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Déjà vu - Why I fly kites (doesn't everyone ?)


Reef Runner
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I got started not long ago.. 3 years tops. I saw this guy named "Barresi" also doing all this wild stuff online..then I found the tutorials..then I found Kitelife.

I lurked for awhile and finally bought a kite. A Prism Snapshot 1.2... I know, 2 lines. With no one else to teach me or fly with... I felt this a good starter. Nothing to break and learn the wind and window some before I bought one of those pricey Revolutions. After a year of buzzing the foil on the beach , I got a quad.

My original inspiration and goal was quads anyway...why wait any longer?

I purchased an Hq Mojo.. and with Johns tutorials, I was airborne.

Within a month I had an Rev Exp..within a month after that I had a B standard. I flew that for a solid year until December 2013. After a year of dedicated quad flying.....I now have 12 and don't see an end anywhere in site .....

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My story and progression is a lot like Nick's, from SLKs to dualies to Revs! One big difference though - my learning curve was interrupted by a stroke! Just as slack line tricks were really coming into their own! Sure, I had figured out axels and stalls, maybe a fade sometimes, but now my vision won't let me time things to develop that much farther!

So I'm down to the beach with my wife and daughter, soaking up sun, enjoying the day, when I decided to go over to the kite store across the street in Lincoln City OR. It had gone through several owners in a short time and was not the place it used to be. But someone had just bought it and it looked all spiffy and nice again, so I uttered the words that set my world back on fire - "I'm just going over to look around and drool a while. Be back in a bit." Not to be!!

I went over there and looked around and saw something new to me - vented Revs!!! Somehow in all my flying, I didn't know about or had ever seen a vented Rev!! Crazy huh? Remember at that point I wasn't on Rev's forum and had been out of the kite world for a couple of years! In fact I had dropped out so suddenly after bring a fixture at the 2 LC festivals for many years, some were thinking I had died!!

So a little back story here - I had a Rev 1 I had brought back in the late 90s, big wing, only took it out in perfect conditions - for me!! My balance had been affected by the stroke, so I was extra careful to set that big sucker up in any bigger winds! I just didn't want to do a face plant!! YUK!!

Anyway, I came running back, as fast as I run,(set your sundials), yelling - "I gotta get me one of those!!!" Talked it over with the wife, figured we could wiggle it into the budget, and voila - a full vent R/W/B SLE was up and flying!! Little did either of us know where this would go from here!

Then this other thing came up - indoor flying!! I had heard about it just before the stroke, so that went on the back burner for a while! I just wasn't sure I could still fly, let alone move enough to do indoor! Anyway down at LC, the weather on a Saturday was just awful, raining, clouds, just all over wet! So I heard that there was some indoor flying going on at a school gym nearby! I figured the beach was a washout, I'm here to see and fly kites, why not check it out. Went over to the gym and saw Connor and Watty and Litsong flying indoor Revs and gliders! Pretty nice, but I was afraid that I couldn't move fast enough to make that work for me! I happened to say something along those lines to Connor's mom Amy, and she said something like "There are kites you don't have to chase around so much, you know!)!

I went to my 1st indoor fest that fall and she set up a Skate, gave the line to me and said "It's all yours to use, all day if you like!)! I was in luck that day too, as Paul, the designer was there, and he helped adjust the nose weight for me! Remember this was my 1st time indoors, absolute "noob"!! By the end of that day I had that thing dialed in pretty good! Was getting the hang of it, the gliding, the stepping to the side to create a bit of angle to turn it! Yep, I was enjoying indoor and found I didn't have to run!! Got invited to join in on the "Mystery Ballet", didn't have any clue what that meant, and found myself leading off the whole thing, first time flier, first time out! Scary as h$$l!! Lucky I knew the song and just sang along with it as I flew! YEAH!! Had a great time! But AMY DID SOMETHING ELSE - after the ballet was over, she asked me if I wanted to try an Indoor Rev! Now this was a bit of overload, but being game I said sure, why not! HOOKED AFTER ONE GO!! I couldn't fly for beans, but Damn that was fun!! I gotta get one of those!

