Slartibartfast

Just called Jas. He said he'd have to take a look at the emails I sent and get back to me. Hopefully it won't take too long. I explained that I was asking because I was wanting to buy this bug so asked if he could get to it as soon as he was able to. He did also say he was not sure if there was an S1 available or not, which kind of throws a spanner in the works, so I asked that he check about that too. I'll let you know as soon as I hear back.

I've sent Jas both a PM and an email asking what kind of price he could do a wheel-less S1 for and will let you know as soon as he gets back to me. I'll still be after the S1 when they finally arrive as I like the idea of the thigh locking (aka bum pinching) side-rails and general heavy duty construction but am thinking this bug will no doubt tie me over till the Sysmic buggers finally get here; and well, surely owning 4 buggies can only be better than owning 3

Oow, oow. Must say you have really peeked my interest. Hmmmm, you know me well Maybe I'll shoot Jas a PM asking if he'll be able to sell me a wheel-less S1 when they arrive and ride this guy in the mean time. Andy: I see you say local pickup only but would you be willing to "e-go" it to Adelaide for me if I were to cover the cost?

Hehe. Being the dyslexic fool that I am I have my computer read everything aloud to me so I actually end up 'listening' to all these posts rather than 'read' them as such and "Emma Chisett?" came through clear as day for me

I have now tried several routing algorithms and none seem particularly correct but they do all seem to work. Also, I've found that you can't force the strap through any of those slits twice, or at least I wasn't able to, so we're also limited to only single pass weaves I'm afraid

Looks like it's an Apexx

Very, very nice indeed! What's the race/dune bug? Sand Yettie mentioned he heard Peter Lynn had a desert bug in the works, I wonder if that's it. Also, could anyone tell if they were using the PL-spreader bar (the one with the wheel). Looked like a normal snatch block to me. Sensational video though! :good:

Will these calenders be in Spanish or are you planning to make an English version as well?

Thanks Jas, it's much appreciated. Disappointing obviously but nevertheless much appreciated. Thank you.

Yeah, that is what I currently have, but on the odd occasion I've needed to pull the release it's not been particularly quick to locate and jettison. It still did the job but I certainly took a pounding or two before I was able to set the dammed thing free. I know what you're saying about perhaps not being able to "pull your self forward" but I'm wondering if it ends up happening like that. As your getting dragged there might be serges in the pull that could well cause the strop to fall off on it's own, or at the very least give you enough to pull the handles in. At any rate, if you being dragged so severely that you can't pull you self up I'd imagine finding the release knob for the QR-latch would be quite a task of its own . Without having used these spreader bars I couldn't say for certain but my feeling would be that even in the flurry of being pulled nose first through the sand they would be easier to release than the QR-shackle. Is anyone using them? And does anyone know how it is that the "Prodigy" keeps the line hooked in?

Thanks guys. I have tried using that web form before but didn't like the way you didn't get a copy of the email you sent so prefer to email 'Info@BrisKites.Com.Au' directly but the last few times I've tried the message has come back a few days later with an "undelivered" status. Anyway, I called the shop today. Jas was busy and the guy I spoke to said they had no news. When I asked about the possible "Thursday" mentioned in this thread he said he didn't know anything about it. I also asked about as to weather there has been any conformation of them leaving China and apparently there hasn't been. I said something about Jas posting a while ago that they were due to leave China in a week and asked whether or not that had happened. He told me he didn't know about the thread and suggested I should monitor the thread for updates. I guess that's as good as saying Briskites have no idea when (or even if) they are going to arrive but if that really is the case I would prefer to hear Jas him self say as much. Not sure why I'm inclined to distrust the lad I spoke to but I kept having the feeling there was more information than he knew of. At the end of the day I know all we'll be doing is waiting anyhow but I just want to know how things are going.

Has anyone used these? I'm looking at turning over to the Apexx XXgrips handles and am thinking these spreadder bars might be a good accompaniment. The reason I like the look of them is the relative ease with which one can hook and unhook and the way the they hook onto handles that already have a strop. Currently I use a QR-latch and snatch block which I shackle to a de-power spreader bar. This system works but I like the idea of just being able to un-hook just by pulling the handles in and not needing to mess about with the snatch block when switching kites. For this reason I'm thinking the "Bullet" speared bar might suit me better: As it is I very rarely spin my handles to undo twists so am not to concerned about loosing that ability but am wondering how well the "Bullet" functions with the lines wisted at 90-deg to the wheel. The other option is the "Prodigy" bar that "features a small plastic tag preventing your line from accidentally unhooking during your ride.": Does anyone know how easy it is to unhook with this tag? Also, is it possible to hook a chicken loop over that wheel, and if so is there any way to keep it in place when the lines go slack?

The Thursday I'd assumed Jas was referring to has now been and gone. (His message was posted on 23rd so I assumed he was referring to Thurs 27th). I know he also said "at best" and specifically stated that the buggies were "not here yet" but was hoping he could elaborate a little. Anyway, yeah I guess I'll have to give him a call again. I never like calling the shop directly as I always end up having the sense that I'm interrupting him and this is where he had posted the information in the first place, but yeah, guess I'll just have to interrupt him again.

. . . I take it that's a no?

Oow, oow. Does that mean they should be arriving imminently?

It's not too bad. Although the sun had set there was still usable light for a while after and it only took 30mins for us to be back at the car park by which time there was still plenty of light to get by. As time wares on it does get hard to see each other on the beach but the kites stand out plenty well against the light of the sky. Also the constant foam of the waves helps to highlight the shaw line -although in the dead of night with no moon you might find yourself plowing headlong into one of those 'washout bays' where the waves inexplicably wash in a surprising amount further than normal (we've all fallen for that one ). Even in the dead of night though there is enough light pollution from Goolwa its self to have the silhouette of the kites stand out against the clouds. I also carry a couple of those flashing bicycle lights in my gear bag just to help other people see you but we didn't need them this time. You can get them off eBay surprisingly cheaply these days .

After a little more scrounging I cam across this web page about PL-Arc setups which says: What I have appears to be a "Zero4/5" control bar.

Resisting all temptation to make a joke I'm afraid a actually lost my donkey dick on the weekend. It was attached with a small piece of Velcro to the chicken loop on the bar of my PL-Venom. I seem to recall seeing it lying about somewhere but I'd be darned if I can find it now, so it looks like I'm up for a replacement. I also seem to recall people being somewhat critical of the older PL attachments and was considering upgrading the whole thing as it was so I might as well do it now. Can anyone suggest a suitable upgrade and where to get it from? I'm assuming the bar it's self is fine so am hoping to upgrade just the Chicken loop and Donkey Dick. Thanks. Edit: this looks like th attachment I have:

I agree, no contrast adjusting etc. seems unnecessarily restrictive. I mean your only going to get less good images if you dis-allow balancing (and not to mention cropping). Surely when you print the images in the calender it's self you'll want to adjust levels. Here's an example of a nice looking photo that has been submitted that would be greatly improved with a little balancing: https://picasaweb.google.com/1058214691 ... 8982052898 And could you even tell if it had been?

All the best for the little takker, and it must be said you guys missed out on a sensational session. The Sweet Swede and I had other commitments for the morning low so were only able to make it out for the evening session, but it was fantastic! The evening low was right on sunset and there were only light winds by the end of the day. We got there about an hour before sunset but the beach was the widest I have ever seen it! There was a good 2.4m low but the whole beech was usable right they way up to the sand hills them selves. I've never seen Goolwa like that before. We both pulled out our light wind kites and after a little messing about set off for the mouth. I was flying a 6.8m Ozone Razor in my Zebra and Johan (the Sweet Swede) was flying a 13m PL Venom on his Land board. Usually Johan gets his act together before me and sets off on his land board first then I do my best to hunt him down in the buggy, and I can tell you, once he gets going that bloke can prove to be surprisingly difficult to hunt down. Anyway, last night the gods were with me and I managed to reel him in, though be it inch by inch. Once down at the mouth we watched the last of the sun drop behind the horizon, then started the trek home. We were kind of racing again but the return journey wasn't really a fair race because as the winds wained ever more my 6.8m Razor grew in it's element while Johan's Venom lagged. (that is of coarse assuming a race between a buggy and a land board was ever fair in the first place ) All in all it was a wonderful evening flying on an absolutely spectacular beach in what proved to be light but beautiful conditions. Hopefully some time in the coming season we'll all be able to make it on the same day and enjoy such a day as this together. All the best, Slarti. Edit: Here's a KML trace of our run. And a graph (just cos I can):

I accidentally hit submit before I'd intended (well actually my dog did :s) so it might be worth reading over that post again. Also, does anyone know how to embed Google+ videos directly? I can't work out how to get the direct YouTube link so have used a Picaso link instead but the video tags don't seem to work

Okay, finally got back to this one. Here is the original footage: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0 ... directlink The first thing to do is to convert it from H.264 to a format VirtualDub can understand. I used some free 'AVI converter" program for this but if you're savvy you can add additional codec information to VirtualDub to open H.264 files directly but I found this very unstable. VirtualDub is an archaic piece of software to use at the best of times and DeShaker is most definitely cut of the same guild. That being said though once you master it it really is a remarkable piece of kit. Fortunately there are a number of 'getting started' guides out there but you'll still find your self scratching you head a fair bit in the beginning but if you stick with it you will be reworded eventually. Here is the output from DeShaker showing the work it does: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/h ... directlink I like to 'project' the footage onto a larger 'canvass' to give more freedom for panning & zooming at the end. Once the footage has been 'DeShaken' I use Sony Vegas to manually pin the vertical alignment: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/k ... directlink With particularly long and violent rotations DeShaker tents to loose it's bearings so you need to do this by hand. One point this you need to experiment with is keeping the subject vertical and shaw line level. The two often don't align (particularly with wide angle lenses) so you'll often need to pick one to preference. Next is to crop the image to remove the black boarders: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/X ... directlink At this point you end up 'zooming in' on the footage a lot and any shortcomings in your footage quality become somewhat glaring. When I shot this particular footage I used the waterproof housing but didn't have any anti-fogging agents in the case so the lens ended up fogging over completely by the end of the run. The footage starts off fine but when 'zoomed in' you can see a blurry patch developing (which incidentally you can see scrolling about the frame as the camera its self rotates). The final task is to manually pan the cropped image to save the subject from jumping about from one side of the frame to the other: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Q ... directlink DeShaker does a good job at removing the small 'vibrations' but is not so good at identifying the 'macro' changes which persist for several seconds when one side of the kite is pulled in more than the other (as happens in turns). You can spend as much or as little time on this part of the process as you wish. One thing to watch out for though is to not over 'smooth' the footage. It's easy to get carried away and re-center just about every frame but when you do this you actually loose a bit of a sense of the dynamic nature of kiting and find your eyes tend to get glued to the center of the subjects head (or what ever it is you were centering on) and the rest of the frame kind of blends into the background. For this reason I like to try and let the subject 'sway' to different parts of the screen a little rather than keep them transfixed to the center.

You say that like it's an unrealistic thing to do. Anyway, to answer you question (if indeed it was a question). Nobody has paid a deposit and surely if they had they would have been refunded by now anyhow. (after all when the call for orders was made we were to expect delivery in June) Anyway, as I said, I'm actually starting to think seriously about letting this one slide. I've kind of been sitting on this money for a long time now and just this week my partner got her motorbike licence... Don't get me wrong, my first choice would be to get the buggy, but with it now being mid October and still no confirmation that they have even left China I'm starting to wonder if I could spend the whole season waiting. And with this beautiful sunshine beckoning I can't help but start to wonder if I'd be better off sinking the funds into a 1st bike.

VOS? SOV -> I, that article, can not believe I read. (Goz, perhaps you're getting confused with the old literary chestnut - the NOT joke )

Good video John. Very clear footage of the rig in action with very little 'waffle' Good work! One question though, Would that be a "hot wire" I spy at 1:40?