Fractured Axel

A direct quote from the Prism web site about the QPRO:

"Developed for world-renowned Team Cutting Edge and winner of the 2005 and 2006 world team championships, The Quantum Pro is our ultimate, state-of-the-art competition machine for serious pilots. Fully tunable with an optional CNC machined weight system, the Pro delivers glued-to-the-sky precision in a wide wind range with all the latest freestyle acrobatics including yo-yos, cometes, and the entire competition trick repertoire." (the competion above is not freestyle...)


This kite is a precision developed for team competition. It is not a freestyle kite. It will do the tricks but if you want to track precise forms, the QPRO is your kite. If you want to do a JL 2 meters off the ground, you MIGHT be able to do it with a QPRO be you will work hard and it will not be beautiful – IMO.

AnOldMan

p. s. You can really plant a snap stall with the QPRO but you would expect that from a precision kite.

Yes, but it also says (some in the same sentence:)

with all the latest freestyle acrobatics including yo-yos, cometes, and the entire competition trick repertoire...

... you can roll up the kite multiple times in flight, fly it around, then unroll with panache into your next trick...

... Move the ballast towards the tail for a trickier, radical style

It's not like they don't try and sell it as an all-rounder (polyvalent, whathaveyou.)

Andy, you are absolutely correct. It does say all those things. And I would readly like to see a QPRO do a cometes.

That wasn't meant to be as aggressive as it reads, by the way. It's just I was sure I remembered the QPro being marketed that way, so I went to check.

anOldMan wrote:

And I would readly like to see a QPRO do a cometes.

Cometes aren't a problem it's everything else

anOldMan wrote:

"Developed for world-renowned Team Cutting Edge....."

Hmmmm far be it for me, of all people, to question the veracity of Prism's advertising but the impression that I was under was that the kite was developed and then Cutting Edge took it on. I'd certainly be interested to have it confirmed that it was indeed "developed for" them.

I quite like my QPro. It's probably one of the most straightforward kites I have to Cométe and does a nice line in Half-Axels/Cascades. Yoyos are a pain unless you tail weight it with a ship's anchor which then cocks up the rest of the flying. I found getting a nice Polyvalent balance too difficult so stopped bothering and left it like it seems to enjoy being flown and use other kites to fill that niche.

Mike.

Can I condense :

"Developed for world-renowned Team Cutting Edge and winner of the 2005 and 2006 world team championships, The Quantum Pro is our ultimate, state-of-the-art competition machine for serious pilots. Fully tunable with an optional CNC machined weight system, the Pro delivers glued-to-the-sky precision in a wide wind range with all the latest freestyle acrobatics including yo-yos, cometes, and the entire competition trick repertoire." (the competion above is not freestyle...)"

to : "Team Cutting Edge delivers glued-to-the-sky precision in a wide wind range " - I am not convinced their choice of kite was a big factor in their success - then again I thought a Nirvana was too small for team, didn't stop 6th Sense doing well ...

Tony

Does "Developed for TCE" mean

a) Prism decided to develop a kite that TCE could use

OR

b) TCE would only use the QPro if Prism developed it

OR

c) TCE would only use the QPro if Prism developed it

[Geordie accent] You decide [/Geordie accent] *

*Big brother vioce-over piss-take

As the Prism forum website was the first I joined and was the one I was most active in, I will throw in my penny's worth into this debate.

Way back on the Prism forum somewhere, I think there were discussions about this. In summary, Mark Reed experimented with making a better Quantum, and the project evolved into something completely different - the Quantum Pro. Then the Team Cutting Edge people came along, and in order for Mark to sponsor them, he had to come up with some low and high wind variations. - The QPro SUL, QPro UL and QPro VV were born and developed with at least feedback from some of the Cutting Edge fliers.

So in summary - first there was what we now call the QPro Standard, then one or two of the Cutting Edge fliers started showing an interest, and Mark had to go and create the other QPros.


....Of course, I haven't a shred of written evidence to back this up, and know from experience that trawling through the depths of the Prism forum archive to retrieve some evidence is a painful manual task (the forum's computer search facilities often don't check that far back). But I expect that the story is in there somewhere.


Postscript: So I did some manual searching of the Prism forum anyway. Found that now it only goes back to 2006, so the threads I was thinking of are probably no longer there. There is a statement that "Jerry" (Cannon? from context, presumably of TCE) worked with Mark to develop the VV, and then TCE went on to develop their own half-covers for the vents. See a thread from 2006 called "Q-Pro Vented". - It's a shame that the Team Cutting Edge pages on the QPro are also no longer where they used to be.

damp,

You've got it completely correct. I've spoken with TCE members at festivals and they told me essentially what you have said.

The ULs, SULs, Vv came later due to competition needs. If I recall, they won the last cup with the Vv in 35-40 mph winds, so it was a good call to design a Vv..

Following up from the last few postings, while looking for something completely different I have just stumbled upon an article here in KiteLife interviewing Team Cutting Edge, which confirms what tpatters says and assigns credit for development of various versions of QPros. (IMO It is also a rather good article about some aspects of team flying.)