Our Mission

The first major electronic magazine (ezine) devoted to the kiting community, KiteLife® was conceived by the late Mike Gillard in 1998 to fill a void left by the gradual demise of most of the greatest printed color magazines (American Kite Magazine, SKQ, Kite Lines, Kite Passion, etc)… Since the beginning, we’ve played host to some of the best writers and contributors kiting has to offer, continually evolving our publication to keep up with modern digital media.

Today, you’ll find a great many resources here…

We hope you’ll find the whole to be far greater than the sum of its parts… Everything you’ll find here is a work of passion, from the hearts and minds of real kite fliers worldwide – as always, we’re 100% produced by kitefliers, for kitefliers.
 

History

Founded by the late Mike Gillard in April of 1998; KiteLife was created with the desire to provide a professional and effective kiting publication, going so far as to be awarded the Kite Trade Association’s “Best Website” award in 1999.

In January of 2003, Mike teamed up with John Barresi to take this resource to its next level… Having spent the 1996-1997 sport kite seasons flying together on Captain Eddie’s Flying Circus sport kite team, John shared a common desire to contribute to kiting through promotion, education and stimulation in his role as Webmaster of KiteLife.

With Mike taking over Editorship of the AKA’s Kiting Magazine in the few years following, full ownership of KiteLife was fully assumed by John effective August 1st of 2003 in order to carry it to new heights and in 2011, Kitelife.com was recognized with the Kite Trade Association’s “Best Promotional Effort of 2010” by our kiting peers.

KiteLife Mission

  1. To foster an online community where kite enthusiasts from all over the world can interact, exchange knowledge and learn.
  2. To maintain an un-biased, open media resource and communication portal for kite clubs, festivals, fliers, kite makers and spectators worldwide.
  3. To document and share kiting through superior event reporting, interviews, history and general information whenever possible.
  4. To archive historic publications and multimedia in an effort to preserve the tapestry woven by kiting over the course of history.
  5. To focus only on the upward and outward promotion and philosophy of kiting as a whole, while reaching out to fliers, clubs and leagues worldwide.
  6. To promote fliers, teams and festivals from within the industry, from all walks of kiting, and to acknowledge those that are a part of the tapestry itself.
  7. To provide a evenly moderated conduit, forum and well-balanced point of communication for all walks and facets of kiting.
  8. To help bring attention to the many types of modern and traditional kiting through communication and outreach to the global media such as newspaper, magazine and television.
  9. To cover Kitelife operations and growth through moderated advertising, raffles, essential services, and festival promotion in a specific, non-intrusive and bold fashion.

If you feel that Kitelife is not staying true to these principles, we always encourage readers and supporters to contact us with a direct and sincere description of the issue at hand while sharing any ideas you have on how to improve on our services… We usually respond by email within 48 hours unless called away to a festival or are under a deadline for our bi-monthly issue, but you will get a reply respectably quick in any case as we care deeply about the quality of service that we bring to our readers.

As always, we welcome content submissions from our readers for use in KiteLife Magazine, and encourage you to share your experiences, sharing your knowledge with others who might find the same passion.