Power Kite Forum - Where did you / this start ??

Where did you / this start ??

John Holgate - 26-10-2011 at 03:30 PM

I was flying and making stunt kites in the early 80's - and I got a Flexifoil catalogue on one of my shop visits. Here were these strange self inflating kites, supposedly very fast and powerful. edit - Oh, and quiet. You should hear the racket my stunt kites make!! I was determined to get one.....but never did at the time. Eventually the kites got put in a corner of the room, sadly neglected for many, many years! Once I got the internet happening, I started to wonder what happened to the Flexifoil kites and if they still made them. Jumped online and started looking up kite shops and saw a kite buggy....and power kites.. and that sort of pressed the 'turbo button' for me. That was about 3 years ago. I had never seen a modern powerkite or buggy before that.

Who came up with the buggy idea? And how did you find out about it?

And why on earth would I have kept this catalogue since 1982?

Morrie Williams - 26-10-2011 at 03:40 PM

Peter Lynn came up with the idea around 1990. We first saw stuff about buggies in spring/summer 1993 when an article appeared in American Kite. (see article at http://www.napka.org/pdfs/AmericanKite1993V6N2.pdf) Up to that point we'd been being pulled down the beach with stacks of Hawaiians and stacks of Flexifoils.

nocando - 26-10-2011 at 03:44 PM

I had a summer holiday in Brisbane with the main idea being kite surfing lessons,
whilst there met one of the locals who brought a bug to the beach, had my first hoon about in it
was immediately hooked. Had to get one of these gadgets, got home scoured Extreme Kites and Seabreeze for a bug for sale found one in Victoria, a PL comp modified. And the rest is now history.

Now I will travel anywhere for a good fly even to the US for NABX:evil:

MikeDobbs - 26-10-2011 at 03:45 PM

So I'm on vacation in Destin, FL about 3 years ago and my wife and I wander into a Kityhawk Kite store. We had been flying stunt kites recreationally, so we wanted to check out the selection. In the store is a DVD of a guy getting pulled around on the beach by a 2.5 foil (or something like that). I watched the video for about 20 minutes, totally entranced. The next day I spot an ad from a local kite shop for a free intro to kiteboarding lesson. Met the guy on the beach and we talked about the wind window, some safety, then he hooked me into a B3 trainer- wow, I was HOOKED!:o

Never felt power like that before. Got a few small foils the following season, a landboard the next year, and this past summer finally got into the water on a kiteboard and picked up my first buggy!

No idea who started this all, but I'm sure glad they did!

Kober - 26-10-2011 at 04:02 PM

First publication about kite "buggy"

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/mar2001.html

csa_deadon - 26-10-2011 at 05:37 PM

I love these kind of threads.

Got started in 1981. Saw an ad in the local paper. Called the number in the ad and showed up at a rather plain looking A-frame building just outside of Newport Oregon. That was the day I meet the man responsible for my addiction. Doug Hagaman hired me as a crew member for the Catch The Wind kite crew. Like Morrie, T.O.L., And FlexiFoil super 8's were the engines of choice then. Even meet this crazy dude 20 years ago who had the habit of naming his kites. This one monster of kite he and John Waters were attempting to fly was named "Adam". NABX 2010 was very special for me. Got to see "Adam" the kite again and recount the events of that day some 20 years ago with Peter Lynn.

Miss ya Doug.

RedSky - 26-10-2011 at 07:08 PM

Great thread!

I love the picture on the front cover of American Kiter that Morrie Williams linked.
Obviously a time before people got so hung up on the safety aspects of the sport.

I'm a late comer to the buggy scene compared to most of you. I bought a Super 10 back in 1997 and a year later a new Blade 4.9 MkII + Peter Lynn Race bug.

I spent every weekend for the next ten years riding it before giving it away to a friend in 2007. Never changed the bearings in all that time!

markite - 26-10-2011 at 07:49 PM

Quote:

I love the picture on the front cover of American Kiter that Morrie Williams linked.

there is another version of that magazine cover kicking around - if you ever get a chance to drop into visit Corey ask him to show you.

