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I recently finished my first kite build, and I wanted to throw a public "Thank You!!" out to my kite making mentor: Elliot Shook, who allowed me to follow in his design footsteps, gave me guidance, techniques and encouragement. Without Elliot's generous mentorship this kite would likely still be flying only in my imagination. Holding my kite up to Elliot's work I still have a bit of fine tuning to do, but hey I still need an xtra vent, so I will get better. Elliot's eye for detail and build quality is definitely masterpiece material. I finished it just in time to take it to JB's OBX quad clinic and got to show it off to Elliot and all my best flying buddies. When the wind let up a bit (should have made an xtra vent for that weekend!!) I got to put it up with the sun behind it and it sparkled in the sun beautifully, and seemed to fly just fine. Nothing like seeing your own work flying and keeping up with the others in the sky. it flew just like a Shook should fly: smooth and un-phased by the bumps, in higher winds than I should have put it up in, and pretty as a can be. Also, Thank you to all of the folks who have pulled out kites to let me examine and photograph them, lent me your sails, and answered my questions about sewing and techniques - many of you were generous with your time and knowledge. The generosity of this community never fails to warm my heart and add lift to my efforts. To anyone thinking about taking the sewing plunge....I encourage it. I learned a ton, and kite making materials are not forgiving, so give yourself plenty of practice scraps and time. Oh the joy of flying a kite I built can not be described adequately. Thanks Again Elliot!

Time for Ice Cream Shop Eclectic!!!

Congratulations to you and darn it to me. Oh well, what we need comes when we need it and today wasn't my day of need.

For sale is a like new Premiere addiction dual line stunt kite. $75.00. Flying lines included but no handles. Buyer pays shipping.

Great win Terry! Congratulations and have a great time having John clean out the gutters, work him hard and I know he will do the same to/for you, enjoy! Sent from my iPhone using KiteLife mobile app

oh nellie...time for some planning!

Did something different for my snagless. Put my handles in a bench vise and drilled a hole perpendicular to the punched hole that is already in the handles, then cleaned and smoothed everything up with a rotary tool. Last bit critical so you don't wear on your leaders. After that simply a lark's head using my newly drilled orifice and finally put the original cap back on. Preserves original height of the handles (jeez, I'm already getting picky with my setup!) and you don't have to mess around with screws or shoving plastic down a hole.

Drum roll please! As usual, this drawing was done via the impartial 3rd party service on random.org... With no further delay, our winner is: JBWKD-104 I'm looking forward to sharing 3 full days of kite fun with Terry Rowley and Sandy Letson! Full drawing details - https://random.org/draws/details/?draw=68253 Deepest gratitude to all who participated, your continued support means more than you know. 🙏

You can, but on a high-end kite it may change the flying characteristics enough that it will just not fly right. The "specialty" kites like the Freestylist are built to achieve a specific balance and response from a marriage of materials and the way their weight is distributed between the span and length of the kite's dimensions. Any kite that is made with tricking as the intended quality is already on the edge of radical instability. Changing any of the components without an understanding of how the kite is designed may push it past the edge of stability and make it near impossible for even a pro to fly without making radical adjustments. It is an awesome kite that you can grow into. You don't need to baby it, just respect what it is. You will be learning to drive using a Ferrari instead of a VW Beetle, that's all. You have all that performance available to you, but you won't be able to take full advantage of it until you get a good feel for how it responds to your input. The adjustments you may need to make on the kite are like adjusting the seat, safety belts, steering wheel and mirrors of the vehicle to fit you properly so you can control where and how it goes. If the person who gave you the kite did not return the settings to neutral, it may be difficult for you to fly the first time out. We want you to succeed. For most ultralights wind up to 5mph is no issue, but you may want to make that the upper limit until you have basic control down pat. You'll be fine in 4mph winds.

I'm currently liking Jon Trennopol's thicker frame (skyShark) set in my 1.5s,.... more mass and still light enough for most all conditions. It's thicker than the end'caps so the tubes feature a plugger end piece. Paul Dugard is growing fond of them as well and he's on the stocker bridle instead of a French like me (the bridling does force a kite to bend differently, one in the center & the other on the outer 3rds of the frame) You can really spank out some killer slack lining stuff with all that mass though! I grant you, it's not an original Diamond tube for responsiveness or weight savings (from the Dantonio Days), but I'm liking it in the ShooK mesh kites and even have a full-sailed B-pro trussed up that way too. This frame REQUIRES Rev end-caps, off-branding replacements will NOT fit, so not in my Bazzer Ash. That kite has two wrap tapered down spars (SkyShark) so more weight is forced forward. What great kite he makes (shameless plug for another outstanding builder of kites) Framing is another area where the pilot can influence performance towards a specific goal. Nice STRAIGHT lines (tracking is tied to a stiffer leading edge) or suddenly powered up from slack lining (a bendy/flexible frame that quickly FILLS with energy and much easier on the pilot too) This 2nd one wants to turn within it's center. The first one wants to turn on it's end-point. Compromise? you bet, but you can lean it into one direction with framing choices. I got a ultralight weight frame made from the 5/16 inch reflex stuff from Lolly to fit one of my Zens for X-mas (i'm Jewish). I've gotta tell you, that frame rocks big time. Super responsive and it has taken a severe beating too. I did have to switch out the end-caps, but this re-framing project impressed the heck out of me. It kept the low end and raised the wind range considerably higher in that direction. I carry a big selection of framing with me and will switch a light weight frame into heavily vented kite, as well I've been known to slap a fat tube in a full sail so I don't break in flight but I'm not falling out on the edges either. I'd rather "over sail" than even be under-powered, but I've got buddies who think the opposite too. Ultimately you need to experience enough choices to make intelligent decisions about your own preferences. The joy of the quads is their unbelievable versatility. You can make 'em any way you can imagine, in looks or performance. Making your own is surely one of the most rewarding experiences. But so also is the joyful expression on a kid's face when they can "do it all by themselves".

Thanks again guys, and Paul! For the further thoughts, more valuable notes for me to take to the field next time Seems like it all boils down to "flying with intent" hehehe. Which I don't hahaha. I go with the wind. For now. well, 10 months ago I tried my hardest to stay away from kids, fearing I would lose control of my QLK and smash down on an unsuspecting little one, maybe even decapitate lines slice through them like butter. but now 10 months later, I thoroughly enjoy having the kids around, run up and chase and play with the QLK. I even taunt them jokingly and invite them over as they stare from a distance. Some have even "role played" calling it a spaceship and "shooting it down" hahaha...oh joy.. thanks Sport Kiting hobby! gonna keep practicing ^^

So it's time to start planning out my next build.. This one is going to incorporate my lessons learned from all the other builds.. Drawing is concept only and is not to scale or true to aspect ratio.. I've got the major fabric panels ready to start.. just waiting for a few more supplies to arrive in the mail before I can truly start up the piecework.. Naming it "Midnight Taboo" since I'm mixing Poly and Nylon on this one..Should be fun..

My friend gave these kites to me today. He got them from a friend who was cleaning out his garage. The first one is an Action Kites Super Sky Dart. It has no stand-offs and has a weird ‘sliding’ bridle, never seen that before. The second one is a Gibson Girl box kite from WWII. It has some holes in it, but it is very cool. Apparently Navy Sailors would use it on life rafts to hoist up a communication antenna to send SOS messages. What cool kites have you received from friends since you are maybe the only ‘kite person’ they know? Sent from my iPhone using KiteLife mobile app

Pretty cool looking quad. The red definitely makes it POP. Sent from my IPhone