As you’ve probably noticed, its been awhile since I’ve updated this site. The last time I went kiting, I tried a new park here in Coconut Creek Florida, called TradeWinds park. I took my son out with a WindWing Kitesurfing trainer, and taught him how to fly a dual-line with a bar… When the wind would gust, the poor kid got yanked… it was so much fun to watch… I’ve been kiting so long, that I sometimes forget how difficult it is to learn.

The wind was a bit fluky, but he got the hang of it eventually. I was really proud of him.

I’ll be moving in the next couple of weeks, closer to the beach in Hollywood, FL… so if anyone knows of some good spots that actually ALLOW kite-flying on the beach.. please let me know. 

Our Friend Laurel sent us in some info on her new clothing and accessory business. They are making apparel and bags out of recycled kite materials. Sounds like a great project, and the stuff is pretty cool looking as well. Check it out at! 

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There is an interesting discussion on the Gone With The Wind Forum about the future of organized kite flying. Apparently over the years, there has been a steady decline in participation at both a competition and organization level. There just aren’t as many kiteflyers competing at competitions, attending kite festivals, or joining the AKA. I’ve been thinking about this phenomenon for a long time, and will probably write some stuff down in the future… but in the mean time, jump on over to the GWTW forum and see what others are saying about the situation.

Below you will find my initial comments. >> read the rest of this post.

I’m going to focus on more “conventional” and advanced Rev moves and some training practices. The thing about Revs (and quadline in general), is that the moves you can do are only limited by your imagination. Because of this, anything I write will exclude your favorite move. I’m going to be talking about the ones I use-and I’m coming up with new ones fairly often. >> read the rest of this post.

This was originally posted to the rec.kites Usenet group by Andrew Beattie. This sounds like a really interesting competition. We can’t wait to see what becomes of it! >> read the rest of this post.

Our friend David Gomberg (who also happens to be the President of the American Kiteflyers Association) has posted some commentary and photos from the Wildwood International Kite Festival that was held over the Memorial Day weekend in Wildwood NJ. The KiteStop crew usually attends this festival, as it is one of the largest on the East Coast. Unfortunately, this year we were a bit too busy with our real lives to make the drive up. From reports, it sounds like we missed an absolutely fabulous day.

Check out Gomberg’s weekly update : http://www.gombergkites.com/update/349.html

As a longtime quadline pilot, I’m amazed at how much trouble dual-line pilots have when picking up a quadline for the first time. I suppose I really shouldn’t be, as I had the same problem when I started! It did disappear after about a week or so of frequent flight… Hopefully some of the time I’ve spent at the Revolution demo fields at the Berkeley and Seal Beach kite fests helping people learn to fly Revs will translate to print. I’ll try to get you over the initial hump and show you some basics, and lastly give you a glimpse of some of the vistas available to you when you fly quadline kites. >> read the rest of this post.

When I received an email from Jim Martin (Region 4 Director of AKA) trying to find available stunt kite pilots in the Orlando area to fly in a lagoon show at Sea World, little did I know what I was getting into. This was a dream opportunity. How often do you get a chance to fly kites AND get paid for it. So I emailed Bruce Flora of Kiteman Productions and got a chance to live everyone’s dream job for the summer!
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