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riff was kind enough to lend me his "A Touch of Purple" sail. All he asked for was an honest review of my opinions. Since I also happen to belong to a team, Quad Squad North West, I thought I'd pass it around and get some other thoughts as well. Here they are: 5 of 7 members present got to try it out. EVERYONE liked it! One of our members is a kite maker himself and felt that by and large, your worked passed muster! He was especially impressed by your stitching, felt it was very good. He also was one that tried it. He did notice that the center was a bit shallower than our Phoenix sails. Maybe more like the older SLE pattern? Many of us used to fly B pros before our switch to Phoenix, so we are used to Bazzer's work. I myself have flown his work for the last 6-7 years. The general consensus is it is great. One of our members that I trust very well, liked it a lot. She really tested it hard. Braking, turning, holding the load, accelerating. she gave it the works. Felt it did everything well. The ONLY thing she mentioned negative was that it seemed to need just a second to go. A pause, then no problems. Sort of like the old "turbo lag" that old cars had when the turbo was first released. Other than that one comment, everything else positive! My own impressions were just as positive. Since it takes me a second to process any info, I never noticed any lag. It was very smooth, even in winds that were possibly a bit much for it. I had a black race frame in it, might could have used a 3 wrap instead for those winds. But still it was very nice. It reminded me very much like an early Freilein I was asked to test. It was early in their production, Andy gave me one to try out and report on. Still had screen in the LE, way before the A-holes. How it would perform in a team setting, I didn't try. Since it was a practice, we all flew Phoenix together. This next weekend is a festival on the coast, I'll test it further. Maybe get the chance to fly it in a mixed crowd of other line fliers and see how it feels around other stuff. But so far - everything is pretty positive! Sorry I don't have pix - tech challenged!!

After seeing the purple framed in black I went back to the colorizer for a revisit and came up with this. Using Silver, Grape, Old Grape, Purple and Plum for the color progression. I was going to use the Wine color in the mix but it is more red than purple and kind of detracted from the overall look.

Currently my favorite shop is Ocean Shores Kites. Andy, the owner, is an avid flyer and great at repairs. I've had him fix a bunch of kites and he's very creative and capable. Nice to have a kite shop owner who knows his way around a sewing machine. They stock lots of high end kites, Duals, quads and SLKs. The SLK stuff is really great. Tons of 'biners, pulleys, sand anchors, etc and lots and lots of kites. Lifters of all types, an entire sled section, all sorts of DDCs, some double Fench Militarys, and some costum pieces as well. They also have some large inflatables to fly below a pilot. They usually have a good selection of Sky Burner duals, and all the vented revs you could want. When I'm in the mood for a new kite and don't have somethng specific in mind, I really enjoy taking a trip to Ocean Shores and buying what he has on hand, then staying a few days to fly it.