KiteJan

Having seen other fliers 'flicking' their kites around the sky in a very impressive way I decided that I wanted to learn dual line trick flying as well.  The HQ Obsession  appeared to be a good (and not too expensive) all round trick kite to start with. It is capable of 'straight' (or 'precision') flying, but is really the most happy doing the more advanced tricks - axels, fades, etc. Not that I can do them all of course - I find the trick flying rather difficult to do but as the idea was to learn it's OK!

The Obsession has a pleasing shape and design - on the ground it looks a bit boring - white, with grey panels around the spine with just the wing tips having any colour, but I find in the sky the Obsession is nice to look at & performs well. It's fairly well constructed in Ventex (HQ's version of Icarex fabric) and pultruded 6mm carbon spars (with 4mm carbon for the wing tips).

Purchased: May 2002

Details

Width	Height	Depth	Weight	Spars	Sail	Windrange
190 cm	102 cm	26 cm	252 g	6mm Carbon	Ventex	medium
Cost
£84.95 kite + lines + handles. However now superceeded by the Obession 2.

Good Things

• Fast & fun.
• Nice shape whilst flying.
• Capable of most of the tricks in the book.

Bad Things

• Bottom spreader spars break easily if a) you are learning, b) flying in high winds, or c) learning and flying in high winds.
• Wing tips are very easy to break - and if the break is just inside the ferrule it can be very difficult to remove the fragment left inside.
• Needs a fairly good breeze (>6mph) to easily fly (I have seen experts fly it in a lot less wind - I can't).
• Need to learn the trick flying techniques - i.e. moving forward and backwards rather than standing in one spot, timing the movement of the hands with the movement of kite, with your movements.
• Not a very precise kite - don't get this is you want precision flying!
• I would guess that as trick flying has moved on since this kite was designed in 2001 the Obsession could now be classed as 'old school' in terms of tricks.

Final Thoughts

Excellent trick stunt kite - plenty to learn and to keep doing. Not something you are likely to grow out of in a hurry - but you can end up replacing spars most flying sessions if you try to be too radical, too soon.

2007 Update

I still quite like this kite - each time I think I might sell it on I give it a 'last' fly and find I get on better with it than I did before. To me it has a very different feel from the other dual line kites I own. I may prefer the 'feel' of the Trident or Gemini but when I come back to the Obsession I find that I can do one or two things that I can't do with the others. And so it remains in my kite bag!  I still find that it's way to easy to breaks spars - I have suffered more breakages on this kite than any other I think (KiteJan 11/10/07)