JoneZ

We have a bunch of extra Linen fabric left over from making pillows for our wedding, so I have decided to make some kite sleeves out of the remainders. They come in 2 colors; plum purple, and a vibrant dark lime green (think jewel tones). The opening can double over and velcro together (see pic) or I can just make the velcro pinch shut at the top of the sleeve. The pocket (if installed) is also velcro'd shut. The Sleeve itself costs $10 + shipping. $14 + shipping for a sewn in pocket (for linesets, stakes etc...) I can make your sleeve to a custom length (for rev's, duals, singles, etc...) or make a standard 65" sleeve, you decide. The maximum width I can make would be approx. 7 inches. (paypal add 4%) I've got enough material to make approx. 10-12 sleeves @ 65" per sleeve (maybe more, I'm not sure yet - we still have to finish cutting the fabric for the green pillows). I've attached a few pictures of the first one I've designed (There's still a little QC that needs to be done with the excess sewing string), as well as the color sample for a green sleeve. They're not perfect, but they are hand made, and in colors that you wouldn't be able to find anywhere else (unless you made your own). Your money will go directly to our Wedding Fund, so this is kind of a 'non-profit' project I've done to rake in some extra cash for my Wedding. PM me for more info. Thanks!! Jon

That sucks m8.. I feel you. At my local field, there is this kid who is there about 75% of the time named hoolio -- must be 9-11 years old -- no manors or respect at all. He's constantly digging through my kite bag, pulling sh** out, unwrapping my kites, no matter how many times I tell him to not do it. Its like he has the memory retention of a squid -- every time I have at him about rifling through my things, its like its the first time he's ever heard me yell at him. Pretty frustrating, yet nothing like you went through bro. Any news on that? Have you found that guy, or the kids?

Agree, with a but. Media is a huge part of the demise of today's society, children and parents alike. There's been that draft in media since the mid 80's (as far back as my media history goes anyhow) to bring drama to the table -- to sweat the little things -- to be a good little consumer and succumb to greed, to keep the mind and spirit and body occupied with stuff and things, and more stuff-and-things -- to wake up, work the typical 9 to 5, come home, watch TV, eat dinner, watch some more TV, Sleep. Wash Rinse Repeat. All to keep a society docile, complacent, dumb and numb. And let's face it, they make it pretty attractive, and its not hard to get sucked into it. Come on,,,,,, we all know most of you have a dirty little reality TV show secret. I can't help but fall for it myself. But we are much wiser in that aspect as to note it for what it really is, and not get sucked into the abyss. Now, if these parents in question renounced the above, and were actually spending time with their kids parenting, paying attention to them,, schooling them about life, raising them to be caring and strong individuals, and most importantly, monitoring their access to the media, then I'm sure the children would be much different. So yes, blame the parents, and also note the common root of societal demise. Sadly, and a little sick to my stomach; ~Jon

Kids have TOO many rights these days. They know it, and they exploit it.. Simple as that. Time to break out the wooden spoons people! ...I blame Rap Music, and reality TV,,, ah hell,, I blame media in general... Its a shame you had to go through that m8. I hope the police can resolve this matter..

Think I'll support the Chinese Mecca: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?...;ci_sku=9714694 Looks like a pretty good buy

I ended up just grinding it down, but Im still interested in other ways asides from a Dremmel that would work.

I know using a dremmel would be the best way, but I just don't have one, and need to cut a new spar for my Widow. Anyone have any suggestions? All else fails Im just gonna grind the 5" off with some 80grit. hehe

I seem to remember about 2 weeks ago when I snapped the center T ferrule out of my Widow as well. I have since deleted the pics from that one, but you can imagine the carnage... ~Jon

Back in the day, when I was into extreme rollerblading and BMX biking, We always rode around with this kid names Lee. Lee was the most unlucky guy that we all knew. He was always the one to bail on a jump, or bake face first into the cement, or somehow break off a tooth in his gears. Anything that could happen to him, eventually did happen to him. We decided to get some pictures together in a book: Lee's Misfortunes. We gave it to him as an Xmas gift one year. Good Times. To Honor that spirit, I am starting "Jons Misfortunes":: A Chronicle of my own personal Kite Deaths. Lets face it, I've had a lot. And this one that just happened is what prompted me to start this. --I was practicing a few different tricks out on a high school field today -- Some Jacobs ladders (now that I've actually got the feel for the movements), tip stabs, coin toss, and some yoyo action. Well during my coin toss practicing, I ended up taking the walk of shame. I grabbed my kite, and was walking it forward to gain some ground that I had lost, when my leg bumped up against my leading edge, and it broke like a waffle cone inbetween a pair of fingers. I laughed,, then laughed some more when I thought of our old friend Lee, and seeing his face all road rashed from doing a front endo onto asphault. If that hadn't popped into my mind I think I would have been a little more irritated. I wish you could cue up music in this forum. Just think of some goofy clown music while reading. Heres the broken Leading edge from todays misfortune. Heres one from way back when my old Quantum met his match with a picnic table: Heres when my new Quantum met its match with my Wife-to-be More to Follow Im sure. Til Next time!! ~Jon

