John Barresi

What I've really become fond of is a VENTED Rev 1 with 2 or 3 wrap frames in lighter winds... Something about the vented model, it's just smoother and far more adept at reverse flight. Doing this, I flew my BEST precision freestyle ever at AKA Grand Nationals this year.

My two cents... Once you get comfortable with the 1.5, nothing offers better quad precision ability than the Revolution 1... It took 1st place in both Masters ballet and precision at the 2004 AKA Grand Nationals.

Welcome Sam!! Indeed, long time no see... Good to have you here.

IMHO, I'd recommend the SLE 1.5... It offers far more control, and ability to do intricate manuevers. I also feel that there is ultimately much more to learn, more depth to the flight. What the Supersonic offers is less control, and faster flight... Again, only in my experience, it's a good "exciting kite" for zipping around the sky with.

My experiences with the Desire showed that it starts to lose it's shape as you get in anything over 10-12mph... The pultruded frame just doesn't lock in.

I emailed Norm at WindPower Sports as well, so we'll get information one way or another.

The ring is based on sites using a specific link (code) the hub on their home page... Sometimes they'll get deactivated if the code isn't found. Not sure what happened with TKO, but they are reinstated now.

All very sensible comments that we'll take into account in our next review... But I have to say, I'm focusing on adding some tricks to my bag for 2005... We'll see if we can't change that reputation to precision/ballet/tricks flier.

I am pleased to let you all know that I'll be doing daily updates from the KTAI trade show in Nevada during the week of January 9-16... Most likely we'll be uploading reports on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Be sure to stop by and check out the latest products, before anyone else does! URL will be posted, and I'll have a link on the home page.

Delta Park... West side, by the raceway. Today it was the four of us (TKS Mid-Air), Theresa from The Kite Shoppe, my assistant editor (Geezer) and Doc Counce... We're out there nearly every Sunday. Scott, Theresa and I will be absent the next two Sundays (9th & 16th) as we'll be at the KTAI trade show in Nevada for that week.

I hope he has his Depends on! ROFL

I'm laughing on both counts... Cheers!

The only reference that comes to mind is a diplomat who also gets things accomplished... David Gomberg is a great example. A surprising majority of people "dump out" what's on their mind without formatting in such a way that it best hits home for every reader... For me, posting on a forum is like sipping wine... I swish it around in my mouth, I spit it out, I taste it again, until it finally tastes right and might be appreciated and understood by the largest number of readers - regardless of whether or not they agree. I never thought you were truly being spiteful, just a bit raw in context (which you have gracefully acknowledged). As for a Trole/Troll... It is definitely not the same as free speech (no reference to you here), trolling is a bit like turrets syndrome... Just blurting, without a real goal... Just spouting for any number of reasons... Personal angst, desire for attention, a clumsy need to be a part of something, or being just plain mean for the sake of being mean. While the way you presented it threw people off (myself included), I don't think anyone here could say that you didn't believe in what you were saying.

You hit it right on the head... Lots of work to do, but it moves me. Well, if you figure anywhere from 5MB-10MB per issue, and 50 issues... That is a lot of hosting space and bandwidth going to use. We could definitely use help via more subscribers!

This smoothes things out nicely for me... I value everyone's input, and only object to the casual way so many people speak roughly or convey themselves to each other with angst these days. Everything important should be considered, from all perspectives while at the same time maintaining your own. This approach simply opens to door for people to listen, and take the information for what it's worth to them. At the end of the day, we're talking about the same thing here... It's a matter of presentation, always.

Right on! Thanks for your input... I'll have to check it out, but probably won't get to it until after KTAI, at the end of January.

Mario, you say you "voice the opinions of others"... But always end up stating your opinions as absolute fact without asking others in a forum what they thought of something before attacking the people you hold at fault. That makes it your opinion. Nevermind constructive criticism! It's not your opinion I actually have a problem with, it's your delivery. Rude attacks rarely solve anything, and merely inflame the people actually trying to do the work that other people can share in. So... Let me be the one: To all readers, what is your honest opinion of the Big Bang review? As you've seen, we are genuinely interested in viable critique.

You'll also now find another video in our demo area... Of Lee & Debbie Park performing together at the same event, beautiful stuff! http://www.kitelife.com/videos/demos.htm

You can say GWTW here, we're not biased when it comes down to it. Well, while I acknowledge your views... We asked a number of fliers (who had not flown it before) to rate the Big Bang based purely on what they read in the review, and we got an average 75-80 out of 100 back from them. I'm not sure what you read "between the lines", but Brent seemed to give a fair review of the kite... Stating when all was said and done that it is a very solid kite, particularly for the price. The key with reviews, they're done by individuals... And are for consumption of the reader, take it or leave it. I have to say that my initial reaction to your posting put me off a bit, simply because as a publisher, I take great lengths to ensure that everything and everyone is treated fairly... It seemed to me that you were saying our views are slanted. We don't do reviews... However, we do recruit known and respected fliers to convey their personal experiences with a kite into reviews for us. At this point, New Tech is simply not marketing "top of the line" high end kites... Everything they produce at this time is at a very reasonable price point, and are all solid kites for the money. You will not however, see their kites winning top three in competition just yet... Dodd clearly isn't tailoring his designs to that market at the current time.

The haters huh?

Using a broadband connection, is there any of that annoying lag time that I've experienced on other telephony programs?

You'll find all 11 competition routines that were flown here... http://www.kitelife.com/videos Enjoy!

Doesn't seem like it, but I haven't been posting a whole lot either... I imagine it'll pick up in the new year.

Merv will be sorely missed.

There is another, easier way Wen... When you are posting a new message (or reply) here, look down the page a ways for a little button that says "Browse..." - Click that, find the picture you want to post in the window that pops up and click OK. Now you should see the path to that file near the Browse button (like C:\blah\blah\blah.jpg)... When you finish your message, just click on post and the image should get added to your posting.