As I am quite new to the scene, I am constantly talking about my latest activity with friends and co-workers. As I am doing so, I am getting a lot of questions about how to get into it/try it out as they have either seen someone doing it on their trip or a few guys around the city.

My thoughts are that this sport is really quite easy to get into (cheap trainer and a bit of space/wind) and is very relaxing and enjoyable to just fly the kite, while having essentially no limit to how much fun or money you can spend.

Again, I am very new to the scene, but I was wondering. Do you thing this kite thing is going to stay the same size or grow?

you basically answered the question by the 5th word of your post. it is growing. looks like at least 2 more people in Regina than there was a few years ago.
share the kites along with the word and I will bet it will grow even more.

Sadly, growing. By that I mean that growth is great for retailers but bad for fliers who must compete for open space. Fortunately I think the water side of kiting is the fastest growing segment and I ride only on land.

I second that. All it took was a kiter EXPLAINING the logistics to me and I was hooked.
How much more so when people see kites in the air.

I don't care if you're a complete newbie, you can get a crowd. It's incredibly inspirational to watch.

I curently don't have to compete for space with hardley anyone but I look forward to having to share space I love this sport very much and to not share with anyone would just be wrong surfers share the waves and so shall we share our spots
Or make our spots bigger
But without the masses we have nothing with which to gain momentum to accomplish these and other goals we need the very people that threaten our space so for the time being I say we share our morals and our Passion so that someday there might be a vast windpark to use whenever we like be it land yachts blocarts or kites
Off soap box now sorry

wind dependent on that one, if you find good wind you will find sailors of some device, snow dependent, water dependent, gravity feed.....all the same.

if resource is present, the freeride is here to stay...i recommend a kite if you got breeze.

I'm all for the sport growing! Lately I've heard the argument "we may have to compete for space". I hate the feeling I get every time one of my spots cannot be used because people are playing soccer, or it's plover nesting time, etc but think of this for a second: with growth in the sport, we grow in numbers right? As we grow in numbers, membership in organizations like NAPKA grows too. Larger numbers in NAPKA may make it a little easier to have more locations to fly opened to us. Additionally, these new participants in our amazing sport/hobby/zen time/etc might be privy to locations we have not yet discovered. Sure there are many of us that make it their job to look at google earth and google maps almost daily, but not everyone does. Besides, google isn't always 100% accurate. If it were, I'd never post here because I'd be too busy with a kite in the sky on HUGE parcels of land.


I don't know, maybe I'm looking at this wrong but this is just what comes to mind when I think about kiting growth.

Imagine NABX with a half million dollar budget!

I believe the sport is growing at different rates depending on the skill.

Water is definately becoming more popular and is getting the most attention. Snowkiting is slowly growing. Slower yet is the other land sports.

Location has a LOT to do with it. 70% of the world is water so .....

Around here folks get turned on the the sport and then find out that we lack decent winds or locations on land. They move to water or lose interest. I think we all would like to see more folks in to kiting but our 1 and only decent park gets too crowded on weekends already!

You may be slightly off about the cost factor ? Typically we have 3 kites, a harness, helmet, ride and extra gear. It costs about $1,000 to get fully set up and that is minimum + used gear. Not bad when you look at other sports but not exactly cheap. Add in the travel involved in chasing the wind and this sport costs me plenty !

"You may be slightly off about the cost factor ?"

Not really, I qualified that by saying a trainer kite.

OR are you saying that people that fly trainers are Kite hobby enthusiasts? aka real people?

<Just kidding>

Quote:

Originally posted by BeamerBob Imagine NABX with a half million dollar budget!

I think of the kite shop owners, the motorhomes, the kites, the accessories, food, rooms, time off from work, car rentals, air fare, and drinks. No way is it 1/2 million, try 2 and up, easy.
Of course the sport is growing, how many people would you guess were in the video that Morrie posted with Coreys naked butt zooming by? The buggies alone were top of the line and now look at them. The kites also, not sure they have improved all that much more, some of the oldies are still outdoing some of the new.

As with anything it starts with a bang and then as the dust settles the ones left are the core of the sport. From there things grow at a more steady rate.

If the economy was better and we were all working and making money, NABX would be bigger than ever.

On another note, the World Cup for blokarts will be held the same week as NABX at the same dry lake bed as NABX. We are expecting some 200 entries and over 300 spectators. 10 years ago the same event wouldn't even be known of here, "Whats a Blokart"? When I say kite buggy most people respond by asking if its those things out on the water.

As soon as Mt Dew and RedBull get involved and the X Games includes us as An Extreme sport, Watch out.

Quote:

Originally posted by hickupper "You may be slightly off about the cost factor ?" Not really, I qualified that by saying a trainer kite. OR are you saying that people that fly trainers are Kite hobby enthusiasts? aka real people? <Just kidding>

The thing about this sport is that it is addictive. That " trainer " is just that ! Something you use to learn the sport. Just the 1st of MANY investments you must make if you want to become a true power kiter. To simply fly a trainer and not progress to riding ( or jumping ) does sort of make you an " enthusiast " ? Not that that is a bad thing ! Just a different thing.

Budget implies $ and my half million number comes from the hypothetical discussion on the Fox tv show thread of 5000 people showing up paying $100 each.

That probably varies region to region. Here in San Diego on water it's exploded, but on land not so much. Most of the kite surfers (water) don't even know anything about kiting on land, and I've never seen anyone doing it here.

Quote:

Originally posted by BeamerBob Budget implies $ and my half million number comes from the hypothetical discussion on the Fox tv show thread of 5000 people showing up paying $100 each.

what 5000 people? $100 for what?

yes this activity is growing.......................this forum has tripled in size since 2006...................the local water scene in the warmer months is insane..............used to be 20 to 30 kites 4 years ago since Ive counted as many as 80 plus kites in the air with another 30 on the beach..................access can be an issue but ensure codes and conduct are in order and youll never loose your access...................

I'm torn between looking for growth and not looking for it. We've had pretty good growth but I fear with numers comes larger chance of things getting on the radar and shut down.

But then all the stuff we've had shut down got shut down by the actions of a kiter that moved here before we had the numbers we have now.

skill driven modalities that are recreational with risk is only gonna grow so much. i think the commitment of TIME required to get going safely holds things up. product driven just keeps ebay fat with inventory and riders with recycle funk junk at a 1/$ and i'm digging that! ...so its grown, yes! its growing still!

the sport is ALWAYS ready and waiting for commitment deeper than the $ if not, it would be gone ...and we would not be here on this forum.

Quote:

Originally posted by Feyd I'm torn between looking for growth and not looking for it. We've had pretty good growth but I fear with numers comes larger chance of things getting on the radar and shut down. But then all the stuff we've had shut down got shut down by the actions of a kiter that moved here before we had the numbers we have now.

I know I am a bit of a dreamer but we built our own ski parks and watched them plow them down . AND NOW !!!!

I think around here if ski hills took snow kiting into consideration they could open the snowkite sport wide ! Ones like Hemlock that need something special to get crowds ?

I would like the sport in my area to grow, but only a little bit me thinks. Too many people could cause major problems. I understand that there are a few kiters in my area that I have yet to meet, but they probably only kite the lakes in summer. Speaking of ski resorts, I was told that Sunshine has a whole area in the back country that kiters snowkite. I've never snowboarded in the mountains before, but if that were the case, I'd totally make that a place of choice. Hit the slopes one day, the next snowkite all day long, then ride down the mountain at the end of the day.:wee: