RobB

10+ years. At that point, you will be surprised at how much more there is to learn !

HAHAHA ! I get dizzy rolling my eyes over the 'Club 38' thing. Rev had all ready lost my interest when Club 38 came out, and I can't even read to the last line of their blather before I scroll. I still like to fly my 4 liners (most of them are Revs), but this regimented approach to kite flying skills, just a laugh... Where's my gold star ? 8)

We don't have many from Montana here. What do you fly out there ?

Welcome, Joe !

Get a wind meter. By the time the first battery dies, you won't need it anymore. It took about 2 years for the battery to die in mine, and I really didn't feel the need to take it out anymore, anyway...

Here's what I came up with in the colorizor... Should be interesting, I haven't had a red kite for a while...

Funny, 9-11 was my cue to dive deep into kiting. I needed an escape, and standing on the beach with nothing but the wind & the waves was very restorative. A few years after that, I found out about trick flying, and it's been a fun journey since then. BTW, Lam makes a killer kite bag, too...

I will second the suggestion of Lam's kites. Skyburner also has a new offering, the Tica 2020, a modernized version of a kite that you may have been familiar with. Blue Moon kites is still making the Mamba. All top quality kites made in North America, and if you look overseas, Benson has a nice line of kites worth considering. Welcome back to the community ! 9-11 screwed up a lot of things, but at least we are still free to fly our kites...

Nice looking, unique bag. My factory roll-ups aren't nearly as nice looking, but they're the best way to get the kites to the field !

I would go with soft kites for them. My son learned a lot from flying dual line soft kites on his own. There are no parts to break, and boys that age love the satisfying WHUMP that they make when they do a full speed death dive into the ground ! My son quickly learned how to relaunch on his own and was back up in the air, zooming around. He had a small Prism Snapshot... That's him flying it below...

This is about all I can get out of the ProDancer, for me it's not much on the tricks. The biggest trick is being able to fly when you can't even feel the wind ! The big kite allows you to fly on longer lines in low winds, some people fly 100s or 120s. I don't have that kind of room on my beach, 80s are about the longest I can deal with... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L3WFQuzgwg This is the 4d in just about the same winds, definitely less than 2mph... Some people can get more tricks out of it, this was the first time I flew it, and I don't think I flew it much more. My son learned how to fly dual line on it, mostly because it was the smallest kite that I had other than a Micron, and he was pretty small at the time. I found it important to fly the 4d on 30' or shorter lines, the 50s that it comes with were too much for the kite, I thought. I cut the stock lines after only a few minutes of flying, this is what it looks like on the 30' set that I made, the 20' set was good for street flying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raiIRRDBQNU This is the only video I could find of the Shadow... please forgive the quality, the video is over 10 years old and it was before I really figured out what the kite wanted for inputs. It should be enough to give you an idea of how the kite flies, though. https://vimeo.com/376436196

Ah, yeah... there's something wrong with his ProDancer. There aren't many if any kites that will fly in less wind than a 4d or ProDancer. The ProDancer will fly in less than 1mph of wind, easily. I didn't mention the PD because it is almost double the price point, and it is really kind of a niche kite. The most wind I would fly mine is would be 5mph, and it is a difficult kite to trick. The two things about it that I like... it's big (twice the size of the 4d) and it flies in basically no wind. I haven't flown the ITW Echo, but it's based on the Focus Echo, which was well-regarded. I've seen them flown indoors, but never got a chance on the handles.

The Kite Forge Kaiju is a much better kite than the 4d in that price range, I think. The only thing about it that doesn't agree with me is that it's a little small, but bigger than the 4d. A Lam Hoac ATM UL might also be worth taking a look at, it doesn't cost much over the price point, but I would prefer that to the Shadow. There really isn't much more that I could suggest at the sub-$200 price point.

I"m not sure about the 'new' Rev kites, I flew one for the first time about a month ago, but it was the successor to the Zen. I didn't like the feel of it, and was glad that I hadn't been keeping up with the times. For winds like that, I fly my old Full Vent 1.5, but that's pretty much the most wind I would fly it in, although I've flown it in winds up to 35mph with problems, it's just fast with alot of pull.

