Something new for HQ.

http://hq4.com/en/produkt/empulse-2/

HQ seems to have really stepped up their game with that one. Would like more information on their cells and a few videos. Is the 10m over $2k or is HQ still the more "reasonably priced" option?

Impressive! I'd like to see some videos of the Empulse in action as well as pricing information.

Pricing should be comparable to the Matrixx. Hoping to have these available in December - if things work I hope to have a couple at the Bighorn Snowkite Summit that is coming up.

You can find more pictures in HQ4's Winter Magalog, with a nice writeup of their trip to Sweden last year. Good stuff:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/62157448/hq4-magalog-...

2919??! :wow:

Wave of the future, indeed.

Never thought I'd live to see the day.

ATB,
Sam

Not like the old HQ days

Quote:

Would like more information on their cells and a few videos. Is the 10m over $2k or is HQ still the more "reasonably priced" option?

The Empulse is going to have 32 cells. There's not much video footage at the moment - the most I've seen is a couple short bits on one of the teamriders recent facebook posts.

Here's some pricing info (kite only):

7m - $1195
10m - $1350
13m - $1550
16m - $1695

Wow. That reads like a kite designed for lakebed buggying. I hope Chris is able to get these out to IBX next year. My lakebed quiver is my Montana X 8m and 5m HQ LEI. Covers winds from 5/6 mph up to as high as I'm willing to ride in. That 7m could replace the Montana or work beside it. Very interesting.

Ya, I'm pretty jazzed that they're making some smaller sizes this time - it will be interesting to see how the 7m does as a higher wind kite for the back country. From what I've heard, the 16m pulls like the old 18m Matrixx 3, so I'm not sure how that's going to translate into the smaller sizes.

One thing I keep hearing is that it sits pretty far forward and likes to develop speed without a lot of side pull; I think that would be good for both foiling and buggying.

Hopefully Chris will make it out there this year.

Well if what you say in regards to sizing is the case, and based on other characteristics, it sounds like its more on the racier end of things. If other similar kites are any indication, my bet is the 7m will be much like a 9m lower AR model. Unless they adjust the AR relative to size.

Well if what you say in regards to sizing is the case, and based on other characteristics, it sounds like its more on the racier end of things. If other similar kites are any indication, my bet is the 7m will be much like a 9m lower AR model. Unless they adjust the AR relative to size.

The Empulse AR ranges are like 5.35 - 5.55, so a bit higher than the Matrixx and Montana but nothing super high. I wanna say that's kind of in the same range as the FS Soul, with the Hyperlink and Speed 5 being in the low 6's.

There seems to be a lot of emphasis on the ease-of-handling on the HQ4 website; it'll be interesting to see how it fares in real-world inland conditions.