monkey
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Posts posted by monkey
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33 minutes ago, John Barresi said:
Aye, we were on SLE sails for our first full season (2007) before the B-Series was released, but never SLE spars.
Except for DeRooy at the first WSIKF!
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On 2/6/2017 at 5:18 PM, Wayne Dowler said:
If I remember some of the really old videos - iQuad used SLEs in their early days. Even before the "B" made its appearance on the beach!
Not true ;-) The initial iQuad days involved Rev1s for the first couple of months, but they were not loaded with SLEs. We did move fairly quickly to 1.5s and those didn't have SLEs in them either.
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EVERY year, I dread this particular edition of Revisions. Without fail, it strikes fear into my monkey heart and I delay on it and delay on it, hoping to come up with some manner of a coherent idea to float a column on. Why you may ask? Simple. It’s the WINTER DOLDRUMS EDITION! Typically, once Lincoln City’s Fall Fest ( a blast as always! ) wraps up, I am pretty much eventless until South Padre Island rolls around at the beginning of February. Nothing. Nada. No festivals, no events, no flights to exotic lands (such as Grand Haven in May…) and the worst part of all, cold weather.
In the Pacific Northwest, we are blessed with a somewhat mild winter for the most part. While much of Canada digs out from under the snow for most of the winter, and grand swathes of the US do pretty much the same thing, we here in Lotusland really don’t get an awful lot of snow. Sometimes, sure, and sometimes, very heavy snow but, in general, you can survive the Northwest without putting snow tires on your car. But, that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t get pretty darn chilly. Which, isn’t very conducive to good kite flying, or, at least, “enjoyable” kite flying.
That being said, there is ONE “mini” event every year around this time, the Annual Snow Queens Rev fly, held right here in Vancouver, or more specifically, Steveston, a chunk of Richmond. We do it every year now, despite only ever having actual snow the very first year. But with a little luck, the pond will be frozen again so we can skate some Revs across it. As I glance at the weather forecast for the upcoming weekend (which is mere days away, I told you I left this to the very very last minute…) it looks like we very well may have some ice on the pond! Hoooray for that!
Ok, so, now I’m back to being out of events for the winter. So, what do I do? Besides twiddle my thumbs? I think about the year that has gone by, and the year that is to come. While iQuad did a “few” less events last year, I’d be hard pressed to call it a dull year for us. We managed to notch up 100 festivals in 5 years, culminating with a celebration in Bintulu, Malaysia, as part of the Borneo International Kite Festival. We put on a couple more great clinics (Singapore, and the ever popular March one in Long Beach Washington). We taught people, we showed people what’s possible with their Revs and, we learned from others what is possible as well. All in all, I’d call it a great year. We made Willow Robin a full time member of the team, demonstrating just how far one can go with their flying when they put the time and work into the skill set.
And for the year ahead, more of the same looks to be on the menu. We’ve already sold out the Rev clinic in Long Beach for mid March (wow, the quickest sellout of that clinic ever, it was full in the stretch of a few days, thank YOU, I can’t wait!) and we’re mulling over what events we will get to in this coming year. WSIKF is a given, that’s for sure. Antelope Island, Brookings, Pacific Rim, those are ones we know we’ll be doing in some configuration but we usually don’t nail down specifics until January at the earliest.
Given John has managed to move all the articles to a new flashy format, starting with this issue (and be sure to check out the old back issues he’s been bringing back online as well, there is a treasure trove of inspiration, ideas, and great pictures!), let’s try something with the new format. Since you can now all comment and post regarding any article that’s presented, what would YOU the loyal readers of Revisions like to see addressed in my next issue, slated for February 1st, 2012? Let me know and I’ll deal with the most popular questions and ideas.
Until then, chilly breezes in the Northwest!
