HQ Shadow

This is a (relatively) cheap ultra lightweight kite made by HQ in Germany. The design is very pleasing with the appliquéd rainbow design on the back fabric. Normally I don't go for black things, but the colours against the black does look very nice. I saw one of these hung up in my local kite shop earlier in 2006 and immediately wanted to know more - it's that striking! The HQ Shadow seems capable of both precision and freestyle (given the limits imposed by low wind). It's framed in 4mm Avia spars and Dynamic T12 (whatever that is!) tapered spiral srapped lower spreaders. You get a couple of clip on YoYo stoppers (or JoJo stoppers as HQ call them) which look like they will get lost very easily, along with a heavier tail weight which is supposed to make some kinds of tricks easier (flic-flacs, rollups - anything that gets the kite onto it's back or front).

The sail is Ventex and what looks like heavier duty ripstop nylon for the leading edges - dacron is just used for the nose and reinforcement points, with some mylar here and there for extra strength. The designers of the HQ Shadow have also tried very hard to make the kite as snagless as possible - the upper leading edges are covered, and where the standoffs come through the sail have been covered in mylar to prevent line snags.

The instructions are up to HQ's usual standard - i.e. useless. The instructions in mine refer to tightening the leech line, but that doesn't match what is actually on the kite. They also don't refer to either the YoYo stoppers or the weights, apart from informing you they exist! However on the plus side you do get a plan specifying both the carbon spars type/length and the default bridle settings.

Purchased: May 2006