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@roblukin makes the ABC News. Article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-01/encephalitis-survivor-doing-extreme-sports-kite-buggying/100951660

Hello all! Now this might go unseen as I am not sure how many people may remember my father AndyFly (Andrew, Andy) who sadly passed in 2011 from a seizure. His passion was kiting, buggying, and mostly, being apart of the BrisKites & Extremekites community. On the long weekend of Easter in 2012 my family and I travelled to Yeppoon to meet with many of the kiting community as we remembered dad for who he was, alongside an event that he loved attending (with us AndyFly "maggots" joining the fun 😂) as we scattered some of his ashes on the beach out the front of Driftwood. Our family has so many fond memories of so many different people within this community, and the joy that it their friendship brought Andrew. For the first time since 2011, my mum Linda and I have travelled to Yeppoon to spend the last few weeks remembering the adventures we use to have with dad on these kiting trips and the people that we met. We walked along the same beach today, in front of Driftwood, drawing his name once again in the sands that he once loved. I watched a kite surfer today and it reminded me of the times I use to go and kite with dad in Canberra at the Amaroo ovals at 14 years old, learning how to kite and watching dad fly through the sky in his buggy for hours. So here is a big thank you from our AndyFly family to everyone who remembers dad. To everyone who brought such strong friendships, fun, banter, love and support to dad's life. For everyone who left such kind words after he passed, and who posted such amazing pictures of dad (some of which I am only seeing for the first time ❤️) We are all doing well and hold these memories of you all close to our hearts. Hope to see you in Yeppoon sometime in the future! Jess

After VERRRRYY long break I finally got out on the buggy today. It was only a short one. About an hour and a half down at the much renovated Apex Park at Altona. 30+km SE wind with the trusty little 4m Ozone Access 2. I had really forgotten how much fun it is. Hopefully I'll get out a bit more over coming weeks.

Happy 2021 everybody- let’s hope there is more opportunity to get those kites out this year. Take care one and all!

An exciting day! At Sutcliffe Reserve in Corio, with my vintage 3m Quadrifoil. Probably needed a bit more wind 😂 There were a couple of faster bursts but they weren’t captured of course... Needless to say, it was a thrill and I can’t wait for the next session! IMG_0648.mov

Melissa asked me if I could 'vacuum a bit more' now that her maternity leave is coming to an end. Sure no problem, I can do that.... Fast forward a week... welcome to the family 'Jetson' We'll be at work and Jetson will do its thing... Olivia loves it Next step dishwasher in the kitchen and I can claim to do all the dishes too

Decided to go out for a quick fly with the family today (as it's corona Kite fest weekend), and take some pics to add to the fun. But greeted with a buggy zipping around the field and a new kiter struggling with twisted lines. So a big Hello to the boys their today!! Don't be lurkers, say hello, post up a message, and we can include you in our events, or random banter. Plenty of old farts kiters here to help if you want it. Or even if you want a hand setting up a kite! Hope to catch you both next time!!! And a pic of what I set up for the Corona Kite Fest.

I hope everyone is (and continues to be) fit and healthy, and coping. I suspect a major effect of the current situation will be a significant impact on people's emotional well-being, especially as it drags on. Remember, we can all use forums to keep in touch, air our thoughts/worries, and offer each other support. Fingers crossed, we'll all be catching up in person sooner rather than later. Kingston 2021 may end up being HUGE. Stay safe, and keep in touch

What do you think my chances are of getting a warranty claim on one of the extreme kites t-shirts? I love this shirt, but after ONLY 8 years of regular exposure to sweat, salt water, sunscreen and sunlight it has started to fall apart. @.Joel what was the warranty period on these shirts, because I feel like I should of got at least 10yrs out of it? ?

