I've seen Paul fly it in 2mph, my skills aren't quite there yet) or as high as 18-20mph. Again, I got to watch Paul compete in Masters Ballet in 18mph winds with his.

To make a somewhat off the wall comparison, it has a lot of similarity to the Benson Deep Space, but with a tighter, more precise feeling. It'll do nice, pretty square corners, but you can still fling it around the sky and do some seriously impressive cascades or Jacob's Ladders with it. It sits in a very shallow turtle, which has really taught me a thing or two about giving light inputs for my pitch based tricks. It'll roll up really quickly, one of my favorite things to do is to launch from the ground into a roll-up, fly around a bit, then flare it out and unroll it.

Some Hydra footage from my Virtual Freestyle 13 entry