Well you know the rest of the story - I fly everywhere, anywhere, just about anytime now! Gear has gone though a sort of refining process and I've found what works for me! If you stick with this, you will too, believe me!

PS: I call outdoor flying - Wind Therapy - good for what ails you!! Indoors, I like the saying from the Glider Geek page on FB - "We don't need no stinking wind!"!

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What a great thread this is and will continue to be I am betting! I believe there will be a lot of commonality between certain people's stories as well as unique aspects to each.... what a tremendous thing.

My kiting journey began in like '90 or '91. A close friend of mine had gotten into dualies and we were down at the park for him to fly and introduce me to flying. Phil handed me a Trilby (a small plastic sailed diamond kite dualie). He gave me the 411 on how to fly. I romped around for a bit with it while all the time wanting to check out his real kites. When he was confident I wouldn't immediately lawn dart his Team Hawaiian, he left me fly that beast! At some point during this time I unfortunaley bashed some guy in the face with the Hawaiian. He was okay thankfully.

A couple other flying times down at the park and we headed to our long gone now local kite shop. I picked up a Kite Company Crystal which I believe Wayne has familiarity with. Within a year or two I picked up a couple more dualies and had a crap ton of fun flying them. Then Phil busted out a Rev 1. He explained how quad is different from dualie in how to control it and gave me the handles. Phil was pretty amazed at my quick transition in being able to pick up on the difference between dualie and quad. Evidently it took him a bit to forget the dualie muscle memory while flying quad. Another trip to our kite store and I had my first Rev.... a Rev II, which I still have and even though I now have five Revs, the II is still my favorite to fly. I picked up a dualie or two since I got the II, but quad is my interest and has been since I got II.

Why do I fly kites?

Even though I have been flying for a lot of years, sadly I haven't flown a lot of hours in a long time. I made a decison this past fall to make sure I get out a lot more in the future. Interests/hobbies are a way for me to move my mind from reality to relaxation. I've had numerous interests throughout the years and kiting is relatively inexepensive compared to many other hobbies. I flew rc planes for a few years and as SkyPuppets mentioned above, it gets expensive. Model Railroading is also expensive; I still have and work on my layout, but it is an on and off venture. As already mentioned, kiting is relatively inexepensive. Lay out three to four Franklin's and you are good to go for years with care. An occasional spar replacement or new line set, not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things.

My reasons/enjoyment of flying has altered a bit throughout the years. Back in the early days it was just plain fun and relaxation. Now, standard work policies have changed my flying preparation and the availability of technique topics gives me things to work on (thanks JB!). Back then I'd "prepare" and just get lost in flying, clearing my mind of reality. Today and the past bunch of years, I can no longer "prepare" yet I also have goals to accomplish. I no longer just go out and fly around 100% with 100% enjoyment. Now I also work on specific skills and when that gets frustrating, I fly around. With that, for the last bunch of years I get the challenge and satisfaction in leaning new skills/techniques as well as secondary - flying about.

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3 Christmas' ago (just over 2 years) I took the kids across the road to fly "our" jellyfish kite. You know the type. Cheap, neon yellow but kids love them. Well I was working it up and down and the kids were having fun chasing it. FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES!!! Then the just walked off. That night I thought there has to be something better. A bit of googling led me to a "sport wing". That was intriguing. I click on the YouTube link and that takes me to the clip of the B2 release. I must of watched that clip about 10 times in a row. I had to have one. About 2 months after that I had a Lime & Blue EXP RTF package. Fast forward to now and there isn't a wind in Perth that I can't (or won't) fly in. Except for a cyclone, even then I'd bridle a frame and have a crack. I even have some dualies, a Rok and a glider.

So for 35 odd years my kiting history went from flying an SLK from a fishing rod to flying Revs and Dualies.

And Lovin' it!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Who remembers the Bat kites with the bloodshot eyes ? Yeah, that was my first kite, in the 70s. Flew the wings off that one ! My first experience with 'real kites' was randomly walking into the Into the Wind store in Boulder in the mid-80s. I bought a Sun Oaks DC there, and something from their catalog just about every year since. I didn't get into controllable kites until around 2000, though, even though I had drooled after the excellent selection of them in the ITW catalog for years. Yeah, so it was all downhill from there... :cat_lol:

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Those Revs are really good at hooking people aren't they?