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Last year, if you go back through the Kitelife issue archives, you will find two stories I wrote regarding my trip to the Borneo International Kite Festival, the 6th annual running of this festival. When I left last year, I’d made a promise to a few of the Bintulu flyers that I would do everything within my power to bring all of iQuad back for the next year. And you know, it took pretty much an entire year to make that happen but, sure enough, 6 of us took off from Vancouver to head over to Malaysia on Sept. 14th. The trip itself took 8 flights across 5 cities to complete, with a stop in Singapore to run the first ever iQuad clinic in Asia (see last month’s Revisions article for more on this) with the next stop being Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur (or, KL as it’s commonly referred to by it’s residents) was to be our first “rest” stop, acting as a break between the clinic in Singapore and the 7th Annual Borneo International Kite Festival over on the Borneo island, a few days later. We arrived mid morning after a short flight back from Singapore and managed to get ourselves onto a bus that took us a mere (long) block from our hotel, situated pretty much dead center in downtown KL. Mere blocks away from Chinatown and Little India, this proved to be an ideal location with plenty of food and shop options nearby.
After a quick settling in and a drop off at the local laundry shop, it was off to get a look at the city. We were met by my stellar companion from last year, Mr. Chris Tan who with the help of another local flyer (Hi Azihar!) managed to take us down to a local shopping area chock full of local crafts and gifts. We also met up with Penny Lingenfelter who’d be with us for the rest of our trip. Always better to experience such a place with friends!The plan for the evening was simple. Devour as many sticks of satay as humanly possible with a good sized group of the local KL flowers. The neighborhood we were in is toted as being the birthplace of satay and wow was it delicious! We managed to devour a small bamboo forest of sticks between the group of us and for dessert we tested out a set of handheld lasers up against a building to see how they would work as a practice method for the team. Our verdict? A great approach provided it wasn’t too light out. One our way back, we endeavored to find some durian for John to try out (to no avail) and a stop to check out the Petronas Towers around midnight. These used to be the tallest buildings in the world, and I think they are still in the #2 spot. They are a beautiful site to see at any time of the day, however in the evening, they glitter and shine and you can see them from miles around the downtown. Our plan was to scout possible spots to fly in and around the towers at some point during our visit. Monday was certainly what I’d call a full day, by the time we got back to the hotel we were all utterly exhausted.
Tuesday rolled around and after a leisurely start to the day (coffee and kaya toast at the local Old House White Coffee place, the local equivalent and vastly superior version of Starbucks in KL), we were set for another day of adventuring. On the morning’s agenda was a trip to the Batu Caves, just north of KL.
When my wife and I had visited last year, I got an idea in my head that it may be an ideal place for some indoor flying. John and Chris Tan went off to negotiate such an idea (you want to what in our caves?) and with a little luck and good dialog, permission was granted. What an opportunity! The indoor Revs came out and we all got a chance to fly inside this amazing space. Truly a memorable visit to this complex. People were bewildered as we guided the kites through the caves and outside near the base of the massive statue of Murugan. We managed to capture a lot of video of this which will see the light of day at some point soon.
After a quick stop for some true Malay food on our way back from the caves, we stopped at a small park just outside of downtown, one of the favored local flying spots to try and get in some practice on short lines, with a stunning view of downtown KL in the background. While iQuad got some flying in, Penny managed to teach a small group of children how to fly one of her indoor Revs. It wasn’t terribly windy at this particular location but, it was certainly good enough to get some flying in. Next stop, the base of the Petronas Towers to try and get some street flying in there. We were somewhat successful with this, however, usually about the time the tower security would see a kite go up, we’d usually find ourselves moving off elsewhere to try again. Fun, but, not as much fun as we had hoped for but, you make do with what you get. An early evening dinner at one of the Indian restaurants within the Little India section of KL and once again, we found ourselves utterly worn out, ready for a good sleep before heading over to Bintulu the next morning.
