I have had the pleasure of hearing the story of how power kites were introduced to North America and then at one event the buggy was introduced. Unfortunately this was usually after a safety meeting so the details didn't stick.

I am hoping that those of you who read this and were there back in " the day " will share their memories of that important few years.

The makers and models of those kites that led to actual traction kiting in motion is of great interest to me along with the introduction of the buggy. MORE interesting to me is the names of those pioneers and what they contributed.

A little side note about Corrie Lama and his contributions would also be cool! I am inspired to start this thread from losing our chance to let new members know how inspirational he was.

Just to start off I dug into Andrew Beattie's archive from rec. kites when he published some of Peter Lynn's papers. here is a snippet from Peter's review of kite buggy history:

"I confess that my kite buggy development was an off shoot of kitesailing development which had been taking all my efforts since 1987. By 1990 I had made considerable progress with kitesailing, sparked off by the first practicable steerable parafoil (a converted jumping chute) acquired from John Waters at Lincoln City in September 1987. John is one of the giants of 20th century kite development, unheralded and almost unknown because he does not travel the circuit. Thank you for this timely gift John - look what you've started.
In 1990 Ron Spaulding, organising the 1990 Thai International Kite Festival asked if I could bring something a bit different to help their publicity and suggested kite powered trolleys. Fortunately I had a kite powered tri-hulled boat which was suffering from instability. (Hulls too small) Replacing the hulls with wheels and shifting from the lake to the park soon cured the problem and buggying was truly born. (In late 1989 I had bought a land yacht base and powered it with a 5.5m span S55 Delta Form stunt kite to check the practicality of the conversion.) Fran Gramkowski of High Fly Kites bought this first model - Hang on to it Fran, it's a collectors item. After the Thai Festival, development proceeded rapidly with the next three (the first stainless steel tube frame models) going to Masaaki Modegi in Japan, Martin Lester in England and Andrew Marnie in Australia. These all had larger wheels and remote steering.
Although there have been many subsequent but minor modifications, the first current layout (.4m diameter wheels, direct steering) went to Jurgen Lienau in Germany after the 1990 Berlin Festival. I am indebted to these people, and others who, by taking these early models off my hands created an incentive for rapid development. By September 1992 I was very content with the state of buggy design worldwide. As befits a new sport, every imaginable layout is being tried out. The direct steering tricycle buggy remains the best all round performer and the industry standard. There are now kite buggy's in at least 16 countries."



then this report by Dan Rubesh from the 1994 KTA show
which was now a few years after the first buggy was shown:

"It seemes to me that the hottest new product at the show was the kite buggy, and this was born out by Peter Lynn International's buggy being voted Best New Kite-Related Product.. The Land Lizard was there as well, also seemed to be a well built buggy it is being handled in the US by Shanti Kite Company, so it will be available from your favorite kite dealer.. Flexi-Foil has also jumped into the buggy market with a variation of the original Peter Lynn design that's being produced for them by Peter Lynn.. Some of the other players in the buggy market, notably the Force-10 and the High Fly are shameless knock-offs of the Peter Lynn design.. I'll have a bit more on buggies in a separate report on the Buggy Boogy Thang at
Ivanpah Dry Lake.."
Andrew Beattie had an interesting post script to Dan's review:
"I must stick up for Steve Shapson. When we played a trick on him by swapping
his buggy for a a Lynn buggy (and hiding his buggy out of his diminutive reachin the toilet!) his first question was "who stole my rip off?". He is honest
about the situation and has told me that he is doing the honerable thing -
working with Peter to find a mutually acceptable deal."


Going back through old info I was trying to find the exact date of when I bought my first buggy. I moved from Toronto to Cambridge in 93 and i had my buggy while in Toronto so probably 92 ... I think I have a receipt for the crutches from the fracture clinic that came a couple of weeks after i bought the buggy :-)

I'll put together some other snippets of info and post them.

Here are four video segments from the Buggy Boogie Thang in 1994. You can see by 94 there was already a substantial buggy crowd making the trek to the dry lakes.
Thank you Morrie for posting these clips on youtube
part1
part2
part3A
part3B

Peter Lynn prototype remote steering buggy, I have this one in the kite dungeon


Land Lizard in the dungeon



SHBKF

Thanks Mark for tieing this history down!

Dayhiker, can you get a close up of that front fork on the one with red wheels? Trying to figure out what is going on with it.

Here are some stills from the Buggy Boogie Thang, Ivanpah Dry Lake, CA, January 17-20, 1994.

http://www.rainbowsendcam.com/bbt_1994.php

also of interest on the site Morrie noted above are the archived issues of Buggy Newz (which was Corey's pet project) from the first edition in early '93 to '97

It's just the text but there are some good stories in there and updates on worldwide buggy events from the early to mid 90s

http://www.rainbowsendcam.com/buggynewz/index.htm

Here's the Land Lizard unassembled in it's original carry bag. The bag is marked "Many Thanks, an unreadable signature & KTA '94". Signature is said to be that of the designer.



This is an image showing the down tube with the steering bearings shown. They appear to be light duty tie rod ends.




Image showing assembled front end




I bought this buggy for it's historical significance. It is in good condition & usable. SHBKF

Thanks for all the background and great link. Seems like I was about 1 decade late to the table.

I believe that my buggy is also pretty old. It is the buggy refered to in the link that was made for Flexifoil by Peter Lynn. It is unique in that it does not have articulated side rails.

Awesome buggy history here.
Thank you Morrie and Kelci
Thank you DH
I want to see your kite dungeon