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Dagnabbit

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About Dagnabbit

  • Birthday March 27

Profile Information

  • Favorite Kite(s)
    the ones that fly
  • Flying Since
    1986
  • Location
    Leander, TX
  • Country
    United States
  • Gender
    Male

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  1. My son has a Cherry Bomb. Has flown the snot out of it for the past four years... he's graduated to better kites but always pulls that one out of the bag. Lots of fun. And flying them in a stack would be a blast.
  2. I've had this problem once before as well. To retrieve the ferrule, I grabbed a small flat headed screw (in my case, I grabbed a drywall screw because it was closest to my hand and they usually have a very flat head on it) that was smaller in diameter than the ferrule. I superglued the screw to the ferrule, pulled the ferrule out, snapped off the screw and then epoxied the ferrule back in place. Good as new.
  3. Donna- congrats! That's so awesome!!! Eliot Shook brought his Zen to Austin last weekend... I put it together but didn't fly it (thought the winds might have been a little strong for it... then the winds died down a bit but by that time we were packing up to head home). I'm jealous! But happier for you! Man, I wish I would have seen this a few days ago, had money to donate and everything! Oh well. Yeah, John, you're going about this the right way. Get a good audio recording on the field- it's hard to make bad audio sound good (you can to an extent, but like cooking- best results come from the best ingredients, all other things being equal). Overdubbing the audio is easy to say, hard to do if you're not working from a script and have everything timed. Sometimes there's a feel, a spontaneity that you can't get in post production (like you said). And it does take out a couple of steps... writing a script, overdubbing the audio 'X' amount of times because you're having a hard time getting lip synced. You might want to try a wireless rig and a headset. Expensive though. But one less hand is needed with a good headset that has a good windscreen and a good low frequency cutoff. With a good mic and a wind sock on a pole, you need someone handling that, and someone else with a video camera, and maybe someone with a reflector to get better lighting and get rid of the shadows... turning into quite a production! Whenever I'm shooting video and I need great audio, I never go with the mic on the video camera or even a mic plugged into the cam. I always use a decent mic with a decent preamp, feeding into a small mixer. This gives you a better audio output, and a better headphone driver for monitoring audio. But that's me getting wrapped up in technical details... it's still the subject of these videos that we're most interested in and most appreciative of. Thanks for your continued work on this!
  4. CC, There's a kite group in San Antonio, "TACO". Talk to Gary Powell (gpowell@prolendingmortgage.com) about any details for meeting times, etc. The Central Texas Cloud Chasers (Austin based group) meets every third Sunday of the month at Old Settler's Park in Round Rock. It's a bit of a drive from SA, but would be fruitful in talking to pilots (quad and dual) and maybe borrowing a kite. The Cloud Chasers next fun fly is this Sunday- however, current forecast says rain. We'll see. If I see you there, I've got a handful of Revs to try out (B-series and SLE). For $150, you could buy a used 1.5 or even a B-series from a kind soul. EXP's are made from nylon ripstop, current 1.5's and B-series are made from polyester ripstop. Granted, the nylon actually works well for training purposes- it has more "give" and can be advantageous in the choppy winds we get here in central Texas- but you may tire of that very soon and want something with more precision. There's not a kite shop in SA right now (that I know of). There's one kite shop in Austin, and the guy that runs it is a really good Rev pilot as well. World Wind Kites. Tye Harrison is the contact. He's in the store on Saturdays only while he's working on his degree. Prism Quantum is a great trainer. We have two in our family. Almost indestructible- we used two of them during a hands-on demo with a group of 300 kids. We cycled 150 kids through on each kite, with a few minutes of fly time for each child. Mostly nose dives. So, two hours of lawn dart landings. The kites are fine. My son likes to fly his- but it's not a finesse kite. Lots of pull, sail loads up big time for a smaller kite. Get hold of Gary, and/or show up at one of the area fun flys, and you can try out lots of different options. Best shopping decisions are made after some hands-on experience, in my opinion. Oh, and the 4th annual Fest Of Tails (combined kite and dog festival) is March 20th at McAllister Park in San Antonio. I'm pretty sure a bunch of us will be there, as well as at least one of the kite teams I fly on. Hope this helps, Ben
  5. Back to work.... new year, new projects, new challenges. Life is good.