I convinced myself that I needed this bug for when I'm travelling abroad. The bug packs down into a bag. It is of course BS. When do I ever get to go anywhere? I'm averaging about one holiday every 15 years. 😂 Truth is, I'm a sucker for shiny rims wrapped in fat juicy tyres, so I decided to get one after seeing both Haakon and Bobby O post pictures of theirs on here. Mmmmm, shiny rims 😵

Well here it is Sept. 2020 and Chris tells me I'm on target to get my Sysmic 3 at the end of Oct-Nov. I can't wait!! Once it's together , the thing I like about it is that you can loosen the swan neck connection , slide it out with the front wheel. Disconnect the 2 bolts that hold the 2 piece axle into the rear plate , then the seat section stays in one piece , the 2 rear wheels are separate with their half of the axle , and you can shove the whole thing into the back of an SUV!! You get to the beach , shove the swan neck together , put the axles in their place , tighten everything up , away you go!!

A big Happy 50th Birthday to Peter Lynn Kites!! If you want to be part of the festivities, they are live streaming on Facebook on Saturday the 4th of November. From my first steps into kite flying way back in 1988, all the way to today, Peter Lynn kites have been a staple for me. Power kites are where I have enjoyed the most fun, and combined with my first buggy (a PL Comp), many years of fun and friendship has been had. Pictured is just the PL kites, and the long suffering (24 year old) Comp buggy that has had all parts replaced a minimum of twice, except the down tube. Which is the only original part!! The kite list: Holding a PL sunrise Delta, one 3.6 Peel, 6 C-Quads 1.4 to 8.5, 5.7 Waterfoil, 5.6 Twister, 2 Core's (3m and 4m), and 8 ARC's (original 1120, 6m Phantom, 7 and 10 Scorpion, a 13m Phantom-Scorpion hybrid and 10m bridled ARC from the skunk works of the PL factory, and a 6m and 15m Mark 2 Phantom's. And the future? Well I seem to have corrupted my 10 year old son into kites as well. So with a nice selection of kites to choose from there is no doubt that he will also enjoy using PL kites for many years to come. To all the current and past people involved at PL kites, Thank you for the many years of enjoyment that I have had with the products that you have created. Here's to many more good times, with our community of kite friends all over the world. Happy Birthday Peter Lynn Kites!!!!

Today I sold the final elements of my kite buggy equipment as advertised in the for sale section. (tear in my eye). Good luck to Tony from Brisbane who purchased it all from me. I just wanted to say a big thank you for the friendships that I formed from this website at the meetings I attended in Kingston and at Sandy Point, plus Bob here in Canberra. I learnt so much from members of EK and progressed my skills through your help. I have many fond memories of kite buggying with you all but it is time to stop due to nothing more than age! The body just cannot do it anymore as I reach 70! Good luck to you all and safe kiting. I shall remain on this website because I hope to continue playing around with my one remaining stunt kite! Thanks again for your friendship - I won't list names; you know who you are!!

Hey all, It's been a looong time since I have posted anything and its been even longer since I have been out flying. I've recently had the itch to take me gear out and go flying again. But unfortunately due to the poor weather recently it's been difficult to get out. The other day I brought myself a new action camera the insta 360 go 2. It's a small action camera about the size of your thumb and it only weighs a few grams. Today I decided to take it out for a test run and mount it onto my kite using the magnetic mount that comes with it, Due to the wind being very light today I could only do some static flying but I was impressed with how the camera performed. The stabilisation and horizon lock works really well and it produced some great footage. I can't wait to test it out on a beach run. If anyone is in the market for a new action camera I would highly recommend getting one of these.

Yes Vapors need a gentle touch to get the best out of them. I loved them and still have 4 of them. I really hesitated to fly my 7m Ozone R1 I bought for a start but once I gave it a go I was hooked after the first 10 minutes. Thanks @gannet your a great coach. The depower is still sensitive to fly well, but the depower made it so much safer for this old fella. Being able to let off any power in the turn instantly was a refreshing change. They still high speed stall like a vapor if your rough, but I'm sure you will enjoy a race kite. Long Beach at Kingston South East in South Australia. I also had an 8mtr Ozone Access which I tried but it was so sedate after flying the Vapors I sold it along with an Access 6. They were just no thrill and no upwind like a depower race kite. You wont be dissapointed jumping straight into a depower race kite at all. It didnt take me long to aquire a quiver of R1's. 7, 11, 13, 15 and I have an 18 ELF Joker 7. Also have a Chrono 18 and a 15 Chrono2 but love the R1's more for pure speed. Long Beach in Kingston SE, South Australia. Hope this helps, Cheers Chook

part 4:

An awesome session on the clay pan at Kingston SE, Australia - by far the best I've felt in the buggy yet. Probably cos of the harness thanks to @The Duke. Captured, edited and soundtracked by the inimitable @jhn.holgate. Can't wait for next year!

