Greetings and welcome to issue fifty-one of Kitelife, and our last of 2006. As we prepare for another year of kite flying, I see a pattern of good things and energy happening on several fronts throughout North American kiting and abroad… This is an amazing pastime, let’s keep at it!

I really believe that we are looking at a reasonable amount of potential growth over the next couple of years, if we can keep our heads up and encourage a united and positive approach, rather than dividing ourselves.

Having recently stepped down from the role of AKA Sport Kite Chair (leaving it in the capable hands of Jim Barber), I aim to focus more of my time and energy on specific projects and additional content for Kitelife… We’ve got a few things in the works, and look forward to coming up with some new and exciting stuff throughout the new year.

On the sport kite competition front, the members of iQuad and other quad line pilots around the country are pushing for the addition of Multiline Pairs to the AKA’s list of sanctioned disciplines. With the growth we’ve seen recently, and expect to see in the future, we’d like to have this exciting and versatile format made official… For more information on how you can get involved, be sure to check out the REVisions column in this issue of Kitelife.

As always, I encourage everyone who reads our humble publication to consider becoming an official subscriber… For very little, you can gain comfort of knowing you’re helping us continue bringing unique content to the web, by fliersfor fliers. Besides that, it gets you entered into some excellent prize drawings as well as some very cool and exclusive members-only content!

I am writing this piece the morning before I leave for Argentina (see the Coming Events section), and I’m really looking forward to a trip out of the increasingly cold, wet winter of the Northwest… Kitelife will be covering two separate events, with full reports, photo and video links to come in our next issue.

Thank you everyone, I couldn’t ask for a better community to be a part of… The impact kiting has on people and their overall environment is admirable.

Cordially yours,

 John Barresi
Publisher/Editor
Kitelife Magazine