It seems that this community isn't as popular as it was 8 years ago when I was last involved. Why?

We had an interesting discussion similar to this a few years ago. Lots of ideas, some are as follows: rise of kitesurfing, rise of social media, cost of the sport and PKF members being caught up in life's exigencies among other things. This past year has been tough too because the virus ended up cancelling a lot of our events and gatherings. But we soldier on and hope new people will come along and those missing will come back. One good thing - there is a lot of used gear out there and it is getting cheaper to enter the sport.

Since you have been gone a while, perhaps you can shed some light on that.

http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=35761#pid33...

Randy hit it right on the hea, social media and kitesurfing took over. I have recently gotten into paramotoring (paragliding with a motor) and the only place the community comes together is in Facebook, and it sucks. There are many paramotor forums out there, but there is almost no traffic to them. All everyone on facebook does is argue and start drama. I feel like it deters many new members from joining, like it did to me, before I realized it is the only place to get information.

This forum is a hidden gem. Everyone here has a great attitude and when the discussions do get going everyone is helpful and supportive. I may not be able to kite where I am at now, but I still vist this place every day to see what is going on.

Above comments coupled with fact that it is difficult for new members to figure out how to register... well... all that stifles conversation.

I've had to move on to non-traction kiting for the most part. I still love flying the big sails but my first post on PKF has come full circle for me.. I don't post as much anymore but I do check the forums several times a week. Almost daily.

I check in daily when I get home in the hope that someone has posted something interesting. I don't like to see for-sale threads but if someone is buying then I guess its a positive thing.
I'm still attracting subscribers to my youtube videos at a steady rate of about 1 per month! It always surprises me as to why they do, but someone somewhere must find kite buggying interesting enough to sub. So we should draw some encouragement from that.
When I reach 200 subs then I will do a special video or something. ( so about 3 years time ) :D

Until then I keep diverting people who wander aimlessly looking for static or landboarding advice on kitesurfing forums to PKF and Extreme Kites.

Started paragliding

For me it is because there's not enough time to do it and when I do have the time, the conditions aren't right nearby. It was nearly a 3 hour drive to where the conditions were right. So because of this I could only buggy once a month if I'm lucky. Part of that is because of my job, I'm well aware of that. But to have a bunch of money tied up in a sport that I can hardly ever do made me eventually lose interest. Sad, because it really is a fun sport.

I check in about every week, and even the few posts a day is enough for me to keep the faith in this awesome sport, and the awesome like-minded folks who enjoy, or enjoyed it as much as I do.

I typically ride buggies once a year, at IBX. Which makes it an amazing event that I look forward to. Yes, once a year! I have three buggies and a land sailer because I love that once a year so much!

This year the cancelation of everything has resulted in me finding Delamar Dry Lake north of Vegas. This is a great thing.

The lack of work means that I get to ride buggies twice this year! Bitter sweet, huh?

The forum is a wonderful thing in the months leading to IBX. We are all excited, we are all dreaming about seeing friends and beating our personal bests.

After IBX I typically go dormant on the forum for a few months.

The same can probably be said for other events that people attend regularly. Luckily they are spread throughout the year so the forum stays active.

The way I Look at it is that we are our own audience. We created this place, we need to keep it entertaining and worth visiting. We do that by being awesome to newbies and when we meet...giving them the handles and say "hold this for a bit, will ya?"

If you want a polar opposite of PKF, visit my BMW forum where people get eternally harassed for having a remotely negative thing to say about the car GOD would obviously drive if he was human. E-gads! Talk about higher-than trolls.

PKF is awesome. I love it here.

Paul

Thank you all for the interesting discussion. I understand that kitesurfing is pretty sexy, but land and water kiting aren't mutually exclusive. I used to really enjoy land kiting even when I kitesurfed regularly. It was really nice to find a big field to buggy in when I didn't have time or enough wind to kitesurf.

My friend just bought a beach house in the southwest part of Galveston Island. I plan to get a buggy and a couple of more kites. The beach sand is really well packed there. The nice thing is that my wife and children will be occupied with other activities while I'm flying kites. It's still a 2 hour drive for me, so I'll also be riding in some parks near my house.

On a sad note, I let each of my older children fly a 2 line trainer foil kite over the weekend, and neither were very interested. I had hoped this would become a family sport. We'll see.

I agree that social media sites have probably had a lot to do with the decline in popularity of PKF. Younger people are using Facebook or other forms to communicate.

I hope that Dead Bird Buggy Bash is still happening in Galveston this November. I haven't been in 9 or more years, but that was fun.

Quote: Originally posted by bourgeois.jason

Thank you all for the interesting discussion. I understand that kitesurfing is pretty sexy, but land and water kiting aren't mutually exclusive.

Definitely room for both. I buggy in the cold weather months and I'm on the water when its warm. I do make exceptions for JIBE of course. Now I'm working on kitewing and windfoil. There are a lot more places where you can do windsports on water than buggy on land unfortunately.

I keep checking in and hope to get some time in Wildwood in the fall. Jekyll again in '21 with luck but it's been a tough year and just taking it slow. I sure miss riding under wind power, trying not to get pitched off that board in a gust.