Anyone try other wind related activities before jumping into power kiting ????
.... For me .... I never fly kites before .... never sail or I actually never like windy whether until I discover power kiting ....
.... Now I can't stop searching for signs of wind ..... flags and trees never was so interesting ......

I took up the sport knowing nothing about wind, kites, sailing or boarding.

I had lost a series of Loved ones and was fighting depression . One of them had shown me Corey at the Gorge before he passed and set the seed.

I took lessons in 04 and struggled with the board part . Having never ridden any board style. I was frustrated . Had good kite skills by this time. Out of desperation I took my kite and roller blades out and it was MAGIC ! Like I had been doing for a long time right away. I then discovered the land crew in Van and never looked back.

I got to the level I hoped. I can ride most rides safe and pull off big enough jumps to satisfy my need. Progression has slowed but the love of the sport remains !

a two line stunt kite around 1990, and still have it, but sailing roughly about same time on the ocean, alot of cat sailing all self taught. countless 30-60mile solo treks.
i just wanted lighter gear.
kite sails are light, compact and highly versatile power.

I was hangliding in the mid 70's until the late 80's. I was flying 2 line stunt kites and very large one line kites until the late 90's.

Peter Powell diamond stunt kite with 50 foot tail in 1982 (yeah i still have it) then my first 4 line kite was a rev II in early 90s (still have it as well)- I remember when i got the peter powell it was $50.00 and my mom who took me to the store to buy it thought that was nuts- really not too bad for a kite that still flys and is now 32 yrs old.

Sailed an AMF Sunfish I bought used and falling apart for $300. Complete 100% refit. That girl was bad@$$. Moved up to the Zuma. That was super bad@$$!! Self taught with hard knocks, but I always made it back to shore AT the point I left from. LMAO

Got married and had kids. Sold boats and have not sailed since. Sur do miss it though. A feeling like no other!

I honestly think if I sat in a Blokart, I would be done....

Never did wind activities of any other kind before this but always loved the outdoors. I used to absolutely loath windy days, especially when I used to bicycle. Now I obsess about the wind on a daily basis:D

I started in mid to late 90's flying Prism Illusion and Prophecy. About 1996 bought a 102" Revolution. I build and fly RC planes built 1 heliocopter I've yet to log many hours on. I grew up and still live on lake Ontario and took a year of jr. Sailing in about 1988. Youngstown, Ny home of the Levels regatta Once 1 of the largest fresh water regatta's around really kept my interest in sailing and wind power. I want to learn to Hang-glide one day. Maybe get pilots license. Love wind and anything that flies!!

Started with little foils, inspired to move to bigger foils..

I had wanted a kite stack since seeing it in a book when I was very young.
Finally got the 3 stack last year and more recently doubled it to six.

I started with single line kites at my grandmother's on holidays as a child. My dad is from farmland, Indiana which is home to legendary kite maker ansel toney (single line). He was sewing kites before most of us were born. We flew the kites and reels he had made. Since then I was into model rocketry and flying single line kites with my kids until last april. I decided to take a look at the kites at our local hobby store and they had a $20 dollar 2 line stunt kite. I took my daughter to the local park and tried it out and I've been hooked ever since.

I have always been fascinated by the power of the wind. Tried sailing and wind surfing but never took it seriously. I started with 2 line kites for 4 or 5 years and moved from Seattle Air Gear open cell foils to 4 line open cell foils when I moved to windy Calgary. I still enjoy flying my 2 line kites but love the freedom of movement that 4 line kites give me.

It all started about 10 years ago on a trip to Montana with my wife and inlaws and a bunch of their friends... I noticed how hard the wind was blowing so I went out to the Garage of the rental house we were in with a plastic garbage bag, 2 sticks and some scotch tape... I ended up with a diamond kite that flew off of some twine I found... I wound up becoming intrigued by box kites and made a few of my own in the years that followed.

As the years passed, I ended up with a bag full of home made and store bought single line kites and one delta 2 line stunter that was slowly becoming an addiction. I saw a foil/sled in a book and when I google searched "parafoil kite," I was brought into full swing with my first stunt foil (2.1m HQ Symphony beach). All down hill from there.

That Montana trip was a 60 yr birthday present for my father in law, he turned 70 last week.

My dad had a thing for box kites , he took a tricycle front end and modified it to hold lots of line , one time we had one up there just a speck in the sky and an airplane passed thru the sag in the line between us and the kite. Somewhere around that age I was building sails like a kitewing to power me on sleds and ice skates (I'd go ripping across the ice and sit on my butt to stop , I really didn't know how to skate). I've sailed and owned multiple little sailboats and did a tiny bit of tandem and bunny hill hang gliding. Almost forgot I "parachuted" off the roof our house when I was a kid , lucky I was a light wieght and the sheet was big.

Snowspider reminded me of my 1st experience.

I was about 5 years old and on the beach with a very strong wind. I discovered that if I put wind into my beach towel I would get tossed down the beach like the twig I was . ( am ) I remember doing it again and again and thinking there was something to this !

Sounds like many of PKFeres did play with wind before .... ..... I was a computer geek for most of my life ... I wish I discover outdoors earlier .....

Quote: Originally posted by Kober

Sounds like many of PKFeres did play with wind before .... ..... I was a computer geek for most of my life ... I wish I discover outdoors earlier .....

^ This exactly. Spent too much time staring at a monitor. Now I stare at trees waiting for a wiggle.

Seems to be a common thread of sailors -> kiters and I'm in that same thread. I sailed, and specifically enjoyed and sailed catamarans. Eventually I had to sell the cat due to a cross country move, and I was lamenting it later on my trips to the beach. Go to the beach, look @ the water, feel the wind and not able to have fun.

