Competitor Profiles

[John Barresi]

Greetings fliers!

I am overjoyed to announce that the mission I undertook with Satori Kites from 2001 to 2003 has been reborn on the Kitelife site, new and highly improved.

Definition: Satori

* A state of intuitive illumination sought in Zen Buddhism.

* The coming-together of divergent views into a clear and integrated whole.

* Or as Jack Kerouac phrased it in his book Satori in Paris, "a kick in the eye".

For those who are unfamiliar with the old Satori Kites site, it featured sport kite competitor biographies and photos from fliers all over the world... I am a firm believer that in any effective sport prestige must be given freely on every level, it is a cost free source of motivation for the general populace and it feels good to know you're on the radar somewhere, right? By the time Satori Kites fell by the wayside, we had well over 100 profiles from over a half a dozen countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia!

Why did Satori Kites fall to the side in the first place? Each bio was manually put into the web site by yours truly, and with my taking over Kitelife and other projects near the end of 2002, I simply did not have the time to keep making new pages, updating content and keeping up with everyone from year to year making sure that their bios were current.

Since that time, I have been searching for a script that would allow fliers to create their own "sports card" bios as easily as signing up on a forum, and allow them to update content simply by logging in and making whatever changes they like... We now have the technology!

The purpose behind these competitor profiles?

*** To promote fliers and teams all over the world, from Novice to Masters class.

*** To create a central location where event announcers can get the latest information on their competitors, a critical and invaluable tool.

*** To give sport kite fliers from around the world a chance to "sit in the same room" so to speak, by learning more about each other across the sea(s).

With that goal in mind, we have made a number of major improvements:

*** A personal Blog with each profile, allowing you to keep a flier's journal of sorts, and share your experiences with our visitors.

*** Up to three photos, uploaded directly to our server and displayed with your on line profile... Photos are thumbnailed, and set up with customizable captions.

*** Internal messaging system, allowing you to communicate directly with other featured competitors - while you read about them.

*** Visitors have the ability to leave comments in the footer of your profile, you're notified directly of each one by email, which you can then review and/or delete..

*** Ability to create more than one profile per email address, useful for families or spouses sharing one email address, as well as pairs and teams.

*** Printer-friendly versions, linked directly from your main profile... This enables event organizers and announcers to easily print off bios for fliers at their event.

*** Highly searchable... By name, country, state, latest update, photo or by keyword (such as Nirvana, MIP or whatever).

*** Favorite profiles... As you're reading any bio, you can add them to your own "favorites list" for easy reading later, or so you can message them from the list.

*** Direct links to your biography, making it easy to share with friends, family, colleagues and fellow competitors.

With all of this in mind, I cordially invite each and every sport kite competitor out there in the world to submit their bio and help get this thing rolling!

Take your pick of these URLs, they all lead to the same place:

http://www.kitelife.com/profiles

http://profiles.kitelife.com

http://bios.kitelife.com

http://www.satori-kites.com

If you have any questions, concerns or recommendations regarding this new service on Kitelife, please do not hesitate to reach me directly... We value every visitor's input greatly, and hope to hear from as many of you as possible.

[Backspin23]

Sweet, very cool John. I'm really glad to see this up and running again. Now maybe someone will get my age right at the next festival. maybe...

[John Barresi]

Thanks J.D. - You're the man!

Best of luck for 2006.

[TeamTKO]

John,

Thanks for the service, it should prove to be a valuable feature for the sport kite community!

[John Barresi]

Thanks Troy, I hope so.

Also, I do plan on eventually adding demo flier and single line kitemaker sections... Might be a few months off, but it's already in my minds eye.

BTW - Glad we could finally sort out your login issues on the forum... Sorry about the delay, it turned out to be something really simple that I wasn't aware of (thanks Llama!).