My story starts at Berkeley Kite Festival 2009 after a failed attempt to go to the festival the year before (involving work Saturday morning and a friend's car breaking down :( ). In 2009, I made it down to the festival with a group of friends, one of whom had a small Prism Snapshot and was teaching the rest of us how to fly it. Meanwhile, his friend had set up a Rev SLE, and eventually I got to learn how to fly that as well. Fast forward a few months, and I found myself still flying the Rev in my head while daydreaming. This is when I realized I had to get one for myself. I finally did early in 2010. At some point, I found out about Kitelife and the Rev forums. I found out about the Bay Area Sport Kite League and attended some of their clinics. I met other fliers at my usual flying spot (which lucky for me is a popular place for flying kites, and the same location the festival is held). For a few years, I just wanted to fly around and play, and I really only wanted to fly Revs. I went to some festivals as a spectator, sometimes flying a little, far away from the marked off fields or after the official end of the festival.

In late 2012 though, I picked up interest in competition, started flying a lot more seriously and frequently, joined the AKA, and really jumped into the kiting community. In 2013, I started competing with BASKL, flying individual and pairs multiline. I went to festivals as a kiteflier and started flying demos. I gained interest in other types of kites, including single line gliders and dualies, which I now also have and fly. Who knows what the future will bring.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is my story of my first serious kite. There is a good chance I'll be corrected on some of this. And I am reaching back through thirty years of memories too. In the eighties I walked into a little store called Kitty Hawk Kites to buy my first high dollar kite. In those days I was making $4.50 an hour in food service & did not have a big budget. After a bit of time the helpful sales guy saw me eyeing the two line stunt kites hanging from the ceiling. Not knowing much, Know Eye Deer, I asked many questions. But really I was shopping to a price point, less than a hundred bucks. I settled on a kite that was a bit smaller because it seemed like kites were sort of priced like pizzas, larger was more. The salesman said that I had picked out a three quarter sail, a 72" wide delta. The full sail was 96" wide & cost was over my budget. He said I should be able to fly it with no problems. I made the purchase of $79.99 plus tax & was no doubt beaming ear to ear. As I turned to leave he said, "You're going to need some lines too, aren't you?" My smile faded as I knew I was not trading down on the new kite & now was faced with more cost. My first encounter with the cost of quality lines stripped me of all available cash. Shanti Skybond Kevlar lines, a spare spool of line, Sky Claw handles & winder were what I bought. I overspent the budget by 50%, a trend that would continue to this day.

So what's this have to do with why I fly kites? The first day was monumental.

So we're at the Outer Banks of North Carolina, probably one of the best places in the world to fly a kite. We have a small pamphlet that tells how to fly our new kite. No one to advise us plus we were the do it your self people anyway. The beach was wide, the sand was soft & the wind was honkin along, at least twenty out of the North. I assessed it as a good day to fly the new kite & I was eager to get it in the air. Unwound the standard length 150' line set & had my wife hold the kite while I took hold of the handles. Launching from the ground was going to wait until I got in a flight or two. Ground stake, never heard of that either. So my wife bravely holds the kite & gives it an upward toss stepping back at the same time. Up I go about ten feet & 180 back into the sand, over & over. Hmmm, a bit trickier than I was expecting. Finally she says, "Maybe I can do it." Well she did on about the third try. To this day she claims she taught me how to fly kites. She flew around in the strong wind laughing & scudding down the beach. She figured out that flying to the side of the window reduced the pull & finally handed off the lines to me when the kite was up high. I was flying. After several, well many crashes, we had started to get the hang of it. We left some long furrows in the beach that day when we got used to the power of the 3/4 sail. I did not know I should have started on a lighter wind day. The kite survived & is still flown from time to time. Except now it's with a little tear in my eye. Kites can give you so much.

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  • 1 month later...

Yep, but I think it's just great to hear exactly how, so many different people, got involved with so many different kites. There must be a ton of stories out there, if people would only share them (or could find the time to write themt in). It can be simple, or it can be complex, but whatever the case, what a collection we could accumulate ! :ani_victory:

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