(I think the only copy I have might be sitting on some old syquest cartridge - pre zip disk - long ago gathering dust)

pbc - 27-10-2011 at 02:59 AM

It was October 1991 at the AKA convention in Jacksonville, Florida. Peter Lynn was there and had a buggy and a Peel. I was hooked immediately. The following July I had my own gear.

cheezycheese - 27-10-2011 at 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pbc
It was October 1991 at the AKA convention in Jacksonville, Florida. Peter Lynn was there and had a buggy and a Peel. I was hooked immediately. The following July I had my own gear.

Phil,
Have you ever buggied with a Peel..?

cheezycheese - 27-10-2011 at 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kober
First publication about kite "buggy"

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/mar2001.html

Great find Konrad...!!! :thumbup:

coreykite - 27-10-2011 at 12:40 PM

Hey Sailors,
Whaddya mean before safety gear?
I'm wearing a head cover, gloves, pants, eye protection, shoes...

Still have that original PL Classic Buggy too.

George Po#@%$#! started it in the 1820's.
Created the "char-volante", A carriage propelled by using four-line controls on a french pear-top kite (or stack of them) and took friends for rides in the British countryside between Bath and Bristol.
Peter modified an original design ice boat in 1989. It became the modern "buggy".

PBC saw Peter and I buggy at the AKA in Lubbock Texas in 1992, not Florida. That was the first AKA convention to see the buggy.
dean jordan came up to me on that Texas field and asked if he could try my buggy.
I said he could sit in it but when the wind came up I was going to be riding it.
I guess he thought I was some kind of a-hole.
But he went home and bought one.
A while later, riding his new buggy on the beach near his home, another kiter approached and asked if he could ride dean's buggy.
dean replied that he could sit on it, but when the wind came up, dean would be riding it.
so the circle in unbroken...

Safen Up! Buggy On!

"Often wrong... Never in doubt"

the coreylama

shehatesmyhobbies - 27-10-2011 at 12:58 PM

I started about four years ago! I used to fly some stunt kites from time to time and had a blast just doing spins and lo fly bys! Then I got out of it for a bit. Rian, (Rdavis) and I met playing paint ball one day, started hanging out after that, flew some stunt kites together then he showed me that he purchased his first power kite, I flew it once and went home that night and started looking for one. I got one from Dino, a Pansh Ace 5m, ( I now know not to pick this as a first kite), but at the time, it didn't matter. Flew the heck out of that kite for a good while, static and jumping. Then he shows me this buggy thing, and I was very excited. Again I went right home and had to have one. I found one in Florida, it was a Eolo Rad buggy! Bought it up right quick and never looked back. Now I am hooked and wake up everyday wishing that Kites were my only job! One day I hope, it is in my blood now and I know it always will be!

This is the video that did it for me in the beginning! I must have watched it a thousand times!

John Holgate - 27-10-2011 at 03:53 PM

That was one of the first vids I watched too. Love the start of it. Classic. :thumbup:

pbc - 27-10-2011 at 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by coreykite
...
PBC saw Peter and I buggy at the AKA in Lubbock Texas in 1992, not Florida. That was the first AKA convention to see the buggy.
...

I know I saw my first buggy at the '91 convention in Jacksonville. I even have the convention pin: http://www.aka.kite.org/events/convention/past-conventions/1... . You must understand the buggy made quite an impression on me. I saw the Peel first from perhaps a quarter mile away. I'd never seen a steerable kite that was so big. I made a B-line for that thing and found Peter at the bottom of it with a buggy. He was in a grass parking lot noodling around. There wasn't much room to work it, but I understood what was going on.

There are very few moments in my life where I saw something and knew it was my destiny. I knew I had to have a buggy. I got that buggy and have had no regrets.

Corey, you were at that convention. You must have been too busy to see the coolness on the west side of the field that day. I'm sure glad you got to play in Lubbock though.

Philip

Kamikuza - 27-10-2011 at 11:00 PM

Would have to be sometime in the '80s I think - I remember seeing "kites" and buggies in QEII back home in Christchurch, NZ ... I remember thinking they were awesome and asked how much they were - and got put off by the price :lol:

my paper round wouldn't pay for it

Would have been about 1992 that I saw a few pictures like this in a random magazine ... the specific one I remember was the kiter on waterskis with a stack of Flexifoils erm Stackers ...

