Hey Tim,
I talked to Phillipe today at Airtime. That is GREAT NEWS ! Finally HQ has found our corner of the country ! There is a good loyalty to local shops / dealers around here. It was a bit crazy there today ( swap-meet ) but I'll firm up a demo soon ! It will be nice to have real world comparisons the Busters and Bullets That are popular entry kites around here.
Does the beamer come with a bar option rather than handles ? I find 1st timers take to a bar a lot faster.

the beamer3 does not.... its on handles. thats why they made the TSR.. its a sheetable beamer

snowbird.... i've been an HQ dealer all along.... you could have ordered anything thru me....

Dunno, I never really had any good thougths on putting a depowerable kite in a noobies hands, sure they are safer in some ways, but the main killer is that they have to harness in to fly the kite. More cost for gear and more chance of injury. With KS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s, they simply have to let go and the kS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s do the work.

Easy enough to put a kite on a bar though. I've got bars setup for a quad line fixed bridal available or plans for anyone that want to set up their own.

2 ways of doing it, one takes a bit more, but you get a better flying kite, the other will turn your 4 line into a 2 line trainer, but it's cheap and easy.

Thanks John,
Truth is I'm not out to buy an HQ kite at the moment. I'm thrilled that they have found distribution locally. Our land crew is growing fast and it's nice to see we are getting noticed by the local shops. + a few good choices to buy locally. There is a good loyalty toward supporting local dealers so selection is key.
My true motive was to fly a Beamer and Crossfire for personal experience. I tend to show the sport to a lot of 1st timers so am interested in recommending it as a good entry level kite, as I keep reading on the forums. The Crossfire gets such good reviews I am interested in compairing it to our Broozas, Butanes, and Blades.
So is this new Beamer supposed to be a beginner kite or is this depower taking it up a notch ?

I'm about the same as Ken, I've already got a full set of kites that I love. But I've been working with a lot of beginners and giving out even more advice online. I've flown the Rads, I've got hundreds of hours on the Busters, but I've never flown the Beamers. Those are the 3 kites I normally recommend. I like to give noobs options so they can find what the local shops carry, what their buddies have. My main concern is that they find something that's a quality product for a fair price. I stock PL kites, but you'll notice I almost never tell someone to buy a Pepper. The peppers are good kites, but I think the Buster's and rads are better.

I'd like to get a couple hours on a Beamer to be able to compare. By all the comments I've heard they're great. But I don't like commenting on stuff I've had no experience doing. Phillipe at Airtime is an awesome guy, top knotch customer support, very reputable. I've sent customers to him before because what he carried was more suited to what the fellow needed. If he's carrying HQ then I've got no problem sending people that way if they're after one. I'd just like to get a couple hours in on one.


I'm a Skypilot first, A business man second.

Hey Guys,

Just a quick overview:
- Beamer III (sizes: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7M) - comes with handles, but flies great on a safety bar as well

- Beamer TSR: comes delivered with a safety bar (not de-power). Flies great on handles too

- Crossfire: higher aspect ration than Beamer. comes with handles, does not like to be flown on bars
(I can send anybody a objective comparison between PKD Kites and Crossfire, I think it was the Brooza. Comparison done by Idaho kiters

- Apex (beginner de-power kite)

- Montana II higher aspect ratio freestyle de-power kite

I don't want to write up any info about the kites. Check out our powerkites website: www.powerkites.de

Anzybody with questions, please feel free to email me at t.baxmeyer@hq-kites-usa.com

Philippe has demos of our Beamer TSR on a safety bar.

Cheers
Tim

Thanks !

I'm finding I like bar set-up.

Yeah, The guys in Idaho had a Brooza I. They did a fairly in depth comparison between the kites. We'll have to get a hold of Phillipe and see if we can aquire the kite for a day.