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OSK is a trustworthy source, but please stay away from those too-good to-be-true eBay kites. Something sets off my Spidey sense when it's 1/3 the price of all the other kites. Maybe it's because I'm from NY, and have a 6th sense for the scam, but I never bought into that trap. I spent market $$$ for all my kites, and have not been too disappointed... I need to figure out how to replace all my Rev kites with Kite Forge kites, though. It's amazing how the kite funds dry up as the kids grow up !

🙂😄! My subdivision of that club is more specifically the BLLEC (broken lower leading edge). Are we talking tip stabs here (or an actual sustained dragging of wing tip along the ground)? Tip stabs are my number one method to make sacrifices to the spar god. The cart wheels however I have yet to discover the devastating effect of 🙂. The second method to do GKM (grievous kite harm) or to get involved in kite battering is to use long lines (on Fazer XL and XXL) and hence not seeing that a line is wrapped around a wing and then do an aggressive stand off snapping start. The third way, back in the days, to feed the grim reaper of spars, was to do snap stalls when learning the trick. The unplugged (i.e. 6mm pultruded carbon fibre tubes that had no rod/end plug glued on the inside on the ends of the LS) could snap during a “keen” snap stall in mid air. (On these kites you inserted the unplugged LS tubes into the hard centre spine fitting.)

One of the simplest moves that will get your heart pounding is to reverse flight with nose spinning towards the ground not the sky. Start mid window and work your way down the window. When you get the knack (takes awhile)you'll be right on the edge of disaster. As the nose points the other way the wing tip will drag the ground and you"re doing a shark. From there you can do other tricks like the cartwheel.Caught 2 out of 5 on the Tekken sul yesterday. Today on the Widow and Hydra none. Practicing shark based tricks will gain you a membership into the most infamous BLEC (broken leading edge club). There are no awards, pins ,trophies or ribbons. You do get a invoice for replaced parts that you can frame though. Plus a lot of folks sharing the trick or crash that gained them membership. I've only broke 3 doing cartwheels so far.That's a good thing.

9 AM Trixie showed up . About an hour later after much wobbling ,crashing and burning she got the basics . Kinda like flying a kite. Once you get the basics you're good to go. Takes some persistence though 😊.

Just a quick collage of the kites I've finished so far this year I have pictures of.

Been looking for one. If anyone is looking to sell please email me. Avellinijr@gmail.

I DID. Just took 50 years to finally do what I was told LOL.

Here's some pictures from the build. Sent from my SM-G920W8 using KiteLife mobile app

+1 vote for the Widow NG. I am a beginner, and have only flown 3 dual line kites, but the Widow NG steers and tracks better than anything else that I have tried so far. I find it really fun to fly.

There are Qunlon and Hengda on eBay besides Freilein and revolution. I an OSKUSA Freilein Vertigo from Andy at Ocean Shores Kites. Thanks to Elmo264 I finally got it flying at the kite festival Saturday.

Yes! This forum is alive and so helpful. You have confirmed that covering and uncovering vents is a workable idea that I will put into practice. 3M blue tape will work fine and easily removable. Thanks to everyone for their comments. I just remembered what adults might say to a pesky child when I was young. "Hey, kid, why don't you go fly a kite?"

3M painter's tape will serve the purpose and it leaves no adhesive residue behind to collect dust and dirt if you remove it when you are done flying. If you leave it on for extended periods it may leave some, so remove it when you are done for the day. It is not expensive and each roll will last quite a long time, so it won't break the bank if you use it often, and the amount of weight it adds to the sail is minimal.

My buddy Dave Ashworth has a quad with 3 vents built into each wing, plus velcro covers to add or remove for each. Is it as light in weight as a single skinned SUL? Well no, but after a decent start, you don't need to set-up a bunch of kites for different conditions either. As the wind increases during the day you just remove another cover. Want to experiment? Try changing which covers are opened,... how does that effect flight? A great idea that has been proven effective in variable conditions over decades. Dave is the master of creating the unobtainium for his personal use. Eventually he will let one off these masterpieces go during the club's annual holiday party (auctioned item for the benefit of the treasury) and the members of Wings over Washington Kite club fight over 'em. I have 3, all made from Orcon, A Tirips, (modified Spirit) an indoor rev 1.5 and a blast sized kite which has evolved into the Ashworth Unfair Advantage. Indoor quad and Super-ultralight outdoors (no wind!)

The Widow NG is a much more precise flying kite than anything else I have tried so far by a large margin. I cant wait to try it in lower wind. I will adjust it for sure the next time I am in that strong of wind. I really like that skybond line also. It had a good feel to it, and is so much easier to see especially in foggy or grey sky conditions like I get at the beach a lot of the time. I will be getting some other sets of it for sure. It is stronger than I thought too.

I sometimes zone out and forget about what I was trying to do, and end up just enjoying the environment, and feel of the kite in the wind. Good times! The precision flying looks like fun also.

@CaCondor, welcome to the dark side. Glad you were inspired by the Berkeley Kite Festival, and perfect timing on your post. The Bay Area Sport Kite League (BASKL) is doing a Learn to Fly workshop this Saturday Aug. 11 at Cesar Chavez Park a.k.a. the Berkeley Marina (where the kite festival was). We'll be happy to help you get that quad kite on some lines and off the ground. No kite yet? No problem. We've got a few you can fly. Some of us who were flying quad demos at the festival will be there on Saturday. Maybe you'll get to meet and learn from the very person who made an impression at the festival. We'll be there from 10am to 3pm-ish. Come for the whole day or drop by when you can. No set schedule; we help people as you show up.

Hi, CaCondor, and welcome to the forum. I'm 67, so it cost me twenty cents for the kite. The corner candy shop is where I got mine. To the park with my friends was the Saturday morning routine, then home to repair the damage. I've been flying those quads for nine years now and it still puts a smile on my face. I look forward to sharing a field with you someday.