After a quick repack of all of our stuff, we headed back out to the Kuala Lumpur airport, this time with the island of Borneo being our destination. Upon getting to the airport we found it overrun with other kite flyers. The afternoon flight to Bintulu had more than 60 kite flyers on board from around the world. Good thing the plane didn’t go down! With over 100 flyers and 30 countries represented, I’m sure a couple of flights had a good collection of flyers on it, and an awful lot of kite bags. We arrived in the early evening and after a short bus trip into the town, we had made it! I confess to being a little overwhelmed at this point. After a years worth of work, we’d finally made it back to the festival that I had so enjoyed the year before. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, cracked open a wide smile and Bazzer and I went off to find our room. When we came back down to the lobby, the organizers had unveiled a long banner, celebrating iQuad’s 100th festival, in it’s first five years. You could have knocked us over with a feather, it was such a great surprise and a big honor as well. Then I really did get a little overwhelmed.
Nothing was really on the agenda for the evening besides a meeting of all the flyers with the organizers, a pre festival meet and greet where the countries and people involved would get introduced and a rough guide to what was happening during the next few days was shown to us. It looked like a busy few days but, a really enjoyable time as well. The festival organizers were certainly more organized this year, they had all the information one would need readily assembled and all knew where they had to be and when they’d need to be there. The next day would involve a visit to a local native Longhouse and a large fighter kite competition in the afternoon. Sounded like a good restful day to me!
After a breakfast at the buffet the festival sets up every morning for the flyers, a large contingent of flyers piled onto a handful of buses to take the trip out to the country side, to visit a longhouse where the local native people, the Iban, make their homes. They showed all of us some examples of the work they do and put on a demonstration of some of their dance and music traditions.
After sampling some of their home made rice wine and participating in some local dancing traditions, it was back to the hotel for us, and eventually down to the field. The festival itself is held on an old airport runway, the airport itself used to be the only airport in Bintulu and was in the Guinness book of world records for being the closest airport to a downtown core in the world. A map below shows you just how close it is.
We had thought the sole activity for the afternoon was to be a fighter kite competition, so our plan was to bring down the Revs and just have a loose afternoon of fun flying, and some of us had signed up to be fodder for the fighter kite comp. However, once we were down there, it was announced that there’d be demonstrations by the teams that were there, namely us, Team Air Rex out of Japan and Airnergy from Singapore. We were somewhat unprepared for this, with no radios, no music and next to no preparation. While all of these things could be easily dealt with, there was next to no wind either, making it extra difficult to mount anything resembling a respectable fly out of the team. All in all, it made for a rather disheartening afternoon in that respect, having really never gotten a break from the wind the entire day. But, that’s how it goes sometimes as anyone who’s been to a festival will know. But, Steve Re Rooy and I fared somewhat better in the fighter kite competition, with both of us making it through the first round and into the second. After this however, we became the fodder we figured we’d be.
The evening saw the organizers throwing a small party on behalf of iQuad, marking our 100th festival, at a local Chinese restaurant. More than 60 flyers attended and there was much merriment and celebration with prizes under all the table cloths, a trivia contest and as a final nicety, John gave away a Rev B Series package to the youngest flyer who did not own an actual Rev. Pretty sweet prize!
For what happens over the next few days, pop back for the next issue of Kitelife, where I’ll get into the actual festival as it happened over 3 days… -
She also had her very first CANADIAN birthday too! We treated her well!
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Here is a an article on the fight between You Tube and WMG. http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090720/tc_nm/us_warnermusic_youtube_3
There is hope that there will be peace in the valley someday and us kite videographers won't be on the short end of the stick.
While there certainly is some hope in an article like this, my worry is what they are negotiating is simply music vidoes by the artists themselves over where other people use music for other purposes. But, it's bear watching close and thanks for the update.
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SORRY. Another noobie question.are the vents in the wings to increase the wind range,as in other kites.or do they help the kite to do quad kite stuff.
The reason i ask is because i dont know.But also, THOSE VENTS ARE HUGE. They look to be maybe 1/2 to 1/3 that big on the T.C.U2, which is the one i ordered. YOU HAVE KITE AWESOMENESS THERE. I love the color of that sail.
