The Finale (for now, anyway) – From our founder!
Someone famous once said…. ah hell…. I forget what it was. But it must have been a good saying to sum up the bittersweet feelings I have right now as I pass the Kitelife torch of ownership to my good friend and partner John Barresi.
Me and my close band of happy rapscallions started Kitelife in early 1998 to take advantage of the growing Internet phenomenon; and to fill the void that was being left by the slow death of the existing print kite magazines. From the start, we had a sense of purpose and a feeling of joy in bringing our little electronic broadsheet to you, our wonderful readers.
I am super-proud of the work that we did together, teammates. Sharon, Al, Graeme, David, Elain, Mike, et al, thank you for your great support. I think the archives speak for themselves, we done good.
After five years and several changes in my life, I was about ready to hang up the Kitelife project. The biggest change was taking over the job of editor/publisher of “Kiting” magazine, the last remaining US printed kite magazine. If you’re not a member of the AKA, you ought to check it out.
It is no secret that Kitelife just kind of laid there through late 2002; a situation that displeased me. It was obvious that it was time to either put an end to KL, or pass it on to someone else.
Well, the great news is that we found the “someone else”.
For those of you who don’t know John Barresi, let me do a short intro.
John basically grew up from the kiting sport; he was one of the most-traveled and successful competitors through the early 90’s. John’s passion for kiting has been strong, true and consistent; and his interests and attentions have recently moved toward the “big picture” – helping to figure the old conundrum of how to keep the sport growing. Add to that his obvious skill for web design, graphics, and a personality that just shines; it is obvious that our Johnny is the one to take over the Kitelife project for the next batch of years. I’ll be the biggest cheerleader for the new regime.
Who knows, maybe I’ll send in some pointed political commentary for a future issue. The hate mail that results will come to the new dude, not to me!
Anyhow, thanks to you all for reading. It’s been a blast.
Mike Gillard
Kitelife founder