The legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker once mentioned that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Similar can be said of the U-Turn OBSESSION II: letters can only inadequately describe the incredible speed and security provided by the wing. Never has testing a paraglider been so revealing. The light bulb moment is going to be immense.

Terrific performance and security are united by the OBSESSION II in an unequivocal manner in the 1-2 class. The completely newly developed profile with a strong ascending force provides for its high performance. The prototype originated from U-Turn’s new competition paraglider. It was modified for the OBSESSION II in such a way that on the one hand the security of the 1-2 level was reached and on the other hand as much speed and gliding performance as possible was brought into this equipment class. The result speaks for itself: although the glider overflows with performance, the certification criteria was fulfilled almost instantly, since absolutely no performance debilitating changes were necessary.

Full of security and collapse-resistance, at the same time the paraglider provides gliding performance of more than 9 with a standard harness. Compared to the OBSESSION I, U-Turn head developer Ernst Strobl reduced the aspect ratio slightly while the projected aspect ratio remained the same. With 27 instead of 28 cells, a slightly diminished number of line attachment points and competition genes in the profile, the result is a collapse-resistant as well as a pronouncedly high-performance wing. This allows you to enjoy a casual evening glide, or just as easily to do rapid stunts. The OBSESSION II can even reach a glide ration of more than 9.5 when flown with an aerodynamic, optimized harness.

And all of this with the security of the automatic flight stabilization. The overall design permits the initial tension of the rear edge to be slightly reduced. This also adds to the performance enhancement. Altogether the OBSESSION is now a bit easier to start. The high end 1-2 has of course the typical U-Turn long accelerator travel for exact control and high final velocity. The highly dynamic and direct handling was kept. Very flat and confined thermalling can be accomplished accurately, whereby the OBSESSION II excels through a minimal turning sink rate. Even though the overall characteristic allows for mistakes, we recommend the OBSESSION II only for pilots that fly regularly. Despite being rated for the 1-2 category, the paraglider is not recommended for training.

For material Strobl decided to continue using the reliable cloth of Porcher Marine. During the testing phase of the competition paraglider AIR FORCE II the new profile was experimented with various materials. Lighter materials yielded no noticeable improvements for the OBSESSION II during the operation. As far as UV-resistance and the mechanical resilience in general are concerned, the cloth now in use is the best for an often used paraglider. To ensure the long-term performance and to retain the second hand value of the paraglider, including the easy start behaviour, the OBSESSION has the Mylar Fix System at its disposal. Creasing of the leading edges while packing and storing is prevented by means of a fixing loop system – the paraglider keeps its form and remains thereby within the best performance criteria.

OBSESSION II comes in five sizes (LTF 1-2 certified in S, M and L) from XS to XL and in attractive colour combinations.