RobB

Kiting seems to be a lesson in patience... too much wind, too little wind, wrong direction wind, etc. Once in a while, you're in the right place at the right time. This day I was in the right place, just a half hour late. I would've been flying an UL kite if I had known the wind was going away as the sunset, but I tried to make the most of it, and ended up having a good time anyway... *edit... I had to re-upload that one. Sorry, I should've watched it before posting it here. Fuzzy-View fixed...

Sorry to hear of your trouble with the Kymera, and kinda surprised, too. Got any pictures ? It's really strange that the bridle would break... I've worn out bridles on kites that I've flown for years, mostly Revs, but I did wear out the bridle on my QuantumPro, but it took like 5 years ! As far as wind shields ? Never used them myself. I bought a bunch of vented dual line kites in the hopes that I could fly dual lines in higher winds, but just didn't click with the whole thing, and spend my time flying Revs when the wind gets too high for duals. I actually sold off all the vented dual line kites to fund more Revs !

Hey there... Had a great break after work last week, headed home from the office & I just couldn't pass the beach without stopping. Just such a nice day, almost 60* just before sunset with winds that looked OK. Turned out the winds were dying out, and trying to figure out which way to blow, but I still got a great half hour fly before getting back to real life. The Skyburner Solus is a large kite (100" wingspan) and sometimes requires bigger inputs. Well, you can see in the video... I caught the kite & pilot in a good deal of this footage. I take these videos to learn what I'm doing wrong, but it does make for a good laugh with the flailing at times. What did I learn from it ? Universal truth... more slack ! Full screen & HD. There's music too, if you like the GD.

My Full Vent lasted 5-6 years, flying on my rocky beach in the worst conditions. It might have lasted longer if I hadn't flown it in 30+mph winds and flown it in & out of the salt water all the time. But what fun is that ?

Hey Paul, I was walking around at the time with my camera & bag in my hands when you offered me the lines. I should've just put them down where I stood & flown. Oh well, next time ! Thanks for the offer, though. ~Rob.

Sounds like you got the kite to roll up. That's the way I first learned that trick. It also means that you are able to do another trick... stop the kite while the nose is pointing away from you, and tug either the right or left line. The kite will spin on its back. Let it do a full revolution, and then pull on the lines just as the tail is pointed at you again. Fly away... That's the Lazy Susan.

There's also a video of someone flying a Prism Roll-Up bag on four lines, as well as someone flying their tent....

You've got a few festivals up by you... Newport & Hammonasset come to mind. Probably not more than a 2 hour drive to either ?

I really liked those sticks... they would be some nice bling for my Berk Rev !

Hey Paul, I think picture #3 might be you... I wasn't sure. If that was you, I'm sorry I had my camera & bag in my hands when you offered to let me try that awesome looking Shook Mesh. I really wanted to try one of those... next time !

Hey Guy... I find that the Power Sleds (24, 36, 81) Offer amazing bang for the buck. I never had a Power Sled crash (so to speak), but I did have one break a 300# line. I guess it eventually crashed, but it blew out of sight before it did !

This event was a great kick-start to the 2015-2016 Kite Season ! It's the first time that they've had a kite festival at this location, and I think it was a huge success ! My hat is off to the organizers & the people of Long Beach Island for putting up with us crazy kiters... The wind was a bit strong on Saturday... I think I got more windburn than sunburn... Revs were the most flown kites on Saturday... well, probably for the whole event. There was a huge turn-out of Rev fliers, and some great looking Revs, too. A quick lesson off on the sidelines... Did I say that it was really blowing ? Even this mega-super vent Rev was flying pretty fast... Later in the day, the winds came down and some dual-lines came out to play... Good looking kite... I think it was an XTZ ? I really liked the colors of this Rev. This pilot had all of his Revs in these colors... Sweet ! Once the winds came down, some of the BIG kites took to the air. S'more of the BIG kites... Speaking of BIG kites, I got a few people to give the Skyburner XL a try... BIG kite in a fade ! The sky couldn't have been brighter... Blue against a blue sky ? Looks better than it sounds.... I think this is an R-Sky kite. Another candidate for an arm-lengthening... Some shots from the dual-line competition. I think this one is a Vendetta, a pretty hard-to-find kite. This is the first time I've watched a competition. Pretty cool, I even got to pit crew for one of the competitors. Another competitor with an R-Sky kite... Vented Vendetta ? Sunday brought some amazing weather, especially for October in the North East. The winds were smooth, about 3mph, offshore. Flying against the sun & water background was amazing. This is an Enigma UL... very nice kite. The Snow Devil, out of it's element (no snow). A few Rev fliers floating some NYMs around in the light wind... What are these super-cool looking iridescent sticks ? All these NYMs had them. Cool looking all-black Rev and a Transformer 2 SUL... A Nirvana SE UL. Pretty kite, and it flew nicely, too. So happy I got out to another event this year. I got to see people that I haven't seen in years. Fly kites that I otherwise would never get the chance... I hope they're going to hold this event again next year, it was well worth the 8 hours round trip, getting up at 5am on a Saturday, and a hotel room.

I've messed around with doing some KAP, but I wouldn't call it a reliable platform for doing the type of work that you're describing. Also, the winds that you're describing are really too high for flying a kite reliably. When the kite decides to do a barrel roll unexpectedly, it will dump all of your expensive equipment in the drink... not really where you want to be. My first thought on reading this post was to suggest a drone, but winds 20mph+ ? Not really good for anything that flies, especially in the hands of a novice. Maybe putting geo-tags on the boats and and markers could provide a virtual overhead to review once the data is collected...

The Zephyr case looks nice, but is not well built. The internal velcro restraints tore out quickly and I felt that it had to be treated carefully so no further damage occurred. There are other options from the art world & fishing world that would do the same job and be easier to find.

Makes more sense now... maybe I'll get it figured out next time out ! Thanks !

Some really nice flying in interesting locations ! I was really expecting one of you to hop up on that snorkle-lift and fly from there... I love all that street art, what a great background to fly against !

After breaking 3 sets of the yellow line (all 90#), including one quad set, I am becoming very un-impressed with it. Now to read that you broke 175# skybond, I am swearing it off, not buying anymore. Just like 50# lines, not flying it anymore...

Good to hear about your success, Iftah. It's a tough habit to kick, any way you look at it. As far as e-cigs vs. burning tobacco, yes, kind of the same, but e-cigs don't have any where near the harmful chemicals found in tobacco products. I actually spoke to my doctor about my use of e-cigs, and he said while e-cigs aren't good for you, they're 1000% better for you than smoking...

3 years last month that I quit smoking (25 years, pack a day...) I still have my 'electronic pacifier', though. I will say that I feel much better than I used to, I was able to recently hop back on the mountain bike without coughing up a lung...

Those are two kites I've wanted to try, the Crossfire & the Jet Stream... please let us know what you think of them...

Oh, I'm sure he knows how to deal with it. I'm a hardware guy, all my fixes involve the 'BIG HAMMER' theory...

Wow, that is really cool ! I was pasting to a flagpole recently, and totally forgot to try to bend the lines around it. The fear of crashing & tangling is still strong with this one...

Sounds like the server may need a reboot... I've seen this on & off over the last week, too.

Yes, they were perfect. It's just that I only have 4 sand anchors, and could use some more...

Hey Nick, Just wondering if the large sand anchors are the ones packaged with the black carabiners ? This is tempting as I frequently run out of sand anchors when flying SLKs... ~Rob.