Some of the static flying.....

And Dougie flew the drone on this one....

yeah-well, not under the tree after all. But half a buggy arrived express just the other day, from China even(!). Also e-mailed with Chris, wheels, pegs and backaxle is on the way soon. It all fit together nicely, just slightly excessive long straps... 😄

Well this is all dependent on what's going to happen in the next week or two...... But being the optimist, I am putting up the dates for weekends with great tides for Sandy Point. All depends on the weather as well. Sept. 26th low tide 12.17pm. Sept. 27th low tide 1.08pm. Oct. 10th low tide 12.19pm. Oct. 11th low tide 1.02pm. Oct. 24th low tide 12.09pm. Oct. 25th low tide 12.56pm. Nov. 7th low tide 11.15am. Nov. 8th low tide 11.56am. Nov. 21st low tide 11.06am. Nov. 22nd low tide 11.51am. Dec. 5th low tide 10.09am. Dec. 6th low tide 10.52am. Dec. 12th low tide 3.58pm. Dec. 13th low tide 4.58pm. Dec. 19th low tide 10.01am. Dec. 20th low tide 10.48am. Dec. 21st low tide 11.33.am. Dec. 22nd low tide 12.17pm. Dec. 23rd low tide 1.02pm. Dec. 24th low tide 1.48pm. So it might be good for a pre Christmas run if people have the time off. Fingers crossed we can get a run in considering this very strange year.

During this COVID lock down and losing employment because of it I decide I liked being home and it was time to start my own business. I bought a 3D printer to help with design projects- prototypes etc. It’s been fun trying stuff out, and I’m going to see if I can rebuild my old Revo truck board using printed parts. I’ve designed the main truck housing to use tradition skate truck hole setup as the original Revos have a specific setup which means drilling into your board. I’ve printed this first test setup with PETG, which it the same plastic used in plastic drink bottles. So I’m hoping they will be less prone to shatter and may have a little flex. I also printed the bushings using TPU filament, not an easy thing to get right, damn stuff just wants to keep clogging up the extruder. But I managed to get two pairs done and they are a perfect fit, if a little stiffer than I want at shore 30D. I’m no plastics expert, so I don’t know what to expect when I try them out. The wheels may break as soon as I start kiting, the truck housing could just shatter on my first turn- no idea. But I’ve got new tires and tubes, will re- laminate my favourite board, probably treat myself to some new bindings and see if I can make it work.

I know, the title sucks. This is a short video. Just me out riding while testing my new storm kite, a secondhand eBay special, a barely used 5m Cabrinha SwitchBlade. I have been wanting one for years but they've always been too expensive new and I have never known them to come up for sale second-hand in this size, until now. To be honest, this video is not worth watching expect maybe for the squall at the beginning which i found interesting. No speed run this time as the wind died down after the squall to about 24 -27 knots with a cross-cross-on direction which meant I was buggying almost directly downwind at times with the kite underpowered and stalling. Top speed of the day 53 mph, footage not included because wet sand obscured lens. 😏 This new kite is to replace my 7m Hydra that i used to achieve a PB in August last year. ( wind 45 knots gusting 57 knots ). So this 5m has a lot of potential. It is more efficient through the air to allow for an improved top speed by delaying the onset of being pulled downwind towards the end of the run, not to mention much safer in those high winds, but there is one small catch, it's probably all bullshit. It will not have the acceleration of a 7m and will therefore require more space on the beach which I do not have. I'm loving this new kite. She reminds me of her older brother, the Cabrinha Crossbow. That kite gave me my previous PB 9 years ago. The SwitchBlade like the xbow gives a lot of confidence for its tame nature and the bar pressure is much reduced when compared to the Genetrix Hydra which should help save my arms on multiple runs. Now for this national lockdown here to end and the winter storms to begin.