Then I met pbc and was introduced to a little thing called kiting. Sailing on land, crazy performance, and easy setup/teardown in comparison to a boat. I played a bit with small kites learning to fly and then pbc got me completely hooked after a long weekend @ Jekyll.

You all are assuming that the term "wind" is an active force in motion, sometimes it is more "resistive and reactive" as in drag and down force, especially during autocross and track days.

lotta autocross myself...loved driving over the little cones

^ Drinking the best beer crafted by the hand of man!

mmmmm..love beer

Did someone say beer????? :D

I saw a guy flying a stunt kite during a super windy day. He was getting drug across the grass and I thought it was cool as hell. I was maybe 10 at the time and decided I wanted to get a 2 line stunt kite. I never did, but always thought about it. In my late 20s I started skydiving. That is the most fun you can have with the wind! Around last year I saw a 2 line power kite that looked just like a parachute. I thought it was a great idea because there were no sticks to break, and it packed up small. The bums let me fly their kites and I was hooked. (yeah, homeless guys with a large quiver of power kites). I've also done a lot of sailing, from small boats, to hobies, to 30'. I taught sailing for a few years and have raced a bunch of times.

Been sailing small one- and two-hulls all my life, guess I handled these solo from about the same age as I learned how to ride a bike, ~6.
Later all my friends had motorboats, but I got stuck in the wind driven part of the fun :D

Kiting was presented to me by a dear friend, whom got an ~4 m2 bridled 4-lined open-cell kite in 1997. Got hooked and bought an nasawing, but only to realise that if I were ever to be able to go up wind I needed a C-Quad! My friend got himself an Wipika (he was the one who got the time on water, and actually learned how to ride). The summer after I bought an Mosquito, a closed-cell kite, fun but un-easy to handle when not in the air, generally tangling-prone and was slow to build up internal pressure. Later Arc's. 1120 was used a lot. Last winter I got myself a 14m Naish Bolt. Now it appears tso hat I just don't like kites that needs my full attention not to dive down on me, so now I'm waiting for a Charger2
Funniest part right know seems to be foilboards, so one is in the process of construction.

Have always loved to throw a single-line kite up, regardless of the shape. My favorite was the "Puffer Kite", back in 1971. (Talk about a low-wing engine, well... maybe not an engine, but definitely low-wind)
About 4 years ago my wife and I picked up a couple of cheap 2-line small stunt kites. Her's worked great but mine kinda sucked. So I told her I'd like to spend a little more on my next kite, she blessed the idea, and while driving the google-mobile around the web, I noticed the HQ Symphony Beach 2.1... found some video's that convinced me to try a "foil". Once I felt that "tug" from this little foil, my addiction was set! :frog:

First use of the wind to make solo tosses to myself using direct wind's force. Loved it! I did it sometimes competing with my dog to catch it first.

Quote:

Once I felt that "tug" from this little foil, my addiction was set!

That's exactly what happened to me with the prism quantum on a windy day. It's funny how some people don't get hooked the second they feel the pull. I've taken a few people before and thought they would instantly be hooked, but they weren't. I guess it's just a switch that turns on that some have and some don't.

I am 28 years old in a month. I have been single lines since toddler age, and flying 2 line stunt kites since I was 7. I used to buy a new stunt delta every year my family would go to the beach. It was a running joke because every year I spent more and more money on them. I still have most of them.

When I graduated high school, my parents bought me a Prism E2 for my graduation gift. This was the most expensive kite I had ever even seen at the time. I flew it at the beach that same summer in 25mph wind, which is right at the very top of the range on that kite. It was dragging me through the sand, and I was scudding before I even knew what scudding was. I scudded all day until I did a nosedive straight down onto the handrail of a deck on a beach house. The kite split in half from butt to brain. Exploded the spine, shattered nearly every piece of carbon fiber in it, and totally split the sail in two. I literally had one half of the kite still connected to each line in my hands. I was very surprised that the 75 lb line didn't snap.

The next year, I bought myself an E3, as well as a new kind of kite that the shop owner sold to me as near indestructible. I wanted something that I could hand to anyone that would fly like a stunt kite, but could be crashed over and over. It was my first foil. A Prism Stylus P.2. I let anyone fly that thing. It has been boofed countless times by everyone in my family. That kite also has some serious pull for a little 2m two line stunt foil. It pulled harder than the larger E3 that I had.

I was hooked to foils and power kiting was inching its way closer as I started to find pictures and video on the net of people being dragged on the beach or picked up in the air by large kites. I even nearly pulled the trigger on a few of the ebay death trap Fuels still floating around. (REALLY glad I didn't do that) Found my first real power kite on sale on Amazon, the Tensor 5m. The first time flying the Tensor it was in maybe 5 mph of wind. Not enough wind to be able to park it near the edge of the window, but the pull of the thing still scared the poo out of me. Needless to say, I started buying up more and more gear, a harness, a larger kite, a buggy, a board, a depower; and here we are. I check the weather reports every day, multiple times a day, to see if I can find a little puff here or there to go put a kite in the air for a bit. I love kiting. It is the one thing that gets me off my ass and outside in the fresh air.

I hated wind before I became a kiter. It always seemed windy out here and that annoyed me. Once I started kiting, I realized that it wasn't all that windy most of the time. Before I mostly played video games, watched tv, and snowboarded when I could.

Before I got back into kiting (power kiting) I'd spend a windy day at the local Disc Golf courses and be frustrated!! Now if it's windy I kite if not I Disc Golf!!