The Apex 10m arrived on my doorstep and it was like xmas all over again, as it is every time one shows up on the doorstep. Thank you santa I mean Mr. UPS :D

Cracked open the box and found the Apex in its bag. My first thought: "How did they get such a large kite into such a small bag. The bag is far more durable then those I've had in the past, however, if you do not pack the kite just so..you can almost forget putting it back in the bag. The crossfire bag was just the opposite as I could pack about 2 other kites in there along with the crossie. I actually like this more as it makes me pack the kite good and keep it nice.

Of course I had to wait for the weekend for my first flight. Sat. morning I woke up early and took the kite for its maiden voyage.

The winds were blowing about 6mph with gust up to 10mph.
Setup was relatively easy and so was launching, althought I have to admit I was a bit intimidated by the size at first.
One quick tug and up the kite went.


HQ decided to make this kite as a nice backcountry beginner to advance depower kite for cruising and not so much the freestyle / lift like the montana has, competition for the Ozone Access. Although the kite is said to have little lift, in the right wind conditions and with the right size I found myself floating around the field quite a bit to my surprise.

Thus far, I've found the kites stability in the low wind range is amazing for the size. Handling, I'm still learning the kite and still have a few tweeks I'd like to try, for example the numerous settings that HQ provides switching up the power line positioning. For the two weekends that I've had the kite out though, It seems to be pretty quick on the turns and the depower itself is simply amazing as you can go from feeling like a bulldozer is pulling you to a stand still with relative ease (of course that has some to do with the winds you're flying in too). It wasn't quite like that this past weekend while snowkiting with it in much stronger winds..the kite has grunt and a lot of it in the higher end winds and turns much quicker. Again still figuring out the settings for different coniditions, etc. though.

A friend of mine was able to fly it several times and while the kite hit corn husk popping through the tops of the snow, got dragged through the mud/cow poo it stayed together just like new. Rough test, but like all of HQ's kites I've owned thus far, they're extremely durable kites and for the price you just can't beat it.

Will add more to this review later, after finding out the tweeks, etc. Til then..here are a few pics from snowkiting...



End of the day got a bit muddy


~Joe

Great pics Joe! I have the same thing here - a little snow & mud

Also - have you flown the new Montana 2 yet?

What's dangling from the lines / bar in the 2nd pic? Your leash?

Yeah the snow and mud mix isn't too much fun, then add a lil cow poo to the mud and you're reallllllly not having as much fun, well that is til you fall in it and give up with trying to avoid it.:D

Haven't had a chance to fly the montana 2 yet. If I get the chance or talk Tim into lending me a demo, I'll let you know my thoughts for sure.

This is my first true depower (other then when I turned my Crossie into one for a brief while..which is what got me hooked). I'll probably keep my 5m TSR, and maybe get a Beamer III 3m for high wind days, but I think I'm going depower all the way for any other purchases. They're definitely a lot more fun for longer sessions, and having that control over power is sweet!

The threads you've been putting up about the flysurfers almost had my mind churning as to getting into those and out of the HQ scene. Love the HQ kites, just hope that they catch on like Ozone apparently is, and look into making closed cell foils.

If you get comfortable with a style of kite and how it flys, etc. I can see how that would be something very useful for being able to use it both on land and in the water. Of course LEI's and SLE's will always have a bit more of a standing in the water and likewise for foils on land, but for the happy medium I think all the companies should start doing the closed cell.
~Joe

B-Roc...yeah, that's my leash. I found it works reallllly well right there.
Actually I had it hooked up just in case more people came about, but we were the only ones out there so figured it was pretty over kill with all the other safety releases that come standard with the kite. The bar comes with two releases that work great.
~Joe

Old topic)

Got my hands on a 10m Apex I in great condition. Did anyone have a chance to update the Apex I with dual pulley bridle from later apex versions? Or add other improvements?

I had the single pulley apex's version 2 and later on got a smaller 3.5m version III dual pulley and noticed some differencees that I dint really care for. To me a single pulley kite is a little bit smoother kite. there may be some benefits to 2 pulleys but I'm not sure wht they are. Ill say I prefer a single pulley unless there was a specific problem with the version 1 that dual pulleys helped with.

Fun kite, I had one of those but did not modify any bridles. Grunty low aspect open cell that is easy to fly. My guess would be you'll trade-off some of the easy flying traits for any minor performance improvements. Let us know if you try it and have any luck.

Ive heard that a dual pulley bridle is supposed to have better depower range. I had a blaze II 12m with single pulley bridle, depower was poor and it turned like truck. There were some modders that said it works much better on a dual bridle. But luckily Ive sold that crap ) So was thinking apex would need some mods. Didn't get the kite yet, waiting for the mail...

If you say that the difference with Apex 3 is unnoticeable, I wouldn't bother. Thanks for the tip guys!

Had a good session a few days back. Jut got it out of the bag, unrolled, and went on cross lake trip. No need for tuning, or getting used to it, just lunch an go! Great kite, very easy to ride on skies.
It does turn slow when depowered, but that's not a big issue. Love the shoot out safety, a no brainer solution to any problem, with easy relaunch. So much better than the usual safety on the rear lines.

Nice review. Well-written and thought out. Great for a guy like me who is busy absorbing as much info and advice as possible.

Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Frank