So my very good friend and coworker is a student at a local college in their Television and Broadcasting department leaning the ins and outs of the AV world. So his upcoming assignment is to interview an individual about their interesting pass times, including some B roll of said interesting pass time.... so he asked me if he could interview me about kite buggying... HECK YEA!... go buggying after work and have some dudes film it with almost professional equipment... sounds good to me!!!

Now I've made it clear that I will not talk about my injury or the really stupid stuff that people do in the traction kite world because of the possible damage it might do to the Power Kite Community and our access to riding spaces, he understood and agreed, so let's NOT have that discussion. I do know better so we are not going there

I would love a little input on the history of the sport. I remember little bits but would love a more global view of how it developed (should I be asked) ... for instance where does Peter Lynn fit in? Did he develop foils or just refine them?... though the project is only 3 minutes long so there may not be any discussion thereof... I just want to be prepared.

I believe the Chinese are credited with the first Kite powered cart.

from Wiki The kite buggy was probably invented in China around the 13th century. It was promulgated by George Po#@%$#! (inventor) in the UK in 1827[1]

Give this a read for some background info and peter's development of the kite buggy design as we know it:
http://www.peterlynn.com/info/history/

Spencer, you might also point out that the kites you are using were derived from designs NASA originally tested for space capsule recovery way back in the 1960's based on concepts developed by Francis Rogallo (inventor of the hang gilder). Here's a useful link.

http://2e5.com/kite/nasa/reports/

Thanks guys... those are some good reminders. That's the stuff I need!

Who needs google when you can jut ask other people to tell you what you need

You should have a little talk with Markite, Morrie or Danny about how the sport found it's way to North America.

I have heard the story from both Morrie and Mark before but the names of the folks who were moving to power kites what models of kites didn't stick. I know there was a certain kite gathering that the buggy was introduced and it all took off.

Quote: Originally posted by Bladerunner

You should have a little talk with Markite, Morrie or Danny about how the sport found it's way to North America. I have heard the story from both Morrie and Mark before but the names of the folks who were moving to power kites what models of kites didn't stick. I know there was a certain kite gathering that the buggy was introduced and it all took off.

Ok, ...Mark,.. tell me about it!

They may only be asking me how I got into the sport but I want to know a little in case they ask me about it.

If the wind cooperates with me tomorrow afternoon for filming the B roll, it will be my first go in the buggy in months!... Since my first buggy runs with the 6m Peak!... I really excited about that!

Thanks again everyone.

Hey Spencer
the time will go by fast and you probably don't want to bog down too much in history but there are a small number of people in the US that provided the groundwork for North American market. Fran Gramkowski I believe was the first importer bringing the buggies in and along with people like Corey Jensen who made trips to Australia to buggy with Peter Lynn, they started doing exploration of the various dry lakes here in the US and producing a buggy newsletter and led a small rag tag band of kite rebels to where we are today. There is a lot more history of specific beaches, dry lakes, events, people etc - i can put a few more names down but it all started very early 90s for buggying and grew from there.

some other ideas might be to touch on kite design and without getting to deep into it touch on steerable kites and mention Paul Garber who developed the target kites in WW II used for gunnery practice, then Peter Powell with the first commercial steerable kites. Also as Randy mentioned the nod to the NASA and Rogallo Wing. Talk about flat kites and then ram air foils (Domina Jalbert) and then the next step of going from 2 line to 4 lines and then depowerable and greater safety etc

going back many years people have used kites as a means of traction (George Po#@%$#!) but coming forward to more recent times kite skiing and kite skating has been around quite a while but even more popular in the later 80's then buggies started early 90's then surfing late 90's.
you could talk about kites being used with shipping, alternative power development, space exploration etc etc

you could emphasize that it can be an activity for all ages and can be leisurely and easy or like anything you can push it to it's limits and go as fast as you like (keeping in mind that there is safety factor to the rider and anyone in the path)

so many things to talk about .... you could make it a small tv series

Thanks for all that Mark, but it likely won't get to all that, I really only want to have a base knowledge in case I get asked... I believe the majority of it will be about me, how I learned about it/got into it and how to do it. Like I said though, I just want to be prepared for those other questions.

Quote: Originally posted by markite

Give this a read for some background info and peter's development of the kite buggy design as we know it: http://www.peterlynn.com/info/history/

I know this is off topic but I couldn't help read this and wonder what they were talking about. Arc stability and ease of use vs LEI's? In my (admitted limited-phantom 15m) experience twinskins are notoriously shifty and difficult to setup and operate compared to a tube kite. It's rather difficult to bowtie a lei, but I've never had a session on the phantom without one. Thoughts?

You have to keep in mind the time frame when this was written. The early arcs were extremely stable and in the early days of kite surfing you could easily launch and land an arc by yourself and great auto zenith. In comparison it was the early C kites that had very little de power, were a little tougher to self launch let alone self land etc. those were the days when it wasn't unusual to see someone getting dragged out of control or tossed by an LEI especially in higher gusty winds.
If you are flying the newer Phantom 2 then yes they are less stable at the auto zenith in gusty or higher winds than earlier arcs but once you have more arc experience it should be rarer that you get inverts or bow ties. For me I'd say the only time I might get a bow tie is launching on an extremely gusty high wind day in the winter when wind is swirling all round. When I was learning arcs it was more frequent to have a blown launch but now maybe once a year on a harsh day. On the other side you are correct that LEIs have come a long way and I still remember when I shifted from exclusive arc use on the water to LEIs thinking at one point they had reached parody with arcs in terms of use but delivered better power and then within short time they (LEIs) surpassed arcs in many handling characteristics.

Sorry Spencer for that side track

I meant to get back on here the other day and let you all know how everything went.

Thursday, I watched the forecast get more and more crummy, but there was no way to possibly reschedule. We got to the field at 3:45 and after setting up shots and the like of me unloading the buggy and setting up the kite, I didn't get flying until about 4:50 and I had to start packing up no later than 5:20 to be home by 6:00. Not to mention that when I took the bug off the car I heard that unfortunate "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" of a tire losing air! It held up well enoug to ride though so that crisis was averted... I had no idea that it would take so much time to set up shots, but in the end I was able to put up the 10m NS3 and get a good 30 minutes of riding in. Not complaining at all, it was just different than I expected. No crazy speed or anything super exciting, but I did catch a few decent gusts.

Big thanks to Randy for coming out to fly and add some color in the background... Sorry buddy that I didn't get to hand out and chat much but thanks so much for coming.

Friday, not much to say about the interview, but they did a cool back drop set up with my Stinger Buggy and 10m NS3. Hopefully I did us justice with my answers to the questions. There was nothing too dynamic going on in the buggy on Thursday with the cruddy wind, but I had a good time.

If I had not already scheduled a day of family stuff on Saturday it would've been a great day but that wasn't in the card.

Thanks everybody for all the info and as soon as I'm able I'll post the video!

Spencer,


That was fun. Thanks for inviting me. If they put up a youtube or vimeo anywhere, let me know. I was really impressed in those light winds you were able to get going at all. Those 10 M NS3's are pretty amazing!