Yes, I do believe the vents increase the wind range although I think the placement on the ultra keeps the wing tips from rattling in the higher winds. I don't think they affect doing quad stuff. I am surprised how well it handles the higher winds since it's not a very heavy kite, but it will still hang in there in a lighter wind. Thanks again:) Please feel free to ask as many questions as you wish:).
In fact, they DO affect the quad performance, they make a reverse flight a little smoother.
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Thanks monkey. thats good to know. I already figured some aspect of it would be flawed.
But i am still gonna enjoy the time i spend flying it.
I figure the only bad kite is one that wont stay in the air.
Since you enjoyed yours,i know i will also.I think its hard not to have a great time flying a kite.
OTHER PEOPLE WILLING.
It's very definitely a flyable kite and unique in its experience. I should dust mine off again sometime soon just to see what it was like again.
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I know that the times I've "babysat" the forums while John has been jetting around, I've been stunned with the sheer volume of mostly obvious spammers that try to get onto boards. It's most definitely increased over the past years.
For others reading this thread, the reason why that these people continually try centers around Google rankings. The more their URL shows up in stats on Google, the better those spam sites will do.
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THANKS FOLKS FOR THE INFORMATION. But i already ordered the kite.
I know i have only been flying kites for a couple of months,but i am just crazy about holding those lines.
I know that there will be some sort of compromise,inherent in the design, BUT YOU NEVER KNOW.
This may be the kite for me.
I will keep you all posted about how it working. Thanks, BEN.
My first quad was in fact a pair of TC Ultras, back when they were hand made by TC himself. Fun kites, I still have the SUL one but it rarely comes out these days.
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Ok, I added in the Pacrim festival. Can't wait!
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Right, pretty clear it's a local issue for me specifically.
Thanks all!
The proper technical term for this anomaly is...
PEBCAK
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Have a great birthday tristan!
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I'm fine as well.
But, I stole your cookies.
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No real worries, I understand... Just pouting a little.
Thanks for putting it together, regardless.
if you are nice, I may show it to you on my Mac that can run windows ;-)
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what a punk.
Seriosuly, great job with the flying. It's funny, the very first rev I saw flown indoors was a II, nice to see someone using one indoors again! Nice looking kite too!
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Seeya there, we can't wait!
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David Davies, designer and maker of the Skydancer range of quad line kites produced by his Interactive Kites brand, passed away peacefully at home on the 11th of November 2008, after a brief struggle with cancer.
The creator of a unique kite that performs like no other, and especially with his trademark twin tails fitted, creates a unique spectacle on any flying field, will be sorely missed by all those who knew him and fly his kites.
His son is hoping to secure continued production of his kites as a lasting memorial to him.
Would it be possible for anyone to share some stories about David and some pictures so we could run an Empty Spaces piece in the next Kitelife issue?
Muchly appreciated, thanks! He'll be missed.
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Aw shucks, thanks! I had a lot of fun doing it this time around and I'm really glad people enjoy them, that makes it all the more worthwhile!
Missed you at Nationals Donna!
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The only real quirk is it's simply not a Revolution. Its a neat kite and flys really well, but, its sole comparision to a rev is being controlled by 4 lines. I bet its a pile of fun to fly.
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Once you've got a solid grip on the rudiments, then flying around the sky at full speed takes on a whole new meaning, total control. <grin>
hack.
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OOO does this mean I get to print up some iClod shirts??
I like how I'm about to sit on purple's head!
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You gotta laugh
Rx
LOL! That's great... except you never see it happen to THEM!
I've seen it firsthand! But, when ya fly the tailgun, you don't miss much action. Ideally, I get to stop before piling into a mess.
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Lynn and I are probable for Ocean Shores. I say "probable" due to issues with Lynn's 99 year old father. We can't leave Southern California until the last week of July, so will miss Brookings, but are probable for Berkeley. We have RV reservations at Ocean Shores and WSIKF.
Gotta make sure the old guy is well taken care of.
Indeed. I'm hoping all goes well and I'll see you two at Summer Heat as well.
:-)
Quiet word from the admin...
in News from the Webmaster
Posted
Peace and love from me. *hugs*