If this is a which is better question, they're 2 different kites. The Shadow is considerably larger, and in my opinion, more fun to fly as long as there's 1-2mph of wind. The 4d will fly easily in less wind, but it's so light and small that it's really easy to over-input the little kite. I really liked my Shadow, but it was quirky (you have to spend many hours to learn the kite and what it wants), and I had a number of kites that flew in the same wind that I liked more, so I let it fly to someone else. The 4d was pretty well abused by my son while he was learning to fly, so it hasn't been flown much in the last few years. Not that it couldn't fly, but just haven't been in the mood to fly a tiny kite. I think most people would get more out of the Kaiju than either of the 2 kites mentioned, BTW. But that Shadow is a pretty kite, no ?

Hey Bill, So happy to have shared that wonderful beach @ LBI with you for the weekend ! That Shook was a joy to fly compared to my old FV, I could barely tell there was much wind at all !

I only get this opportunity once or twice a year, but... this year I got the chance to fly a Shook 135 in some 20-25mph wind. What a TREAT ! It also sold me on the fact that I need one of those.

Ha, I wasn't a huge fan of the color combo of my first one, either (the same as the one you're looking at). I knew at some point I would get the one I wanted (the Spider) but I couldn't wait an indefinite amount of time. There are only 7 Spiders in existence, so finding one took a while. Funny thing is that I got a replacement of my first one in the same color, and had no reservations about that choice... I guess I got used to it. And yes, the APAs are the spreader connectors. No Tica color decision , yet. I'm still digesting my most recent kite purchase (Moonie Mamba).

Nothing about APAs and Widows. That could be any kite, lines cutting them up due to tricking. Mine just cracked due to age. I don't wrap much in my flying, so the lines didn't cut them. BUT... the 'Electric Spider' is 10 + years old. APAs fail. Seriously, I am not the original owner of the kite, but I'm sure Bobby wasn't a crazy flippy floppy kinda pilot. I've flown a lot of kites, and it doesn't get much better than the WM, even if you have to change all the APAs !

Congrats ! So happy to read this ! I'm Wishing you best of wind to fly this !

That looks like a decent deal. The sails weren't sewn by the same team as Lam kites. The original sails were sewn by Pam Kirk (sp?) who has passed away. This looks like an original. Steve Tapp, who made the sails for the WidowMaker Pro has also passed away. That's why I would say to jump on the chance to buy either, there won't be any more.

I would pay up to ~$200 for a used WidowMaker in decent shape. They were $300 new, when you could buy them. I bought the last new Widow Maker I found, but that was a few years ago. The video was made with my first WidowMaker, and I have another with a different design. The new one is still unflown, but only because I haven't had a lot of flying time lately. It has been moved to my car bag, waiting for the next chance to fly. The 'Electric Spider' needs APAs, so it's on the repair pile. I haven't been disappointed with any of the SkyBurner kites I have, and I'm sure the Tica2020 won't disappoint, either. The WM is a kite to have, but you can order a new Tica right now, it looks like. At least on one site there's a price and an order button. Well, I'm sure by the time I'm done playing with colors, they'll be ready to order !

Post a wanted add here and on the Facebook marketplaces. I am sure you will find an original WidowMaker that needs a new home. I end up laughing while flying, you just can't upset the kite. I took this video at least 8 years ago, as you can see, the kite just lets it rip... 75' lines, light winds.

http://www.fwkites.com/web/stunts/silverfox23pro.html I flew one of these at a festival that I was at recently, and was very impressed. The Lam ATM that was mentioned above would also be a good choice. I am going to disagree with the ProDancer nomination above, it is fragile and not very trickable. I have one, it's a great kite, but only for the lightest of winds (<3mph). It's more a kite to get when you all ready have at least 10 others...

The Widow Maker has long been my 'Desert Island' kite. Likewise, I haven't flown the new generation 'WM Pro'. I have to wonder how much different they are. I found the original Widow Maker insanely easy to fly, it gives away beautiful looking tricks even when the inputs aren't that good. The wind range is pretty wide, too... I don't know about these Widow NG's though. I haven't heard much good about them, it makes me wonder how they even got the name. Once again, never flew one.