richardc

Nice one Sean... how about : Announcements General Chat Meets/Events For Sale Don't want too many sections, or any posts will appear sparse, I reckon... Richard PS - damn cool day on Sunday, if a little breezy!

See y'all on Sunday! Thank gawd it's the weekend!!! YAY! FRIDAY! Richard :D:D:D

Could be, could be... How's the arm doing?

Aye indeed sir.

Aye indeedy - totally agree that anything advertisingy should be kept well clear of any email lists! Definitely the website for that. The Yahoo list is just an email distribution list. Emails addressed to sekites@yahoogroups.com gets copied around to the people who've signed up to it. We set it up to see if it'd be easier/quicker/more convenient to simply fire out an email rather than log onto the Forums - in practice this forum thread has had a lot more use than the Yahoo list! (Incidentally, to be added to the yahoo list, just drop a line to sekites@yahoogroups.com and you'll be added)

Given that everything is in such early stages of development, and that no committee exists to take such offers from traders (or any other email correspondance), I figured that if someone wants to email "us", then firing it at the group could be a good move? In the theory that most people on the yahoo group (and here, obviously) have been involved in discussing the SEKA concept from the start, and could discuss any proposals that came in. Presumably once the committee is established, it'll be obvious to whom to address emails... In the meantime, I totally agree that this forum is the best place for discussion - but Makka asked for an email address, so I obliged...

all@seka.org.uk currently hits everyone on the yahoo mailing list, so fire anything that way!

Whoops, nope, my bad... 29th-31st is indeed the correct ones... I'd not noticed you'd added it to the calendar already y'see.... Streatham Festival - http://www.reeddesign.co.uk/streatham.htm With regards to our "catchment area" - if we have reps on the committee for each area/county, will it actually be much more work to include other counties?

Top stuff on the Calendar! Couple of dates: 18th April = Streatham Common Kite Festival in London, 24th-26th May = Middle Wallop... I don't know any Camber pubs by name alas... we just seem to fall into them randomly... Anyone else?

Nice map Neil! Low tides for 13th/14th are indeed 10 am and 11am respectively. Shall we say (for the sake of argument) a meeting on Sunday 14th, at 3pm in a local pub? That way we can fly in the morning and natter in the afternoon...

Those dates sound good to me, I'll keep 'em free... Camber: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=595800&Y=118825&A=Y&Z=4

lol, fair enough! I wonder if you bounce up and down enough you're deemed to be covered...

Yo folks, Likewise, top stuff to meet you all on Saturday! Even got a wee bit of buggying in, cracking. And then got freezing cold packing away in the snow... I reckon the next step is to promote SEKA to convince people it's a cunning plan, and thus increase membership numbers. At that point we can organise a proper meeting (totally agreed with the location of a pub!), and get the "formal" things like committees sorted out then. Probably worth setting a date for that meeting now, so we can all keep it free...? Regarding committees: pretty much as everyone else has said: chair, treasurer, secretary, webmaster, social secretary (maybe?), then reps from whatever areas we're going to break ourselves down into. Regarding Simon's traction insurance question - as I understand it, BBC insurance covers anything with a traction kite, including static flying.

If we end up having a meeting down the pub tomorrow, you can get the worst of both worlds! lol. I guess you could be Official Cameraman? Right chaps, off home now; obelix, vinniedriver, Dav... see y'tomorrow, along with anyone else who fancies it! Forecast currently 11mph... that'll do ok... Richard

lol, good point! How's the foot Dav?

Top stuff Martin; see you there! There's a pub just down the road, so we could even fly first, then chat over a wee beverage if it gets too chilly on the field... Anyone else heading down? Richard

A quick release mechanism would be a very good move. While kite killers are mostly fantastic, I can't help but wonder what would happen if a "released" kite got wrapped around something moving very fast the opposite way. ie, another buggy, or worse a car! You'd be dragged off down the field hoping for something to snap... Sometimes you really do want to just be able to ditch the entire kite. Maybe just a weak link in the killers would do it...?

Totally agreed Lem - we've snapped a carbon kitesurf bar in two by connecting a Blade to it, before realising that they're simply not designed for it! Richard

Hi chap, 220/180 kg lines should be fine; that's pretty damn close to 500/400lb. Bigger kites don't necessarily need putting on stronger lines than small ones. If you've got a nice range of kites, you use the kite appropriate for the wind conditions to get the same amount of pull... so although the 6.5 is a big kite, you'll fly it in lower winds than a 3m, and ideally the amount of pull will be similar. Therefore the same strength lines should suffice, within reason. (Obviously if you take the 6.5 out in a hoolie you might need stronger lines!) Personally I fly all my kites on 180/110kg Ozone lines, and have yet to snap one (he says, tempting fate) even with a pretty big buggy and a 7m kite in a reasonable wind. Hope that helps, Richard PS, don't blame me if your lines snap at 10ft up!

I'd agree with that - I live very close to Capstone and it's an hour's drive to Camber from me....

Capstone's not too bad - the biggest problem IMHO being the surrounding trees spoiling the wind. Not too bad when static flying or boarding, but pretty unpleasant in a buggy. Grass is a whole lot shorter this summer than it used to be a couple of years back, which is nice... Map Richard

.... notepad all the way!

Hi chap, You can actually do a larks-head in the stitched sleeving: Ozone Larks-head We've had several people ask the same thing! It kinda looks impossible until you do it... Hope that helps, Richard

Hiya, If you fancy waiting 'till they're released, we'll have a demo version of each that you're more than welcome to try - we're in London too... Personally I'd have said the 6.6 would scare you sufficiently! ;-) I think (with not a lot of experience of NPWs) that the gap between the 5.3 and the 6.6 will be really quite large. Richard

Still not entirely convinced by the merits of Kite Killers. They certainly do a great job of collapsing the kite and preventing it flying away, but sometimes you actually want the kite to disappear. Some time back (honest!) I had a near miss with another buggier; he was coming towards me, chucked his kite up high and there was no way on earth I could raise my kite in time to miss his. Therefore I just let go and all was well. If I'd have been leashed in with kite killers the best that would have happened would have been a big tangle between us, and the worst would have seen at least one of us in trouble as two buggies travelling at 20mph+ in opposite directions suddenly become joined...!! Alternatively, imagine your kite getting wrapped round a moving vehicle (for those who fly near roads) - you really want to have the option of letting go easily and completely, which you don't have with kite killers. What we REALLY need are kite killers with built-in "weak links" that snap if the pull gets too much... or quick-releases on the wrist leashes...