Power Kite Forum - Ozone Little Devil 4.5 & HQ Crossfire 6.3m

A little insight first. I started flying back in 97' with a 5m Quadrifoil. Flew that for 3yrs. then stopped flying due to where I was living at the time (horses and kites don't mix). As much as I wanted to keep the kite, I found myself loosing the time for it and places to fly it. So the kite ended up being sold.

Then last fall I decided to get back into the sport. So much has changed in the industry and the way the kites are made anymore, so it was like starting new all over again. To re-enter the sport I picked up a Little Devil 4.5 from Keith Kalio of Montana Kitesports. Great guy and he gave me a lot of insight about the changes in the sport since my time away from it. He also helped in my choices of kites to getting back into the sport. He has since passed away, but will be remembered by me as the guy that was always there for me when I had a question, extremely out-going personality and not only willing but wanting to help anyone interested in kiting. He gave me insight and the desire to really get back into the sport and stick with it this time.

Keiths choice for me to re-enter the sport was the Ozone Little Devil 4.5. I found to be a great choice as it was very forgiving for someone new or re-entering the sport of foil kiting. The characteristics are exactly as Ozone mentions on their website, as are the materials they use to make an excellent and very durable kite.

Having never flown with a bar before, that was my next purchase, an Ozone 4-line standard bar (same as to what comes with the Ozone Samuari). While no one that I spoke to was quite sure how the kite would react to flying on a bar, I found it to be excellent. While it doesn't react to turns as fast on the bar (which was to be expected) it still flew with the same characteristics as it did with handles (which I also highly recommend. The Ozone handles are by far more padded and more durable then any other handles I've come by). Very forgiving, enough power for minor scuddling and in higher winds a very durable, easily manueverable kite to enter the sport of landboarding or even buggying.

I have to admit, there were times that I questioned the power the Little Devil had, wondering if there was going to be enough to landboard or snowkite behind it (which is why I had placed it for sale for awhile). However, that decision changed one day while at a local beach with a friend in 12mph winds. I pulled the kite out, climbed on the mountainboard and off I went with ease. Controlling the kite while riding was like learning to ride a bike with training wheels. It had never been so easy and I've been hooked in keeping the kite for those higher wind days since.

While the Little Devil is a great kite, there is hardly to no lift to the kite. If you really try, it's possible to maybe get a few feet off the ground but nothing overly fun and when it does set you down, it's hard. I found the characteristics to be similar to the HQ Beemer in that respect.

Desiring lift and wanting some pop to a kite for those snow days when you need to pop the board out to get going, I decided to look further into a larger low wind kite leaning towards the Flexifoil Blade series. While they have an excellent reputation and make excellent kites, with my current situation (a baby boy on its way) I knew the wife would never allow me to purchase a kite for that amount of money. Not to mention a large kite which tends to cost more.

Earlier this year, I had taken ground school and land kitesurfing lessons through a friend of mine that is now PASA certified and just started teaching with kites he was getting from HQ. He told me if I purchased an HQ he'd get me a real deal since he was purchasing kites for his lessons. So I started looking into the HQ line of kites to find something close to the Blade and found the HQ Crossfire in my ventures. The reviews from other sites made it sound as though it was exactly like the Blade in respects to its lifty nature. Having only read about the Blade it's hard to compare, but here is what I've got thus far on the Crossfire 6.3.....

The Crossfire comes in what is a seemingly nice backpack, but just like every other manufacturer out there the backpacks blow. Over time the seams started to rip for absolutely no reason. The catchy big zipper on the bag is just that, a catchy big zipper and not for any purposeother then to draw attention to the what may be inside. I've only ever tried using it once, and following that I knew if I kept messing with it, it would surely break. This has got to be the one thing I would definitely have to ask HQ and other manufacturers to work on. I had a Slingshot bag do the same things and it gets to be a bit frustrating.

Unlike the backpack, the kite takes on an entirely different type of durability. It's nicely sewn hems, sturdy bridal and very durable build makes it pretty indistructible. The sand release flaps at the end of both wing tips is also a nice feature if you plan on flying on beaches (I did that a few times with the Little devil and played hell trying to get all the sand out, so I found this feature to be pretty sweet on the Crossfire).

The first time out with the Crossfire was in 4mph winds just to see how it flew. The wind was rather dirty with occassional gust causing the kite to bowtie a few times, which got rather tiring over a period of time. After changing to a cleaner environment with fewer obstructions I found the kite to fly pretty good and supply enough power to cruise across the ground on my mountainboard. Even managed to pop the kite a few times getting a little lift out of it, only about 2-3'. But still for those low wind conditions I was pretty thrilled.

Since then we have had a period of no wind and / or I've been too busy tending to baby preperation duties, to fly. So flying came to a hault for myself. This past weekend I started getting a bit antsy, wanting to try the Crossfire yet again and found an opportunity to fix that yesterday. I can't honestly recall a smoother more fun day of flying.

The winds started off at roughly 6-8mph. So I rode up to the nearby soccer field with my crossfire 6.3, jumped on the board and off I went. I was thinking to myself Sweet!!! I did that a number of times learning to ride both ways and starting to grasp a lot of what I've been practicing prior.

Then on my last run, a slight gust hit me, the kite shot up into the zenith unexpectedly (due to me accidentally steering the kite that direction when getting hit by the gust..not the kites fault) and I ended up doing a accidental 180 4' off the ground. To boot I landed and continued going strong across the field on my board as if I meant to do the trick.

After that I decided just to practice my flying a bit and figured out how to do regular jumps with the kite. Some guy watching his daughter play soccer said I got a good 6-7' off the ground and a nice soft floaty landing followed. Did a few pendulum jumps and had an absolute blast!! Unlike some kites that suddenly grab you and before you know it you're up in the air suddenly, the HQ Crossfire lets you know before being lifted that you're going to be lifted. You can feel the directional pull as the kite builds towards the zenith lifting you up gracefully and setting you don't just as gracefully.All my learning, reading, and practice flying in low winds definitely paid off yesterday.

I have to say I was thrilled with my purchase of the Crossfire 6.3 the day I got it. However, I wasn't sure if it was going to live up to do what I wanted it to do. I hoped, and found it to be an absolute winner and have no doubts for its future use.

Following yesterdays experience, I also decided to purchase the pegus wing warp system to add about 30% depower to the Crossfire for similar gusty days.. my hope is to be able to control getting hit by gust, rather then being lifted and doing accidental 180's, even though it was an awsome experience. I'll further my review on the kite with the Wing Warp upon getting it here and all hooked up.

So to sum it up, I have yet to be disappointed with my foil kite purchases. Just the opposite, I've been consistantly impressed. While HQ doesn't appear to have the same backing in its name as Ozone and Flexifoil, they're definitely a company to be reckoned with. The nice price tag and their kites are from what I've experience thus far, equal in quality and make. So,if anyone is looking into somewhat of a lifty kite, and awsome low wind kite for buggying or landboarding, you won't be disappointed with the HQ Crossfire 6.3 , I highly recommend it.

~Joe

Will post more about the wing warp on this same thread upon receiving it and flying with it, so stay tuned. Also any other experiences I come across with either the Little Devil or HQ will be posted in this thread.