  6. James- Welcome to the family! I got my family involved in kiting a few years back (2005), and it's been a great family activity. I didn't say "hobby", because it's not at the same level for all family members. I wanted to share our experiences. Although we, as a family, have flown kites before, it was on the level of "hey, we're going to the beach, we should fly kites!". I've been flying kites (single line and dual line) since 1986, on a casual level. In 2005, I attended my first real kite festival. That brought back a lot of memories and spurred my interest to a new level. I bought a couple of dual line kites that year (again, flying solo, and not getting involved in the kiting community). By January 2006, we had joined the AKA, and attended our fist kite festival at South Padre Island as a family- and as volunteers, not as spectators. And we had a blast- learning to fly big inflatables, and putting some of our new single line kites in the air. Soon after, we became involved in our local kite club, and was introduced to many kitefliers. This is a crucial point, and one I'll get back to. In the following years and after many festivals (again, as volunteers), and getting involved with other kiters, my family members have found their niches: I fly on a dual line team (Austin End Of The Line), as well as a new quad line team (Quadzilla). I'm also more involved in the AKA. For me, kiting has become tied as my #1 hobby (my other is as a musician, for the past 35 years). My wife helps at all of the kite festivals, loves our single lines and flies them when we have time- not really into dual lines, can be persuaded to fly quad line once in a blue moon- and our kite team operates at a much less efficient level when she's not around (she's pretty amazing about getting things done and making things happen). My daughter, now a teenager, likes quads and power kites (and flies with me on Quadzilla), but is not rabid about kiting. My son, almost a teenager, will fly dual lines occasionally, gets bored with a single line in seconds, and loves flying our dual-line bar controlled power kite- and I definitely see him getting into kite buggys and maybe kite surfing. My kids like kite festivals since they have lots to do and there's lots of people- they're very social. We like the kite community because of the camaraderie and long term friendships we've made with people all over the country. It means something different to each family member- but as a whole, kite festivals are our family activity. OK, back to the local kite club. I could not have made the decisions I've made about "what kite do I really want", and might have saved some money by talking to the kite club first. Or not... you know how it is when a hobbyist gets gear acquisition syndrome. :-) But it helped me from making some mistakes about what to buy and why. And it let me explore some things, since different kitefliers in our kite club are into different kites... some like fighters more, some like single line art, some are into dual lines only, some are into quad lines only. But I did get to borrow some kites, learn how to fly them, why I want to spend $300 on a artisan-made kite instead of spending possibly more on lesser kites getting to that level- or why I don't want to buy the latest and greatest of everything, because I might not be wired for radical tricks on a dual line, for example. Getting involved with local kitefliers is important for your own growth into kiting as a hobby- or at least (and maybe more importantly), to make a whole new group of friends. :-) To your question about what to get: I find dual line kites are fast, fun and exciting. I find quad lines to be more about inner peace. I found that I like flying with other people than flying solo, although I do a lot of solo flying to improve my technique to make team flying better. And I LOVE my single line kites... I have a great collection of flying art, and I don't get a lot of time to fly them at kite festivals because I'm either there to help facilitate the festival or I'm there as a demo pilot. Sometimes it's good to just take some time, put some flying art into the sky and watch it dance with the wind. Just don't get something because it's less expensive. You can often find something used and of much better quality (and the benefit of being proven flight-worthy!) and it will save you lots of frustration later on. I compare it to someone learning to play guitar. If you don;t get an instrument that can be played well, then the frustration of bad sound and difficult playing might turn what might have been a master musician away from the art. You'll find that buying used from anyone on this or other kite forums out there will net you a good deal- for the most part we kitefliers are a close knit community and a pretty honest lot. And buying something of quality also means it's easier to upgrade if you decide to sell your kites to upgrade to other kites (to some pilots out there, this is sacrilege- never sell a kite! LOL! ). Ask lots of questions. We're here to help if we can!
  7. That's a great idea- our kite team has been using PVC tubes for years for our team kites- we're up to six 6" tubes and a caddy would be extremely advantageous. Hmm... on the golf cart idea- they do have the remote control golf caddy that will follow you wherever you go. Outfit that with wheels from a garden cart so it would truly be all-terrain... hahaha how much R&D and $$$ can one throw at this? Personally, I'm a cheapskate, so this idea is out for me, I'll be looking at second-hand stores for cart ideas- but I'm a gadget hound also, so the idea still appeals to me.