That would be handy just to know the proper dimensions of the original Revo elastomers. I've got mine at 20mm wide and 40mm diameter, but I found them tough to compress into the housing even though I think that is what the original dimension were. I found that a width of about 19mm wide works best for these truck housings, but I have a set ready for anyone needing some for their Revos. Got a test run in today with both trucks on and I have to say I am a happy chappy. They are stable yet turn really nicely, I really enjoyed just carving up on them.

We have increased the trilobite family to 8 now. They are all white with red eyes. The new additions are a pair of small 3 m another 7m and a 10m The collection is now 3,3,3,7,7,10,16 and 36m The smaller 6 can effectively fly themselves tethered. But the larger 16 and 36 definitely need a minder i can’t get photos in the air just yet, but the day will come when we can get outside to fly again.

I took a punt on a bag of kites out of Sydney sight unseen from a lady I had purchased some "Blade" power kites from from many years ago. She rang me out of the blue when she found this bag when shifting house. (See it always pays to send a postcard of Esperance and a few $5.00 "Scratchies", thanking the seller for her help, when buying from her. She had done the extra yards by getting the blades into a box/packaged and into the post for me. She still had this post card on her fridge with my mobile number on it). This new parcel arrived a few weeks back and the postage and bubble wrap ended up being half the purchase cost. I finally got round to undoing it and sorting them out today. (Well actually getting my welding bench clean enough to put ripstop on). Out come some nice bits of history in among them was. 3 x 6 foot stackers in fantastic nick. Lines, straps and Stacker lines. Their manuals were included. In the photo below I already had the 4 foot (blue sleeve) My 8 foot (pink and yellow sleeve) and 6 foot (pink sleeve) in this photo. There is also a 10 foot red "Stacker" of mine that is not pictured, but I havent got any spars for it. Everything else pictured was inside the blue and silver bag from her. It's all price marked marked in English pounds. There was a mint Flexifoil "Stranger" complete with sleeve, lines and manual. Inside an internal pocket in the bag was this little beauty that I know nothing about or seen before. Also in mint condition. All round a nice purchase from a lovely elderly lady (who wanted them to go to a good home) and I've never met. Cant wait to try them out. Some days are diamonds eh?

Just because why not.

Yep , Hi John, Lucy is married to a second cousin and only live a few kms from our farm but on VIC side and also have farm land in SA as do many farmers in this area . It has gone crazy with with people not being able to do shopping or go to doctors etc. They now have to travel a lot further into VIC to do these things. Jenny’s brother leases our farm and he also lives just over the border in VIC and he has to travel a lot further to go through border check points even though our farm and another of theirs is only a few kms down the road from them. Don’t know the answer to the issues but it’s not easy and there’s a lot of animosity to in the community at the moment with an us and them mentality which is crazy as they are family, friends and work colleagues of all of us. we ourselves have sold our house in Bordertown and since mid March have lived mostly in Kingston with the occasional trip back to bordertown to get mail etc. and stay at the farm which is only a bit over a km from the border Stay safe everyone in these uncertain times and hope to see you all in January but is looking less and less unlikely. Here’s hoping ?. cheers Brenton ps: nice van , I new you’d come over to the soft side soon. Enjoy your travels in it.

Well I didn't see you offer to pay my $1600 fine if I got stopped by the police for picking up a kite.

I was lucky enough to be working for an essential service when the COVID19 lockdown commenced here in New Zealand, so are still working and earning money. Have not been kiting or flying my RC gliders for a few months now, have been putting my efforts elsewhere, now concentrating on my music productions. Funny 7 years ago when I started making videos of kitesurfing etc., looking for music to go with it, vids got silenced for using copyrighted material (oops, then switched to a paid service) and thought, why don’t I write my own music — not so easy. But I have been steadily working on music compositions, so now instead of thinking about writing music for videos I have made, I film videos to promote my music. Fortunately I do not need a recording studio, just use my home gear. I use a combination of virtual instruments driven by a midi keyboard, electric instruments like my violin, mic up my acoustic harmonica and the odd sampled sounds I find around the house using a contact piezo or mic. This all gets assembled on a digital audio workstation (DAW) software on my computer. My son Zac is continuing his university degree locally but all online from home. Here is a link to my latest work:

Thanks Andy. I still have a bit to do to the sail as you can see there are a few wrinkles where I've flattened out the top 4 panels (tapered them in at the leech "trailing edge" along the batten pockets and restitched) so the top of the sail doesn't twist off as much but still has a slight belly at the 1/4 cord point when fully sheeted in at high speed. Got to take the luff pocket in a bit over winter and smooth out these wrinkles. It's a 7m2 sail and goes well. At 80kmh I can now throw out the sheet rope and it just sits there feathered with the wind. No shaking at all. Slowly getting there. Yesterday was a bit lighter wind and my adjustments on my 8.2m sail worked pretty well (65.7kmh) but needs more trailing edge tension. Unpicking the 5th batten today and I'll take it in another 12 mm at the back. (3rd time on this batten pocket but it's looking much better) All a good learning curve to get more stability at speed. I really enjoy tuning them to match the stiffer mast. Cheers.

Haven’t posted in while been busy more with music compositions, but still kiting and slope soaring my gliders with my son Zachary here in Christchurch. The Distraction by Norman Freund https://youtu.be/0exNctKqQkc Special thanks to my son Zachary for helping out with the time lapse pre-processing and advice during the music production. No I have not switched to LEI’s ha ha, some one else kiting in the beach scene. Hey @bakersdozen, thanks for putting me on to the Reaper DAW (Digital Workstation). Takes a bit to get used to it to feel free enough to be creative with it. I tried putting the video together with Adobe Premier Elements, very clunky, wrecked the quality, too slow …. . So I thought why not try the video editor that comes with the music DAW, Reaper, hey not bad. Cutting up the video segments and synchronising with the music phrases is simple in Reaper since your composition is already there with all the cues and midi notes. The video quality in Reaper is good too. Hope you like it. Music only copy on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/norman-freund/the-distraction Regards, Norman Freund

Is anyone wistfully thinking about going to Kingston in 2021? I've had so many travel plans thwarted this year by the 'rona that I am looking at next year Hoping to get there (I found a route that does not go through Victoria) BobM

Welcome to 2020, where Extreme Kites is run by a Benevolent Dictator and the help of the community The new rules are here: https://www.extremekites.org/terms/ Report Types: Being a Dickhead Illegal / Hateful Spam Other Community Moderation Actions If three or more members flag a post as "Illegal / Hateful" or "Spam" the post will automatically be hidden and enter the report queue. This is now community moderation in place, where if I'm not around the community has the ability to get rid of something. I'm sure at some point this will be abused, and when that happens I'll try and improve the automated rule sets New Signups Content Requiring Approval I've reduced the requirements from 5 to 2 posts for approved content, I'll see how that fairs and if there's no real issues then I'll reduce it down to 1 approved post. This system is in place to keep this community clean, a lot of people follow a significant amount of content and as a result each day we send out a significantly large number of emails. What I don't want is a spammer posting in 50 topics and that being multiplied by the number of people following that content. Email reputation determines if new account signups, account recovery or general community notifications reach your inbox. Community Wide Content Approval The approval process for Downloads, Reviews and Speed Records will change over time and no longer require approval and instead will become immediately visible. Previously with content like Reviews I would need to manually create the feature image and some additional data, I'm preparing an update for the Reviews section and then that will all become automated. With automated Community Moderation it gives some more flexibility and removes me as the bottleneck to you having your contributions go live. Net Positive I'm operating this community under the idea that everything moves under a net positive. Opening up the community a bit more, automating a few things, more individual freedom to publish content etc. Sure there will be screw ups and issues at times, however I'm hoping the overall outcome is a significant net positive that outweighs the small inconveniences. If you made it this far thank you for reading

Gday, the larger 36, which has a body about 5.5m wide by 6.5 long has a fair amount of pull, we generally anchor it down to the car with 1200 kg spectra. It is probably a little overkill however I generally do not fly it over 15 knots. Being so large it can fly in as low as 3-5 knots with no problems and is very floaty. the little 3m guys do not have a very large lifting surface at all and can be flown on 120 pound spectra. the larger two 36 and 16 I generally launch with long line launch. Once they are in place and no children are hanging off the tails. The smaller ones can go up around and amongst them forming a swarm. they are very stable kites and self correct themselves in the sky by way of the huge long tentacles. Which act as rudders. They make very good lifters with plenty of stability to hang any kind of line laundry from them. pulling the big guys down is pretty simple. Just walking towards them along the lines. Once they are on the ground I flip the big girl on her back and she just sits there my next trick will be to try and get them flying in a train. With the larger one as a pilot and the smaller ones acting more like line laundry.

Came across this article on the web. A few years old, but worthy of a share. https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/72796965/the-kite-king-of-canterbury-still-top-of-his-game-at-69

Go big or go back to bed.

Hi John. Van looks great and is the ideal choice for stable towing. Our Eco is a Dec 2010 build, number 546. We are just on pause, waiting for some virus respite. Need that vaccine ASAP. The only plus for us is the weather on the NSW east coast has been worse than ours.

I was listening to the ABC radio the other day and Lucy Tink from Serviceton was talking about the debacle of the border closure for residents/farmers etc that have property both sides of the border. Related to Jenny & @bull31 ? Got the new van almost ready to go too.... @mik333 have you still got #456? How are you finding it? We're #458.

Wistfully thinking is about right! Yep, me too.....if they let us out of Vic.

I had a zipper on my 16m venom 2 give up on me last week. Bloody frustrating, as it was the inflate zipper and I was about to launch ?. The slide was so worn out that it won’t close the teeth anymore. anyway, I have fitted new waterproof zips to an arc before, but they can be a bit expensive and hard to find. So I thought it was a good chance to test out a Velcro alternative. its basically just a short sock and Velcro opening similar to the deflates in the flysurfer kites. the Velcro valves work quite well. I inflated the kite and slowly opened the Velcro. No air was escaping until it opened far enough to for the end of the sock to open. Sorry, no pictures before they got sewn in. But a few pointers I worked out for anyone wanting to do this mod. -Make the sock width about 50mm more then the zipper opening in the kite. - place sticky ripstop inside the kite where the zipper stitching was removed. - measure from the opening in the kite to the cell wall, subtract 1cm. This is how long the sock needs to be. -sew the sock in the direction you would use it to inflate the kite (pointing towards the centre) - sew a deflate valve into the trailing edge to replace the deflate zipper.

Finally got my fork fixed from when Rob crashed into my buggy and had a solid couple hours in the seat chasing Rob up and down the beach felt a little rusty but once I got going felt good actually really good but being a freak off season day its re fueling my desire to get back into it again

That donut looking one, next time give it a squirt of hairspray inside and a match... you'll get the sprinkles right off the top

Yep that sure is mine. Jenny sold hers to Andy at Australia Day fly. I haven't used mine a lot in the last few years and after a small stroke early Jan thought it wise to down size a few toys and give me more room in the shed now that we are semi permanent living here in Kingston SE. Cheers to everyone in these strange times.

Yeh sad to see. We have an emergency campground here the shire is servicing for those stranded with the lockdown of our shire. Police road blocks on all roads. Went past the campground yesterday when returning from our farm and the group were on the oval playing rugby together. All good here with no cases so far in around Esperance. I'm social distancing at our local Pink Lake. Getting out a bit too in great winds most afternoons for a quick run. Stay safe my friends and catch you after this mess is all done and dusted. Gunna be quite some time I'd say. Take care.

Bump for $450. Buy this and Trev's 3.5 & 7m's and you've got a great set of long star 2's

Three of the 'Tribe' 36,16 and baby 3. Taken from this angle, they all appear roughly same dimensions. have fun dougie..

Hey everyone...its been a while since I've been on. Been a while since I had a kite in the air. But I did get out last week as we had warm temps and great south winds. Had a good day with my bud Brandon at Atlantic Beach, New York. Project_01-11_4K.mp4

Had to upload this photo. Tibbey's brother-in-law is a photographer and captured this excellent picture of the "Tamer" Here is "Blob Marley" and two of the white Trilobites. I think its a great photo.