Holy Crap do I ever feel like a Jerk for missing this post.!! lol Hope you had a great one Happy Belated Birthday John! heheh ~Jon

Not sure when I'll be back up. Are you going to the Lincoln City Summer Festival? June 27 and 28th I think. <-- Mr. Short Term Memory it seems. lol I WISH I could go to that festival, but my wedding is the very next weekend. Things are already pretty crazy around here, so I can't see them getting any easier in the coming weeks. Sucks that I can't go,, I hear Lam Hoac is going to be there doing a seminar. =\ Damn wedding getting in the way...... KIDDING!!!!! hehe ~Jon

Heres that video I mentioned. Shes a loud girl http://vimeo.com/5089065

I noticed the same thing when practicing axles and 540's. I often snag my line on a tip while pulling off multiple axles, and single slot machines. Im giving enough slack, its just the way it wants to flatspin. I have to give more slack than I feel necessary for a good recovery some of the time. thanks for grabbing those measurements ~Jon

My Widow was SO loud before I put a leech line in it. anything above 8Mph and is was like a straight pipe engine. The forward drive is great on her though. In high wind she didn't perform well at all before the leech line was installed. I just found a another older video pre-leech line, I'll try and get it uploaded so you can hear how loud it was. Im interested in your bridle. What knot on the upper LE do you larkshead to. I like the 2nd knot, except for the nose wanting to rock back if I have to pump the kite. I find that even on the 4th knot (farthest away from the nose) theres still rocking when I pump in light wind, which I find odd (Just on tests, I never use that knot in light winds. Although its easier to run 360's with it on the 4th). After watching your vid, I went out today -- a little inspired -- and flew great (was listening to some Mogwai -- great band). I actually pulled off 1 rung of a jacobs ladder. And it wasnt by accident. lol I need to get my camera out there again sometime and shoot some video. Im interested in your bridle measurements (Im assuming you're on a 3 point bridle). could I ask you what your measurements are on all the legs? I know thats kind of a pain, but I'd like to compare. cheers m8. ~Jon

Thats a great vid m8. I love to see the widow in action. It gives me a frame of mind on what the kite can do, and how it handles. I am now feeling that my inputs are still a bit to harsh, by looking at the fluidity of your tricks. I need to learn how to tone down my spank and yank mentality. Im learning slowly, but I always end up getting ahead of myself in that dept. With me, its all winding down to holding fades, snap stalls, and side slides. The more I practice those it seems, the more fluent I become with my Kite. I also think I could use another weekend out at delta park with John B. I tend to learn better with an instructor, rather then videos. I mean, Randy G's vids are great, but its just not the same -- bringing my Archos out into the field, and squinting to watch these vids on a 3.5" screen, then trying to tackle them with no input as to what I am doing right/wrong. Make some more videos with the widow bro. You're an excellent Pilot. Oh, if you feel ambitious, try installing a leech line in the widow. Quiets her down, and makes her handle a bit better. I also replaced the nock ferrules with hollow core ferrules. Less weight concentrated at the wingtips. -cheers ~Jon

I've got a couple n00b vids if you check my profile. They're pretty old, and I've progressed much since getting the Widow. Im curious, what have your experiences been with the Widow. Pros, Cons, mods, etc...? Also, in reference to the above topic, have you toyed around with an alternate bridle setup like a dynamic/turbo bridle, or cross active, etc...? -cheers m8 ~Jon

Right. Thats what I've called a dynamic bridle. I had messed around with that setup a little, but never had any success. I was thinking about writing someone at Premier, seeing if anyone has a dynamis setup measurement. Doubt it though. ~Jon

Would enjoy some pis m8. Thanks. I've heard a couple different definitions of a turbo bridle. One was what I call a dynamic bridle -- where you make a yoke with the outhaul and attach it to the inner leg. Then theres another one where you take a separate piece of line, taking one end and attaching it to the upper leading edge, just above the fitting, and the other end attaches to the inner leg, just below the tow point pulling the leg in a little. Which are you referring to? Either way I've tried both, with not much success. I just don't know enough about bridling yet to be sure about measurements and scaling. Would love to sit down for an aft. with ya and chew the fat on it, maybe test some setups out. ~Jon

Enlighten me. I notice my lower LE's flex in higher winds, although Im thinking thats from the leech line. But I did just put a crack in my P200's (I used a hollow core ferrule as the center T, which shredded, causing the P200's to fracture Im sure) and P300 lower spreaders (that one happened just this weekend at the beach. about a 1/4" fracture on the side that inserts over the center T ferrule (which is a solid core). ~Jon PS. When u headin back up to Portland?

