RobB

Nice group you've got there. Looks like fun to hang out & fly with friends. Also liked the catch & throws... I have to learn that trick, looks cool !

Nice to see someone else out flying in the cold weather. Yup, you've been bitten by the kite bug. Hope you find some more good wind, spring is coming soon !

Oh, what a gift today was... winds were low, really low, like the windmeter wouldn't register low. And the temperature at 31* F felt like spring, especially with the sorta bright sunlight. I had 3 hours of flying some duals, just didn't want to put them down. Non-stop flying, except to switch between the Fearless Tattoo and the ProDancer SUL. We've had many days of temps below 20* during the day, close to 0* at night, so the ice has built up a little more. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the water is 3' to 5' deep where you can see the ice under the water. It drops off very steeply at this beach. Had a good two hours on the lines with the Fearless. It took a bit of work to fly in the low wind, but still was able to wring some tricks out of it. I got pretty hot running around on the beach, had to ditch the jacket after only a few minutes. Once I was mostly tired out from flying the SUL trick kite, I switched to the real SUL kite. Even in winds this low, you can pretty much just stand in one place and fly the ProDancer. The trade-off is that the ProDancer has a limited trick repertoire. Still, with longer lines, it's lots of fun to gracefully carve up the sky. I'll be looking at the video footage later, maybe I got something to share... we'll see. Hope you all are staying warm & getting a chance to fly some !

Don't care what the temperature is... I would be out there if there was a gathering like this near me !

OMG, the complexity ! I use the K.I.S.S mantra with my kite flying... does the French Bridle add that much to the flying characteristics ?

or maybe this might help... http://www.gombergkites.com/F-CODY.PDF

10mpg better than the regular gas model... not great by Prius standards, but I can fit a Prius in the back !

re. Questions about the frozen water... in the second picture, you can see that the harbor actually freezes over & has ice & snow on it. You can walk on it (not me, but some people do) but salt water ice isn't as strong as fresh water ice. The water freezes there because it's not moving as much as the water in the Sound. The fourth and fifth picture shows a pile of snow behind the kite, and past that is about ~30' of slushy saltwater, and then the open water. The water doesn't freeze in the sound because of the constant movement of the waves, but it does get slushy when it's real cold. We had just gotten ~6" of snow that morning on top of the ~2 feet left over from a previous few snowfalls. The salt spray & wind mixes up the snow and the sand, that's why you can see sand in spots... but there's also snow and ice under the sand. It's weird, in spots you'll actually fall through when you step, and it looked like you were standing on solid sand. It's a real booger to get the ground stake in sometimes, I have to grab a large rock & hammer the stake in, Flintstone style. And yes, Nick, GM made a hybrid Tahoe until they changed the body style in 2015. They didn't sell well (except to Police, municipalities, and limo companies). My company took advantage of 'green' tax incentives and bought a couple. They're not bad, they go pretty good in the snow & on the beach, just not really suited for 'real' off-roading. They get ~10mpg better than the standard gas powered ones...

Well, it looks like you're looking for BIG kites. I found a New Tech Firestorm, if you're interested. It has a 10' wingspan and is quite a handful in winds over 8mph. It's not a power kite, it does best in low wind and slow motion tricks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXO9WL34ddk http://www.gwtwforum.com/index.php?topic=11708.0

Kites bring me much joy, too. And... stress relief. Nothing like flying on an empty beach, even if it is a little cold. You know that saying about dancing like no one is watching... well, fly like no one is watching !

It was a little cold out today... It also looked a little cold over at the flying beach, too ! I needed 4WD to get in the parking lot, they don't really plow it very often... Luckily the salt spray and wind take care of most of it... But totally worth it, even for less than an hour of flying... Sea Devil Light... winds were ~5mph (+/-) Nothing beats a good session on the lines !

I did the same thing with the verts on the wrong side, and a number of you helpful Kitelifers pointed that out to me... I probably would've still had them wrong to this day !

I had one guy come back to the beach after showing him the lines. He was sporting a brand new Rev EXP... gave him some pointers on how to set it up and get it off the ground. I hope to see him again when the weather gets warmer ! That's one hooked, hopefully !

Love my Kymera, it does everything well !

Gustavo. was that Gerardo flying in the video ? I've been wondering what he's been flying recently. I guess he was bored with normal flying & had to challenge himself ! Awesome, send my regards ! I wish we had a flying community like yours up here, you guys really know how to fly !

Yeah, WOW ! Where did you find one of these ? From what I know, this is one of the most radical stunt kites ever made. I think the quote from the end of the video says it all, it will take a few days to learn how to fly it, but it's worth it. Just the look of the kite alone... there isn't another that's even close in design. Good luck, Karma folks, this is a real piece of kiting history !

I totally agree, Paul. If you don't like the cold & always complaining about being cold, you just don't have the right gear. On the rare occasions that I have friends come out & join me at the beach, I shudder when they show up in just a sweatshirt. And that's after I tell them to dress warm. I frequently break a sweat when flying duallies in the winter.... not so much with quads, since you basically just stand there.

Check this page out if you haven't seen it all ready... http://www.gombergkites.com/faq/faq-a.html

Looking forward to seeing some flying from that spot. It looks so scenic & picturesque... so different than what I'm used to seeing as I haven't been out of the Northeast in over 10 years. Just watch the ripstop on those cactus ! I thought my beach was full of hazards... Yikes !

Thanks, John. The wind was a little high, but I think I was a little shaky from being cold, too. I had all ready been out in the cold for more than an hour when I remembered to get out the camera.

Yeah, I hope everything got there OK. I shipped a box the same day to Virginia, it got there last friday I think. Message me if you need tracking info...

Thanks, Fred... and yeah, I get that twitch if I don't fly for a couple of weeks. Only one way to cure that !

Hopefully we'll fly together soon, and hopefully in better weather than we've been having. 60's sounds good, but maybe a little less wind !

Just had to... too many days without a good fly, and the weather doesn't look like it's getting any better any time soon. The temperature looked right, almost above freezing today, but when I got to the beach, the 20mph wind was quite sobering. At least it was a steady breeze out of the NorthEast. Yes, the leading edge of another (albeit weaker) Nor'Easter, but it hadn't started to snow & sleet yet. The ITW Ultrafoil is proving to be a trouble-free easy flyer, it takes maybe 2 minutes to get it in the air and stays there pretty well in winds up to 25mph. I only let it up 50'-75' today, didn't want to waste too much time winding line at the end of the outing. The Rev 1.5 full vent with 4 wrap sticks was an easy choice... well, pretty much the only choice in my bag for winds this high. I left some footage of it's true speed at the end of the video, my cold hands were having a tough time reacting fast enough... Well, hope everyone else is getting out & flying, and hopefully a little warmer than here !

So cool to catch a rainbow as a flying background... Rare, too.