  8. Modern kiting? Hmmm... not a sticks and newspaper story (which I did when really young), I remember more flying the Gayla Sky Spys, Bats, Baby Bats and Super Bats- but it wasn't until 1980 when we had a kite competition in high school, and I 1) built a HUGE single line kite, that, knowing what I know now, I am forever thankful that it didn't fly because someone probably would have gotten hurt, and 2) I bought a dual-line Gayla Acro Bat. Control was questionable at best, but it made a mark on my memory. Fast forward to 1986, in the Navy, and stopped in Alameda to meet my submarine at the base on its way back to San Diego. Had some time to kill, so I went down to San Francisco, and saw someone flying a stack of Trlbys close to Pier 39, which triggered that little memory pointer in my head. I went and talked to the pilot, and she let me try flying it- I think she worked at the kite store, and pointed me towards the kite store there at Pier 39 (I don't remember what the name of the store was- they aren't there now). I bought a 6-pack of Trlbys and went to Marina Green to fly- upgraded the line set to kevlar and Sky Claws. I just found Polaroid pictures I took of the stack in the air- of course they're tiny in the pic, but brought back some really fond memories. And I still have Trlbys- 22 at last count- even a couple of the original sails! They don't get much fly time at all now because of the better and more modern dual line and quads in my bag, but they're still fun. And I still have a couple of Gayla Bats in the collection.
  9. I've been using FIrefox also, for many years now. I have a plugin called AdBlock Plus that blocks all external banner ads and the like. So when I go to Facebook, for example, I don't see any of the ads on the right hand side. However, I do see the forum-related info on the right hand side like you were talking about- AdBlock Plus (or any other blocking plugin that I know of) does not block things like this- that's considered normal content originating from the home site (whereas most popup and banner ads are actually links to other sites and such). So I do see the other stuff on the right hand side (like Forum links, the status updates from other users, etc).
  10. So is the question what do we consider the top five of all DLKs released 2000-2009, or do we consider the top 5 from what we've flown, or top five from what we own? Because there's definitely a couple of kites that I've either flown once, or just lusted after, that I'd consider better or more significant than what I own (or that I've flown- so I guess I really couldn;t have an opinion about that after all). And being a relative n00b (got serious about kiting in 2005, flying off and on since 1986), maybe my inexperience really shows. I think all of these kites were released after 2000. And I guess it matters from what position we're looking at this as well- I have a stack of Trlbys that are a pain in the rump to deploy, put away, untangle before a launch or after a crash- but during flight- HUGE grin (and sentimentality rules supreme here, it was a stack of Trlbys in 1986 that got me into sport kiting in the first place). Or my 10' Speedfoil... not a lot it can do except give you a FAST workout- again, huge grins. Or my Firestorm on 150' lines with a 100' tail. Not a lot you can do in terms of tricks- but very flowing and graceful, something I fly once or twice a year at kite festivals for a public demo. So, I guess from the perspective of someone who flies a lot of precision and fumbles with improving tricks: Sky Burner Widow Maker: flying a friends right now, raising the funds to get my own. This kite is my friend. Period. Flying Wings Silver Fox: I don't own one any more, since I now have a Soul (won right here on Kitelife!), but I consider significant because it put a very trickable and forgiving kite into a very affordable price range. Prism Zephyr: great in light winds, very forgiving when tricking Sky Burner Pro Dancer SUL: I don't own one personally, I have a spare on loan from the team I fly with. Only big wing I know of that can still fly team well in 1mph. Sky Burner T&T Comp: Again, I don't own one personally, my team flies these. Very, very precise and oh so smooth. And now I'm starting to get into indoor- so there's a whole other field of exploration for me! :) Kiting is so cool....
  11. Gee, are past winners still eligible? :-) Have to get my daughter to sign up- she's the one that really needs this, not me (but I sure wouldn't EVER turn it down!)
  12. NICE kite... I've flown a friends Widowmaker standard, but not the UL. Our team flies the T & T Comp and the Pro Dancer SUL, and I fly a Nik Nak on occasion because it's so fun to play with- I really, really like Jon's designs (and the sewing done by Pam and Mike is beyond precise). I've got my color pattern picked out for my standard and UL Widowmakers... now I have to sell off a bunch of kites to fund them!
  13. Yeah, HUGE difference between the EXP and the B-Series. And then another step up with the B-Series Pro. Good thread on the B-Series vs. B-Series Pro. http://www.revkites.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3275 Congrats on the Rev! Get yourself a Rev bag soon, my Revs were sharing space with my dual lines in my rollup bag, but the Revs are going to start outnumbering my dual lines very soon!!!
  14. http://www.austineol.com
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