Leaderboard

This is tied in larger line to show detail.. Flying Smiles and Paul use Figure 8 knots. I do not.. personal choice. The knot becomes the reinforcement for the larks head. and when you attach it to leaders, the loop becomes the pull to open the larks head.

I'm new here. But...I'm not a newbie. I'm an expert kite pilot, even though I don't fly as much as I used to. I hope that will change with your help. Some history for context: I owned a kite store in Cocoa Beach Florida 20 years ago. I only sold Prism, and I sold a truck-load of them. I still own many Prism kites. Probably a dozen or more. From a Radian to a Vapor to special edition I2K Illusion in Red/White/Blue and everything in between. I was talking with Revolution Kites often when I opened the shop back then. I even have a special edition Y2K red/white/blue Rev. I spoke often with Mark Reed from Prism, and even got to fly new kites he was introducing. I flew 10-12 hours a day. My shop was 27 steps from the sand. I was on the beach all day. I gave flying lessons daily (learning from Bill Ochee from the Kite Loft in Ocean City Maryland) and I made unlimited free repairs for any kite you bought from me. Dodd Gross would come and practice; spending the weekend in my house. I still have a signed prototype from him. On September 11, 2001, the Terrorist attacks ended everything. I was 1 mile from the Launch pads at Cape Canaveral. I was 1 mile from Patrick Air force base. I couldn't get to my store. There were armed guards in sand-bag bunkers protecting the Space Coast. Eventually, I had no choice but to close the store. I went in another direction and although I keep flying, I have been out of touch in the kite world. I'm a lawyer now; living in Marco Island Florida. I see Kite surfing took over the world. I remember seeing the first re-launch-able kites. They were cool. Before that, the guys starting this sport had a backpack harness to bundle their wet kite in. There was no relaunching back then. I fixed many parafoils that got torn in the waves and rough surf. I had to have a lot of bridle line on hand back then. I stayed on the beach doing ground maneuvers and making my Elixir and I2k Illusion do ballet moves in the air. With the detachable Ailerons, the I2K was unstoppable in high wind when you wanted the finesse. And as far as Freestyle tricking, nothing could touch the Elixir. That was 20 years ago. I can still fly with anyone, and there are only a small group that I would consider better flyers than I am. I don't say that to pat my back. I'm getting older and don't care about those things anymore, but I say it so you can understand that I can still compete, and have no doubt I can still win; indoors or out. Speaking of Indoors...I bought so many spars and fittings from Avia Sport, that they offered to sell me their custom-made Avia Sport indoor kite that won internationals. It till has the hand-written instruction on how to use the amazing Herb Weldon active bridle. I am proud to own it. I wore out my Vapor and even starting sewing new panels on it top replace the shredded sail panels. Even after Prism fixed it twice. What a great kite... That was 20 years ago. Avia Sport doesn't exist anymore, and Prism Kites looks like they refocused on kite-boarding rather than 2-lines. With all that history, (and there is so much more), I find myself needing help. I haven't bought a kite in those 20 years. I still fly all my prisms. I want to buy new kites. My Revolutions are still in fine shape, even 20 years later. My Prisms are still in fair shape. I've beat them up and fixed them a million times, and they are still awesome to fly. But I want to buy new kites and fly regularly again. I want to lay out all the kites I have, and show people how to fly; encouraging them to pick up any kite they want to fly. I want to share the tips and tricks and stunts I learned from Doss Gross, Mark Reed, or other great flyers I met across the world. I want to show people how to execute the tricks they struggle with. This brings be back to the beginning. I'm new here. But I am not a newbie. I am an expert kite pilot and I need help. Money isn't my issue. I have the money, but the most expensive doesn't mean the best or most responsive or even worth the value in the price. I want the most responsive expert-level freestyle kites being made today. I want the kite that the best flyers in the world will take to competition. I see many posts on here about intermediate flyers wishing to crawl into the advanced kites. I even some advanced flyers talking about having mastered their intermediate kites. But I don't see much on which kites are the best of the best in the expert realm. I hope someone can bring me up to speed on what's new in the kiting world. I have a lot of time to make up, Even though I never stopped flying, I stopped being involved after that fateful day 20 years ago. I have much to give and I need some help as I launch a new beginning.

Cut a piece of cardboard into the shape you want. Bend the cardboard into the shape you want. Push a skewer through the cardboard at the point you want. Fasten a second skewer at 90 degrees to the first skewer to both the first skewer and the cardboard at the point you want.

Here we are in 2019, my first interactions with Revs as people often call them was seeing JB flying a medley. He was flying Revs, further investigations led me to the Revolution website and that dodgy video of somebody dive bombing a kid. Still further investigation led me to Club 38, try as i might I could not find the passwords beyond the first one. Later I did find a level 2 video that has since been removed. JB's free videos are all over youtube so obviously I watched all of those several times over along with just about every video he has put out there. At the back of my mind was the thought about getting one of these Revolution kites, swoopy swoopy and spins along with dives can only hold a persons attention for so long. Being dragged around by big foils is very tiring after a while and the quad varients although much more engaging are not very accurate. I do still enjoy them though. So back to my thoughts about getting a very expensive to my mind Kite. Hmm Club 38 am going to need a Gopro, often seen but never considered. Am broke most of the time but for some reason I managed to obtain a Gopro Hero 7 Black. Best deals are on the latest model as everybody and his mum wants a return on their older models. Pity these things are designed on the apple philosophy of ripping off the buyers as often as possible for little to virtually no upgrade. They only work at their best with apple phones which is typical. Easiest resale comes from owning the latest varient. I missed buying a Revolution XX by a week in Orange as for some reason the UK vendor was having trouble shifting that colour. By the time I amassed my funds prior to buying the gopro they had sold out blah! I ended up buying a clone of the classic b series. Now even though I enjoy watching JB's videos they are not structured in the same way that Club 38's are. Problem was I didnt own a Rev so could not partake of Club 38. All my flying was random disconected solo and very destructive, destroyed my entire leading edge over 3 outings. Luckily my kites creator took parital responsibilty due to not having branded tubes that were .5mm larger than the verticals. I consequently sold that copy b series kite as did not feel like I was part of anything owning it. Still at the forefront of my mind was buying a genuine Rev. Bill Clay's winge about his XX put me right off the idea of buying one of those as thought the XX was Reflex only so I opted for the RX. Only later did I find out that Reflex can be disabled and the XX was merely a large low wind designed kite. Joe Hadzicki offered me a custom that basically amounted to the UK price once shipped, I couldn't refuse the chance of a Red White and Blue RX signed by its creator and family. I joined Club 38's facebook page and my experience so far has been awesome, as JB says even though Joes teaching is not on par with his own due to Joes formulaic approach, whereas JB's is more of a personal approach the teaching is still structured so in that way is beneficial especially to the newbie. So Joe uses a script so what, he is getting on in years you know. Just like the rest of us his age, his memory is shot to sh*t. He could have suffered a mild stroke you would'nt know. Give the guy a break, if it werent for him and his Revs you maybe wouldnt be all the c*ck sure fliers of His designed kites you are today, respect where respect is due. As for Club 38 it aint perfect, Joes videos could do with some of JB's inspriation and certainly somebody better at pointing the camera in the right direction. The support by fellow fliers and newbie learners is cool and there are still dozens of owners out there who dont have a clue about any free training. Joe sells the complete package, it might have taken him a while to make it presentable, it might not be perfect but I like it and I along with many others thinks its cool 🖕