Well, here we are again! Thanks for joining us for the third issue of Kitelife. The last month has been eventful, with Spring in full bloom there are kiting events every weekend to keep track of, and report to you. On the Sweepstakes Entry form, we left a place for you to tell us what part of Kitelife you like best. The clear favorites were event coverage and photos, and we are doing our best to bring you as many of these features as we can.
Your response to Kitelife has been phenomenal. Traffic to the site has been over twice the amount that we had anticipated, with over 265,000 hits to the ‘zine since April 1. Here’s a sincere THANKS for your support. Thanks to you, we are the most-read kite magazine in the world. Also, a big thanks to our sponsors – Cutting Edge Kites, Avia Sport Composites, The Kite Studio, Precision Kite Company, and Peter Betancourt Sportkites. Please show your appreciation to these fine companies for making this magazine possible, and tell ’em that you saw them here in Kitelife!
As you may have seen already, we have made a few changes to the lineup starting with this issue. Most of these changes are in response to input from readers. A new feature we are adding this month is “The Best of Rec.Kites”. Recent months have seen this newsgroup sink into the swamp of flame wars and idiocy that seems to be the destination of most unmoderated Usenet newsgroups. We will be culling the rec.kites newsgroup for interesting and relevant kite-related posts and posting them on a weekly basis. I have heard that many readers of the newsgroup have quit participating in it due to the poor signal/noise ratio, here, they will be able to get most of the signal with little or no noise. We hope you enjoy it. We have deleted the “Discussion Page” starting with this issue due to lack of participation. If enough people request it, we may revive discussions in combination with the rec.kites coverage.
Our staff for this issue:
Editorial Manager: Sharon Musto
Technical Managers: Mike Woeller, Peter Hugger
Special Thanks: Dick Barnes, Peter Hugger
Editors-At-Large: Troy Gunn, Chong Whye Keet, Mark Lummas, Rich Miller, Bert Tanaka, Paolo Milano, Geert Donker Duyvis, Jeremy Boyce, Hans Jansen op de Haar, Bob White, Collette Lemons, Bob Pebly, Joe Lavin, Eddie Zhilman
Contributing Editors: Jason Benedict, Graeme Poole, Richard Dermer, Richard Gareau, David Gomberg, Al Hargus III, Chris Matheson, Phil Napier, Mike Reagan, Sandy Wagner
So, kick back, pour your favorite beverage, and spend some time enjoying our efforts. We hope you like this issue, and, as always, let us know of any suggestions you have, or any contribution you can make. See you in the sky!
Mike Gillard
Kitelife Publisher