Was probably Corey Roeseler

That's what got me turned onto kites and I made my own 2-line stunter from some plans that year ... that was kinda before the internet :o so I think I even bought them from a shop ... I definitely bought "Stunt Kites 2" around that time.

But it wasn't until 2003 that I had lessons on the water.

pbc - 28-10-2011 at 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by cheezycheese

Quote:

Phil,
Have you ever buggied with a Peel..?

Oh yeah! I have a big one. It's blown out now, but in it's hey-day it was dreamy.

Not only was it fun with the bug, but you could have a blast static flying it in light wind. My friends and I would play cat and mouse with the kite trying to drive the "mouse" to the ground without crashing the kite. Even the non-fliers got involved.

Philip

RedSky - 3-3-2013 at 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by coreykite
Hey Sailors,
Whaddya mean before safety gear?
I'm wearing a head cover, gloves, pants, eye protection, shoes...

Still have that original PL Classic Buggy too.

George Po#@%$#! started it in the 1820's.
Created the "char-volante", A carriage propelled by using four-line controls on a french pear-top kite (or stack of them) and took friends for rides in the British countryside between Bath and Bristol.
Peter modified an original design ice boat in 1989. It became the modern "buggy".

PBC saw Peter and I buggy at the AKA in Lubbock Texas in 1992, not Florida. That was the first AKA convention to see the buggy.
dean jordan came up to me on that Texas field and asked if he could try my buggy.
I said he could sit in it but when the wind came up I was going to be riding it.
I guess he thought I was some kind of a-hole.
But he went home and bought one.
A while later, riding his new buggy on the beach near his home, another kiter approached and asked if he could ride dean's buggy.
dean replied that he could sit on it, but when the wind came up, dean would be riding it.
so the circle in unbroken...

Safen Up! Buggy On!

"Often wrong... Never in doubt"

the coreylama

Time to resurrect an old thread. I came across this a few days ago. English TV program dubbed over with Spanish. George Po#@%$#!. The first kite buggy, of sorts

http://vimeo.com/12823632

:shocked2:

By 1820 he had determined that in combination they could support considerable weight and began experimenting with man-lifting kites. In 1825, he used a 30-foot (9 m) kite with a chair rig to lift his daughter, Martha (the future mother of cricketer W.G. Grace) over 270 feet (82 m) into the air.

More on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Po#@%$#!_(inventor)

Smeagol - 3-3-2013 at 11:12 PM

Ah, the good ol' Flexifoils! I've always had a soft spot for these, and still have several. I think I picked up my first Hotshot (4') sometime in the early 90s. Now I have a 9 stack of Hotshots, 7 Stackers (6'), a couple Pro-Team 8s, a Super 10, and a fairly rare Hyper 16. That thing is a beast, but I need to find a replacement spar for it (it snapped on my maiden flight). Still want to find a Hyper 12 too.

I've seen a few old buggying videos out there where they used these as engines. Definitely old school, I should bring some out to NABX.

Buggies I just recently got into though, wish I had much earlier.

-Mike

Kamikuza - 4-3-2013 at 03:24 AM

I've always liked kites. Dad made me a monster diamond kite and I used to make sleds out of trash bags on a regular basis but I felt like I needed something else...

Quote:

Originally posted by Morrie Williams
Peter Lynn came up with the idea around 1990.

Had to be earlier than 1990 - my last year of high school was 1991, and I remember seeing kites (of some description) and buggies at QEII park when I was in my mid-teens, I swear... I remember thinking "AWESOME!" and asking them how much they cost... and then being dismayed at the price.

Made my own stunt kite a few years later...

Got psyched by a photo of Corey Roesler on water-skis I saw in a magazine... can't remember when, maybe mid-90s.

Also saw the Flexi's and got interested in power kiting... but it wasn't until I was working that I could afford anything proper.

Had kitesurfing lessons in 2003 and got my Rebble 5 and landboard to practice.

