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@Cot51stState I plan to hit the Atlantic Beach event as well. You'll have my entire bag to choose from.. No Zen (and very few Revs at this point) but lots of options to choose from.

Yeah, right in the thick of things or next door... New is only the first ten minutes, then it is experienced! Map is hard to read, but there is certainly an area outside of the four or five designated fields "open to the public". You ain't one of them for long if you're a quad-head though, you belong in with the rest of us. It is only intimidating that first karate lesson, thereafter you'd know what to expect from your peers and the classroom/field/dojo environment. In the meantime? Drop your four lines onto a well-placed stake or fence-post (use a carabiner) and make certain they align perfectly when pulled back tightly. Sight down the lines like an archer, from tight, slowly give slack and the longer line will show itself. Do the tops and then separately do the bottom comparisons. Obviously you must first hold both handles exactly next to each other (I even use opposite hands holding the handles). Switch line locations on the leaders, retie knots or move the sleeving, do whatever you have to to get this alignment the absolute best you possible can. It's the difference between neutral steering and the car suddenly veering right due to a front-end misalignment at high speed. You can MAKE it go straight, but I want it to want to do that all by itself unless you tell it otherwise. Wait for my command, execute it perfectly, then I'll give you some other mission, that is your role as the pilot of a quad. Neutral, patient, effortless hover, the kite is actually balanced on a single finger tip of each handle, not held in your grasp. Show up with your equipment in a state of being the best prepared possible. Then use other people's kites anyway and join in!

We'll miss you too my friend! my preference is "inverted" 'cause if a kite won't back-up then two strings are no longer necessary. In competition that phrase is called the quad-line effect. You ain't gettin' a good score w/o it!!!! Keep adding "down" to your tuning until the kite will back-up inverted. You might be walking backwards to make this effect look correct and stationary (only truly stationary as is relevant to you as the flyer and to own your positioning) Go visit flying smiles kites in Corolla and fly with the Shooks, they have an extensive collection of experiences you can test for yourself side by side in comparisons too. They'll have as much fun as you sharing the knowledge.

Several WoW quad-heads will be attending LBI, so the opportunity to experience a half dozen variations is there at any moment, each pilot thinks he has "the hot set-up" too, perfect for today's conditions. Well? How did you like to do a comparison flying each one's efforts? Paul Dugard, James (Fletch) Fletcher, Dave Humes, Jim Cosca, Marc Conklin, myself. None of these folks has a single kite to fit the day's conditions, oh no, choices are available from each party. It doesn't matter why it feels better or worse, just that you got to decide for yourself on a preference. Tomorrow it might be somebody else's toy.

Watch? Come on Rob, if you can hold a stationary hover inverted you are one of us. Imagine you can only move the kite between the sofa and TV in the living room for depth, only as far up and down as the floor and ceiling. That width of the room is entirely yours too! This is your 3-D area, can you stay there in any orientation asked of the caller? If not practice now or alter something in your set-up to accomplish this feat. Lighter frame, different tuning on the leaders, etc come hang with us and it won't be intimidating after an hour. We've got a couple of days worth of practice time, a few hours each afternoon. Test out some else's ride and see how it feels. Everyone shares and that is the best experience to obtain. See you there and YES I have indoor quads for you to bang into the floor, so don't say you cannot fly inside either! That is 5 minutes away from your first touching of the kite.

Dominic's grid gents?