19 replies to this topic

[MercFlyer]

Howdy all,

If you feel like a read here is a little about me,
I'm from South Lincoln County, town of Yachats. I found my first dual line kite about 8 years ago while walking on the beach a couple miles north of town during one of the stormiest days of the year:w00t:, had no success getting it off the ground once the weather cleared so I took it to the local kite shop up in Newport and was hooked up nicely, the guy helping me got stoked and called my kite a skynosaur. I flew that for a couple weeks and went back to Newport and bought a Prism Adrenaline, I flew that for a couple years just fooling around and even though it was always in my rig I just kinda stopped flying. I felt a little confined by the movements honestly and while I tried some crazy spins and stuff I just couldn't wrap my head around it back then.

Fast forward 4 or 5 years and now I own the local hardware store. A friend on the Chamber of Commerce called me a couple months ago about resurrecting the local kite festival. Having great memories as a child of that kite fest I jumped at the chance to help and am now the Director and my hardware store is now a kite shop as well! I have been doing a bit of research about kiting since taking on the festival and have seen so much cool flying.

I had never even heard of indoor kite flying until a couple weeks ago, I had seen quads in vids a couple times but had no idea about how cool they were, I bought my first Rev an EXP Sunday, while attending the Lincoln City Kite Festival. Too bad the wind has been uncooperative. I have been able to get a couple mins flight time (until I run out of ground behind me), the feeling of control when I get a small gust is awesome. I am considering driving back up to Lincoln City to get a Zen and some lighter line.. it's only 50 miles. Not being able to fly my Rev is driving me crazy and milk and cookies ain't going to help, sorry. I do like milk and cookies though.

So I just wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for all the great info on this forum, kite flyers are some of the coolest people I have met.

Wyatt

[Kitelife]

Hi Wyatt!

My wife and I got married in Yachats.

Welcome to the forum, don't be shy, great bunch of folks here.

[windpoacher]

WELCOME!!! Wyatt.........were you flying a small power kite sat evening after the festival?
Eli here, and I am sure we talked a bit!?.......
Great to see you on the forum!
Be careful , The REV BUG can BITE HARD!!!!!!

[--Pete]

The Skynasaur has its good points and its bad points as a first stunt kite. It's heavy, but it's almost indestructible. I think it turns a bit too fast for learning, especially in the smaller sizes. (And, as I recall, it comes with fairly stretchy flying lines.)

It also can be flown under water and back into the air again. The trick is to stay aware of its orientation just by looking at the lines. Otherwise you may fly it to the bottom where it will crash, just as it would if you flew it to the bottom of the air on land.

Much better to fly a Rev (which can also be flown into the water and back out again).

[stroke survivor]

Welcome to the "Darkside" and the forum!! If you can't find what you're looking for, feel free to ask!!!

[MercFlyer]

Thanks for the hearty welcome!

John, that is super cool you got married in Yachats , I saw you and Tk fly on Sunday and it was great. I have to say your instructional videos are a life saver and your flying videos are amazing. Have you ever tried attaching flint or some other metal to your pole ends to make sparks for night time street flying?

Hey Eli:lol: that was me you talked with Saturday night. I missed you on Sunday but I am sure we will fly together some time for sure, I have a good friend in Ashland, and if your not doing anything on Sept 3rd you and anyone else who wants to come fly is invited to the resurection of the Yachats Kite Festival.

Pete, I thought he was referring to the age of the kite. The spar holders have "Modern Kite" molded on them, was skynosaur
a line of kites?

Stroke, the Darkside sure is welcoming, and the info is excelent thank you.

May your sails find steady wind

[Kitelife]

Thanks Merc, we had a really great time in LC... Glad you enjoyed the show, sorry you didn't come say hi.

Flint on the wing tip... Interesting!

[katrina]

Hi Wyatt! I was at LC too, but we didn't meet. We just didn't get any wind Sunday, did we? Well, not till much later in the evening. Terrible conditions for learning, just awful. Impossible, actually. But I wouldn't rush to buy a zen just yet. The zen is really a different beast, and it won't be the easiest to learn on. (FYI, a group of us were comparing the SUL with 50 lb line with a zen on Sunday, and we were liking the SUL better!) Just wait, you'll have enough wind soon enough. You do live on the coast, after all. It's more likely that you'll be wanting a vented B series sooner than you'll ever need a zen. And a standard (non vented) B series wouldn't hurt either, but the exp will be fine to learn on. You know about WSIKF right? Are you coming? See calendar at top of page. Welcome to the forum!