Very Nice. I will most certainly do that. Im pretty busy most weekends, with my upcoming wedding on July 3rd, but if I can make it up there on a sat. or sun. I'll be sure to give you a PM a day before. ~Jon

thread = owned. Was at Cannon Beach Oregon again this weekend, and stopped by my favorite kite shop. The Kite Factory. I recommend this shop to anyone going out that way to the beach. It's run by a guy named "Wizard". I bought my first sport kite there, and a bunch of single lines. He's a good good friend, and one of the coolest cats I've met since I've moved to Oregon. I wanted to buy 50 feet of bulk 50# laser gold spectra. He ended up giving me 80feet for 10$, throwing in some lightweight hand straps and threw in about 20 feet of 80# polyester braided spectra to boot! So,, I decided to make a lightweight bridle out of the braided spectra for my Widow. I Just installed it today. The bridle weighs less than 1 gram, as opposed to the original bridle which weighs in at a whopping 8 grams. I took it out today to stretch it out. The winds were about 1-2Mph (gauged by a nearby flag, which was barely getting lift off the pole), and I strapped the new bridle on, with an 80 foot 50# lineset and took off. To my surprise, that sucker took off like I lit its ass on fire! On a day that I normally would pack it all in, and stomp off my field, I was running 360's, trickin flic flacs, lazys, yoyo's, 540's, etc... I flew for about 1 1/2 hours -- the bridle stretched out about 1/4" or so, so I compensated, and relaunched. Flew like a dream. Since I do not have a UL or an SUL I was prompted to rebridle the widow for light wind conditions, and I am not at all disappointed. The Widow's stock bridle on the inhaul and lower outhaul were just larksheaded to the frame, so I had to make pigtails on the lower LE and the spine for quick release points. I made them small enough so they only brought the bridle out 1/4" -- just enough so that I just have to tie another overhand knot on the inhaul and lower outahuls loop points to make up for the 1/4" pigtails. I made small pull tabs on all the inhaul/outhaul lines of the lightweight bridle at their larkshead points, made from tying double overhand knots about 1/4" down from the top of the main loop point (if that makes sense), so swapping bridles is a snap.

Right on. Luckily my Fiance has quite a bit of these -- being a recovering bead addict -- so I grabbed one. Works great. Thanks! On a related note, I was weighing my stock bridle, and each side came in at 4.5grams. Is that a bit heavy? I was wondering if there was a lighter bridle material out there that I could use, that would have the same strength. Im not sure what this stuff is. Its just standard black bridle line. No sleeve, just black thick line. Its pretty stiff as well. I've seen some braided and sleeved bridle line that looks a heck of a lot more loose and perhaps lighter. Any insight? Thanks again. ~Jon

My Fiance and I went to Cannon Beach this weekend to collect driftwood for our wedding archway Im building (only 4 more weeks). The weather was overcast, and not the greatest, but I thought I'd get some fly time in anyhow. I set up and flew for a while (15+Mph winds), and the winds were picking up a little higher than my kite was rated for (mostly from my Mods. lol), so I was spending some time at the edge, practicing hovering, and dipping my wingtips into the mountain stream that was running out to the pacific. I noticed a person behind me watching intently as I hovered, dipped my wingtips, occasionally yoyo'd and axeled, and attempted sloppy jacobs ladders that didn't quite work out. I decided to back up and say hey. Turns out he's a kitelife browser (I say browser, because I don't think he's posted yet). He commented on my flying skills, and we started chatting. Also turns out he lives in Oregon city just as I do. Nice guy. His name on KL is "Evans". It's funny how things like that happen -- just the universe bumping people/things/events of common interest together at random, but just the right times. Not only fellow kitelifers, but Oregon City natives. lol A time where I am not really seeing my progression in sport kiting, yet others are seeing good things. Cheers to the Universe. Hope we get a chance to fly sometime Evans. Enjoyed the chat. Cheers all. ~Jon

I just made a lightweight bridle for my Widow (Laser Pro 80# poly. braided spectra), and I was wondering how to store it. I mean, its not that long, but I could see it tangling when it gets jingled around in my spare parts kit. I was thinking of winding it around a smaller thread spool and taping it? Or perhaps storing it on my 50# lineset (just leaving the lines attached to the bridles pigtail, and wrapping it on the winder). I think I'll only be using this bridle with my 50# lines anyhow. Any Sugg?

yeah m8. get that Epoxy off there. Makes for nasty snags. It looks like theres 3 sets of 5 lines tied together, then they are all epoxy'ed to the pigtail itself. Bad construction. What I would try doing, is taking that bunch of 3 sets of bridle line -- tying an overhand knot (maybe a double overhand knot, depending on the amount of pull this thing has) with the whole bunch (right above the individual overhand knots of the 3 sets). Next, make a new pigtail of the same length, then larkshead the pigtail just beneath the overhand knot you created. That'll most definitely clean it up a little. There will still be a big knot in the way, but that looks to be the nature of the beast on that particular bridle. You can always throw some tape around the knot point to reduce snagging. Hope that helps a little. ~Jon