so I went to a music fest last weekend and in anticipation of good winds I brought along the bug and a bunch of kites...I thought that it would make a good spectacle at least....so I checked the wind conditions so many times that day I thought it was a sure thing..there is a huge field near the spot and it was gold for the day...when I got there there was simply nothing...for hours...really lame...and then while I was watching the bands rock out....the wind simply turned on...very odd.....so I went out at the last tiny bit of sunlight and flew my legend 5.5..at first I was out there near a small group of stoners hiding out in an empty farm field...its really not that good of a hiding place(huge empty field?) and they were really not understanding what I was doing even after I launched the thing anyway...but then a friend came out there and took his 9 year old boy....that was great....this kid was so bored at this music fest, he thought all the bands sucked......but when they came out to watch his face lit up like a xmas tree...I was doing some jumps, and scuds and butt scuds on lumpy dirt field no less... but still the kid almost peed himself laughing while he was watching until the wind got too crazy... I even did a couple of really high jumps.....but then I had to call it at that point because the wind was just going nuts out of nowhere...then after I was done his dad (who is my age) came up and said
"don't tell anyone that I was laughing as hard as my son"...the man had a grin so big it was almost a grimace......At that point the management came and told me it was private property but it was so cool that there must be a way to hide it.....alas it was too dark at that point but I really got an appreciation for what its like for non-kiters to see this for the first time....so regardless of buggy, I had a blast....flying static is a bit uneventful for us but when people see it for the first time they think your crazy and children think its really flying and breath takingly hilarious...and now I am sore from showing off to a little kid....

sorry bout the long post but its nice to regain perspective...the general public doesn't even know this exists...
DQ

Nice story Art. I always try to be approachable to bystanders and take the time to answer their questions. One of us might be the only power kiter they ever meet. They can either say "those kiters are jerks" or that we are really nice friendly people. It might be completely up to you.

Ive noticed that, every other person I've ran into that likes these kites is very friendly.

The only person i met that might strike me as a jerk was a guy flying a trainer kite by my usual spot. He seemed very #@%$#!y.

He thought you were flying at his spot!

Yeah, I had many people walk up to me this past weekend at Wildwood, expressing how awsome they thought this was, and "where can I rent one?" haha. I had to explain the litany of ripstop, start small, learn how to control the kite, then work up to buggying, jumping, etc. Fortunately for the G.P., there were a couple of kiters with tandems giving rides to anyone that wanted them, and let me tell you, face splitting smiles were the order of the day! I think that went a long way toward showing what a great sport this is and how great the people are that indulge in it.

At one point i think bobalooie had a permagrin

Quote:

Originally posted by bobalooie57 He thought you were flying at his spot!

Its not his spot, ive never seen him there before. Even then the place is big enough for a bunch of kiters to go through without hitting each other

Quote:

Originally posted by Jolt Quote: Originally posted by bobalooie57 He thought you were flying at his spot! Its not his spot, ive never seen him there before. Even then the place is big enough for a bunch of kiters to go through without hitting each other

Seriously i thought he was another douche (pardon my french) who was trying to show off something he thought he could out do anybody in.

I think he was using one of those 2 line slingshot trainer kites, not too sure what it was.

Quote:

Originally posted by BeamerBob Nice story Art. I always try to be approachable to bystanders and take the time to answer their questions. One of us might be the only power kiter they ever meet. They can either say "those kiters are jerks" or that we are really nice friendly people. It might be completely up to you.

EXACTLY......