[MercFlyer]

Hey Katrina, thanks for the thoughts on the Zen. Glad you made it LC unfortunately I didn't meet many people, I get a little nervous walking up to new people at big events sometimes, but I'm working on it. I would really like to be able to travel to other shows but I took over the local hardware store in January and it's a six day a week one man operation so no long distance traveling for me for a couple years but it's worth it being my own boss.

I got to fly a little bit more today , it wasn't raining too hard but it wasn't blowing to hard either . I had a blast when those little gust came along though .

[stroke survivor]

Don't be nervous, we all have the same thing in common, Revs!!! We don't bite, come and join in the fun, and who knows, you or us may learn a thing or two from each other!!

[--Pete]

Pete, I thought he was referring to the age of the kite. The spar holders have "Modern Kite" molded on them, was skynosaur
a line of kites?

Skynasaur was (maybe still is) a line of very heavy-duty (and physically heavy) 2-line stunt kites. They came in several sizes. The smallest I think was called the Aerobat, and the biggest was a letter and a number (T-74 or something like that). They were often sold by stores that didn't sell many other kinds of kites (I got mine at a hardware store), and were characterized as learners' kites, maybe because they were so strong. Because they were so heavy, they may have discouraged some people who live in the less-perfectly-winded parts of the world.


It certainly would be a descriptive name for any ancient style of kite, but if the company is still active, I suspect they would be annoyed to hear their kite name used that way.

[FlyEmAll]

unfortunately I didn't meet many people, I get a little nervous walking up to new people at big events sometimes, but I'm working on it.

I'm the same way. Very cautious and shy. Fortunately for me, my wife is not and that helped me out of my shell a bit more at LC. Good luck and we'll see ya 'round.

[MercFlyer]

Hey all,
I don't think I'll ever worry about approaching a fellow kiter after the warm welcome and encoragement I've received here, thanks. I will deffinately be shaking some hands and introducing myself from now on.

Pete, thanks for the history on my kite. Up till now I only had two kites and the Skynasuar was always in my bag next to my Prism Adrenaline for anyone with me.

I am hoping to be able to make it up to LC for some of their mini fests one of these Sundays.

Happy flying

[SkyHook]

Welcome to the forum Wyatt!

I was at the LC fest on Fri and Sun also. I walked up and talked to several Rev flyers on the north side of the river those two days but evidently never ran into you.

That LC beach is several people's including myself favorite place to fly. I am lucky enough to live only a little over an hour away and I get there when I can.

Maybe I will see you there one of these days.

Bruce

[MercFlyer]

Hey Bruce,

I am hoping to make it up to JC on July 17th, the mc on Sunday said something about a mini fest every weekend until the fall show so I figured I would show up to some of those. That being said.



I am organizing a kite festival in Yachats on September 3rd and I would be stoked to have you all there.

Yachats started it's kite festival in the early 80's but about 5 years before LC started theirs Yachats stopped. I was voted youngest person to fly a kite at the first Yachats Kite fest (I do miss that

old mylar dragon kite), only because I was holding the string while my only competition had the string tied to the wrist. I have always loved kites and I am very happy to bring back the Yachats

fest, kites have such a great ability to elicit happiness, excitement and wonder about the science of it.

I am so glad I found this forum, it is a beacon of light in an internet of forums full of unhappy people sending unhappy messages. I have yet to read a non-positive message on this board and

that is awesome. I have read a bit of the old posts, I like to read the old stuff because you find so much good advice and it has helped me greatly. I work 9-5 Mon- Sat but beyond that I am

willing to travel a bit to fly with people, hit me up on FB Yachats Mercantile or E-mail yachatsmercantile@gmail.com.


Any Rev flyers going to the Oregon Country Fair?



may your lines be tuat

Wyatt

[stroke survivor]

Being on the north side of the "D" river Sunday, I didn't hear about the weekly mini-fests!! Every weekend?? Sounds like a possibility during the summer!!

[MercFlyer]

I'm pretty sure that's what I heard, maybe someone else who was there heard the details. I tried to find something about it online but to no avail, I did find an article saying that LC started the fall fest in '78 which makes what I said earlier wrong though.

[stroke survivor]

Did anybody hear anything on this??? Positive or negative, doesn't matter, just looking for the lowdown!!!

[MercFlyer]

I just called NorthWest Winds and Sandy said they were going to have people flying giant kites on the weekends:), they had some guys on the beach right now but the winds were a little to

strong to put anything up. I am going to do my best to make it to LC on the 17th. It's windy here:w00t:, I hope they stay till dark at least.

here's to straight lines

[MercFlyer]

Got to fly last night, a vented is definately in the works along with a Blast I think. So much fun, did the basics lots of up, down, 8s and hovering. The sun is out and the wind is back up again, only two more hours till Rev timeB).