THEN I discovered this place :lol:

Txshooter38 - 4-3-2013 at 07:15 PM

My wife and I were laying in bed (all good stories start this way right?) watching Top Gear. They were doing one of their standard races and a dog sled team was racing a truck to the north pole.

The dog sled musher person (official title) pulls out a set of skis and a kite and takes off across the snow so her dogs could have someone to chase. She was just cruising away...AWESOME...My wife and I looked at each other and we knew we had to have one. We had our first power kite (HQ Rush 2.5) less then a week later and the rest has been pure fun!

Thanks Top Gear!

Bladerunner - 4-3-2013 at 07:20 PM

I was also turned on when I saw Corey Roessler and his kiteski on daily planet .

One of my earliest momories is of a visit to the beach. It was so windy and I was so small I could get lifted / tossed by the wind with my beach towel. I'm sure it all started then !

Took lessons in 2003 on water and really struggled with the board . ( + our cold, polluted conditions ) . In 04 I took my trainer kite and rollerblades to a fantastic parking lot. I was riding like I owned the place the 1st day and never even fell ! I can't describe the thrill. I was ready to turn away from the sport and had spent thousands on gear + lessons. When I posted what I was up to on our local forum the buggy crowd came out of the woodwork + I found snowkiting that winter. Even managed to figure out how to go about life sideways and like the board now !

I am so happy I found this sport. I'm only sorry it wasn't around when I was young .

Todd - 4-3-2013 at 11:02 PM

My son and I

Right here this beach just south of Myrtle with a two line Walmart special... I can't seem to seach for the story that goes with it from another thread simillar to this.

Man I gotta get some sleep, it has been a long day.

stetson05 - 4-3-2013 at 11:15 PM

Loved my little hang glider kite as a kid. I saw a guy at Seaside try and scud with a big blue kite in 2002 or so. There wasn't enough wind and I was underwhelmed.
At Cannon Beach in 2006 at Moe's I saw one of those one line foil kites and was intrigued. We were staying at Seaside so I walked into the kite shop there and Eli sold me the HQ symphony. I just couldn't justify the money until I knew I liked it. I spent the year flying a little and when I went back I begged my wife to let me buy a bigger one.

I got an Ozone Imp 3.5m. Eli showed my how to fly it and Tyson let me try his buggy. It was all over after that. Grass, Sand, Water and Snow. I love to ride it all. I am grateful to those who helped me out and gave me a chance.

Now I try to get others addicted. What can I say, I need more kite buddies.

beachrights - 5-3-2013 at 05:32 AM

Saw a guy flying a Flexifoil Stacker 6 on "my beach" around 1996- couldn't believe how fast that thing was! HAD to have one! Went home and Googled "Flexifoil" and WAS HORRIFIED at the prices! $250 for a Kite??!! Quite ironic now considering how much I have spent over the years!

Got one and was gone from there!

The Buggy? No idea- must have been here since I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANOTHER ONE EVER in person! Still find it funny since Kiteboarding/Windsurfing are so popular here and both the Bay/Ocean sides of the water are within 15 minutes north to south of me.

soliver - 5-3-2013 at 09:08 PM

For me, just like a lot of you, I started with all kinds of single line stuff as a kid,... Fast forward to about 5 years ago when I got re interested in kites on a vacation with the family to the beach followed by building my own box kite.

Part of the enjoyment became finding interesting kinds of kites and the introduction to stunt kites. While looking over plans in a book about kite making, I did a google search for foil sled kites which lead me to find parafoil stunt kites,... And you know where it went from there,...

First an HQ Symphony,... Then wait, I want something bigger,... how about a 5.6m PL Twister IIr,... Buggy,... Board,... No thanks, I just wanna jump,... Wait,... That buggy thing looks kinda cool,... Let me sell a bunch of crap on CL and buy one! (Thanks for the deal Big Mike).

Then I have to point to you guy's siggy's to convince wifey that there are dudes out there who are WAY more obsessed than me, and it'll all be ok if I just get one more kite,... Now I'm on restriction ,... Poop:dunno: