bakersdozen

Extreme Kites over the past month has had an enormous influx of content, the challenge now is to make that content discoverable through different parts of the website.  To meet that challenge many hands make light work, and I would like to thank @bakersdozen, @andy666, @Mfwetu and @igeighty for stepping up to help.
The first step is for us to work through the 1600+ reviews that now exist on the website and apply the relevant tags and filters so that the reviews can be easily discovered and displayed alongside relevant content.  This is a manual process now that each and every individual review is filtered, tagged and saved.
The second step is going on a discovery mission and finding reviews in the Forum and moving them to the Reviews section. This is a little trickier but in the end will help centralise all reviews in one location.
This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint and I would like to thank the people above for volunteering to help out.

Project Salvage : Restoring 15 Years of Kite Reviews.
RaceKites was an example of a collective human effort coming together to build the largest, dedicated online repository of kiting reviews.  In 2019 RaceKites went offline, today I would like to share that the sum of all that knowledge is coming to Extreme Kites.  
Alan Short, the owner of RaceKites was responsible for building and maintaining the platform for nearly 15 years containing over 1500 reviews.  I’d like to acknowledge the thousands of hours Alan put in to the RaceKites community, and his immense generosity in providing that content to Extreme Kites.  
RaceKites as a platform in my opinion was one of the most important online resources available when looking to purchase that never ending ‘next’ kite.  And even when you weren’t, it was still a bloody good read!  With most of the manufacturers either having packed up or moved on from Land Kiting it’s increasingly likely that someone new entering kiting is going to purchase a second hand kite.  Restoring this incredible resource to the Internet gives those individuals access to the information we had years ago when we were making those decisions for ourselves.  
Bite off more than you can chew, then chew like crazy!
Over the next few weeks / months I will begin importing the RaceKites content to Extreme Kites.  Right now I’ve revamped the Reviews section a bit, with a bit more to go and then that content will start to flow in and become available to everyone again.  Similar to the ‘Recovering 20 Years of Kiting History’ news I’ll be using the comments area below  to keep a running update on the progress.
Thank you again for being part of Extreme Kites, thank you to the wonderful human being Alan is and hopefully today’s news brought a little bit of happiness to your day.

Wow - I have the most viewed blog! Thank you to everyone who taken the time to view my pointless blogs. I've been quiet lately with the writing however I hope to post something soon after the next play on the beach. 

Last season two of my passions intersected, flying drones and flying kites.  I love power kites and i've been flying them for over 10 years now, however drones are a recent passion in the last 3 years that i've picked up and started to enjoy.  I used to call them multi-rotors, but the mainstream public's declaration of calling them drones has now washed off on me.  During our Kingston trip I finally had the opportunity to really intersect the two passions, and this year i'm hoping to take things a little further with my video production.
To start with i've purchased some Joby Gorillapods, and these things are really versatile.  I was planning to review them, however I dislike unboxing reviews as they really don't prove much going down the path in terms of use for a product like a gorillapod.  So i'll come back to reviewing them after i've had the opportunity to really use them.  Initial thoughts however is that the large Gorillapod SLR-Zoom is a tank, it's solid.  The Gorilapod magnetic, feels a bit like a fragile toy.  The Joby ballhead feels solid, I would of liked a secondary type of safety on it in case it releases, however I'll just wrap the neckstrap around the legs for now.

  
 
Something else I picked up was the Pico Dolly, now this thing for product video etc is amazing.  It's also incredibly amazing as a slider cam when you can't be bothered hauling a full 1.5M slider and setting it up on two tripods.  All you need is a smooth surface, a walking path, a car bonnet, hard packed sand, anything that you can smoothly roll the wheels over and produce a cinematic sliding effect.

 
So the collection from last season has grown a bit, and here it is below.  
I'm considering a DJI Osmo Mobile to use with the iPhone7 Plus, and a couple of additional SJCam's to mount on to people at the Extreme Kites meets.

 
PS: If you didn't see my video from last year here it is, I've refined a lot of techniques and learnt some new angles and ideas since then I hope to be able to reproduce in the next event video.
 
Thanks for reading, hit that like button if you enjoyed this blog entry so I know to add more!  
Comment below if you think you would like me to create a couple of tutorials the gear, settings and how i use it for different results.

So in a not too distant past tattooing (And body art in general) was the mark of sailors and criminals –  if we for a minute ignore the fact that Frederick IX of Denmark (1899 – 1972) was quite tattooed for a royalty – and didn’t mind showing it off in the interview with the American magazine LIFE. But then again he was educated in the Royal Danish Navy so one could argue the part about sailors still holds true J

Frederick IX of Denmark was quite tattoed and not shy of showing it.
Within the last 20-30 years’ tattoos has become more and more mainstream. I fair guess would be that you can’t be in a room with 4 (adult) people in Denmark without at least one of them has ink somewhere on their body. A fair question would be to ask why it has gotten all this traction within a relative short timeframe? No doubt the Danish king’s approval of tattoos had a big impact in the field. He even formulated the current law on tattooing in Denmark, short and simple one is not allowed to tattoo anybody below the legal age of 18 and one is not allowed to tattoo hands, neck and head. Beyond that everything goes – and since there’s not much regulation one can buy the gear and call themselves a tattoo artist (Not unlike everybody can buy a kite and call themselves a kitesurfer – or worse a kitesurf instructor) in Denmark.
Around 1990 it became more and more acceptable to get a tattoo, when I got my first tattoo a few days after my 18 years’ birthday in 1998 (A biohazard sign – don’t even ask) it still wasn’t very common to see them out in the open – unless you frequented the more shady part of town – or the skatepark J
Now everybody has them – and gladly shows them off in public. We’re talking every layer of the society from the homeless guys on the corner to the TV host to politicians.
 
For the last 10 year I’ve grown older, perhaps even a bit wiser and my piercings are long gone. It’s not for the lack of wanting to get another piece, I simply have prioritized other stuff (Like kite gear) – and having to stop surfing for a month on order not to ruin the new tattoo didn’t appeal to me. But when I a year ago was forced to take close to ½ a year’s break from anything kite related I decided to get another one I’ve been eyeing for a few years. It’s a piece from an artist called Derek Hess – his work is quite unique and it’s certainly not for everybody, but isn’t that always the case with art? A week ago I got another one – since it’s winter in Denmark and bloody cold (down to -10 degree) I don’t really feel like surfing anyway J

The one on the right arm (Left in the picture) is the new one, "Boo boo angel".
On the left (Right on the picture) is the one that's a year old now, hemorrhage with some lyrics from the Nightwish song "She's my sin"
 
Time will tell if I’ll grow tired of them, I know the two I got 10-12 years ago aren’t the prettiest nor the most original ones, but them remind me of my youth and being on my shoulder and lower leg they’re covered most of the time anyway. They’re a part of me and a part of my story and I’ll keep it that way…

My name is Joel Theodore, I live in Australia and I have been kiting since 2003.  Throughout my journey I have experienced and enjoyed a variety of kiting disciplines, starting with a kite buggy and learning ground based freestyle then moving to aerial freestyle and buggy jumping.  After a few years I moved on to Kiteboarding and enjoyed many seasons on the water, however after a bit of a break i'm back in the buggy and this time chasing my goal of outright speed.
In 2006 I joined Extreme Kites and my involvement over the years with the community grew.  In 2011 I took on ownership of Extreme Kites to preserve the website in an endeavour to keep the Land Kiting community in Australia together.  After a few of life's events and some time away in 2014 the flame to chase speed records has re-ignighted.  

In 2015 I launched the new Extreme Kites website with the help of a newly appointed Team and moved ownership to my private company, this has enabled me to lay back a bit and enjoy partaking in the community in a more relaxed role.  My role here is now Website Support where I code, develop and create new and exciting features for the Extreme Kites community.  
My goals going forward for Extreme Kites are that it continues to foster a positive, welcoming and warm community spirit for those entering the world of kiting.  Over the years I have seen various websites, communities, blogs and social media platforms come and go, however for more than a decade Extreme Kites has stood by and supported the spread of kiting knowledge.  I believe information for those interested in kiting should be made public and available, it shouldn't be hidden behind paywalls and closed groups unable to be found.  The easier we make information accessible here the greater the community benefits, so I hope the time I spend on improving Extreme Kites enhances your experience here with the community.

See you around the website or when I'm out with a kite in my hands.
 

After a couple hours of buggying, it's good to have a break...stand up and stretch the legs.  Take in the awesome scenery.  Grab a drink and a bite to eat.  And speaking of a bite to eat, have I got a recipe for you.  Exclusively on Extreme Kites is my Honey Oat slice recipe!!  Ok, it's not really my own invention - I've been mucking around with it for a couple of weeks, changing a few things here and there and adding a few bits to see how it would go.  Anywhoo, this is yumo.  
Melt:  (I chuck it all in a saucepan and stick it on top of my woodheater for 20min or so).
300gm Butter
4 tbs Honey (can substitute 1 or 2 golden syrup)
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Mix in bowl:  (a big bowl!)
2 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of rice bubbles
1  1/2 cups of plain flour
3/4 cup caster suger
1  1/3 cups dessicated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup of sultanas and or currants
Add melted butter/honey/vanilla to dry ingredients and mix well.
Press ingredients into 18 x 28cm slice pan lined with baking paper.  Press too hard and you'll get a pretty heavy and dense slice, too light and it will have trouble keeping together.
Pop into oven at 180C for 30 min (give or take depending on oven)
Heat up 2-3 tbs Honey and pour over slice when it comes out of oven.  Cut while still hot - it will be pretty soft.  Leave in pan to cool.
Store in airtight container for up to 10 days.  (yeah, right, like it's gonna still be there in 10 days).
mmmmmmmmm.... forget the shop bought rubbish, this is the read deal!

As summer draws to a close and the weather starts to get a bit colder I usually find myself trying to escape the winter and make my annual pilgrimage northward, kiting wherever I can along the way. As most of you know, I am currently im currently in Port Douglas. Most of my winters are spent up here, it is one of the few places that is both windy and warm at this time of year. Most of my days here are spent playing with the kitesurfers and just splashing around in the puddles ...