Sport, Trick and Freestyle Kite Flying Forum

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mobius
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Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:13 pm

The other day I had this mad idea, and please forgive me if you think this is better suited in the 'competition' section, but I feel it is a bit related to the VF format.

I think we'd all agree that getting more people in to our 'sport' is a good thing and in recent years has become harder, largely due to the decline in festivals and kite shops. So I thought to myself, what can we do to show people that sport kite flying is something anyone can try their hand at without spending lots of money (and indeed probably a lot less than other sports).

The VF competition gives lots of fantastic inspirational videos to would-be flyers, but I would guess that most kites used are certainly over £100, if not closer to £200 or beyond.

So my question to you is, what can be achieved with a kite that can be bought today for say £50 or £60? If the answer is "not much", then this is a serious problem, but I hope this is not the case.

So my proposal is this :

Run a virtual freestyle competition whereby the entrants are limited to kites that can be bought today for a maximum price (say £50/60€)

After the round perhaps people would consider selling these kites on to beginners at their local field so they get a kite that they know "works" (video evidence) and they get it at a very good price. We then achieve promoting these introduction kites and possibly give the first step to someone that might become the next Chris Goff.

What do you think? Would anyone be interested?
Dave Morley
 
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fworley
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:40 pm

This is an interesting idea for sure :D

The problem tho is the budget, 50 quid doesn't buy much at all ... and we don't want to encourage the use of far-east made knock offs (do we ?)

-Frazer
 
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:05 pm

Anything that brings kiting to more people and more people into kiting has to be good.

My initial thoughts are
- How do we get the videos onto the computer screens of people not already into kiting?
- The entrance fee may be a bit steep.... How many of us actually have £50 kite in our bags?
- would the manufacturers sponsor in some way.... they could help with getting videos out.
- Apart from HQ, who makes £50 kites?


If there is enough interest I am happy to run the round...
 
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kostaaa
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 11:07 am

Cool!
I definitely like the idea :D
no mods should be allowed for this round :wink:
I have thought about rounds below 100e, retro, ballets, SULs...

I'm IN for this!
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 1:37 pm

i'm out
 
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fourmatic
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 2:39 pm

1 round its ok.Just for Fun. :D Someday.Name it Retro VF round.but I am not sure we can bring here cool(new) moves..Probably just basic. :idea:

VF is for a freestyle maniacs.Its not STACK online game..We need more freestyle. 8-)


Alex
 
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 4:04 pm

@ Alex and Kostaaa.... what would you fly if there was a 60 euro budget?

I don't have any kites that would fit into budget.

I think it would send the wrong message if it was called a retro round. We would have keep it as the "Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)" round to prevent confusion. Otherwise people will want to enter with their phantoms and other kites that can't be bought within budget.

There might be more benefit in offering HQ/Eolo/Prism to do some demo videos and reviews for them and asking for some event sponsorship in return. Not sure, just thinking out loud....
 
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mobius
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 7:35 pm

Some interesting comments already. Thanks for the feedback.

What I like is Frazer saying £50 is too little and Yan saying it is too much. Both are right to a certain degree. £50 is a lot of money and we suspect it does not get us much. But do we know this for fact?

What are the options?

Well how about this from Eolo @ € 58.00

http://shop.eolo.com/en/kites/professio ... -kite.html

Check out the video! comets, lazy susans, yoyos and more.

Or the prism nexus @ £49.99
http://kiteworld.co.uk/acatalog/Prism-Kites-Nexus.html

Best video I could find of some freestyl-ish flying of it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCo4claeYkM

Or the HQ Yukon @ £38.99

http://kiteworld.co.uk/acatalog/HQ-Yukon.html#a262

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP4X25PFktI
Dave Morley
 
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:03 pm

mobius wrote:
Some interesting comments already. Thanks for the feedback.
What I like is Frazer saying £50 is too little and Yan saying it is too much.


I can't find where I said that :? :) What I meant is it's too much for people to spend on a kite for one novelty round of VF. Almost no regular flyer will have a kite that fits the budget so will have to buy one..... hence the entrance fee being a bit steep.

If the evidence that the kite works already exists can't that be used in the same way?
 
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mobius
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:46 pm

Yan wrote:
mobius wrote:
Some interesting comments already. Thanks for the feedback.
What I like is Frazer saying £50 is too little and Yan saying it is too much.


I can't find where I said that :? :) What I meant is it's too much for people to spend on a kite for one novelty round of VF. Almost no regular flyer will have a kite that fits the budget so will have to buy one..... hence the entrance fee being a bit steep.



Yes.. I was using a bit of artistic license here :-) But I think someone new to the sport will think it is a lot. My first kite was £60 and I thought that was a small fortune at the time. You are saying it is expensive looking at it from a different point of view/context.

Yan wrote:
If the evidence that the kite works already exists can't that be used in the same way?


Not quite sure what you mean. Are you saying if there are already videos.. why bother? The videos are few and far between.
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Yan
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:50 pm

You are saying it is expensive looking at it from a different point of view/context.


Yes... from the point of view of the people who enter VF.


honestly... I'm not sure who will enter or how it could be used to promote the sport. Getting the videos is fairly easy. It's getting people not aleady in the sport to see the videos that may be difficult.
 
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:55 am

Now where have I read this sort of thing before ? Oh yeah, right here on page 37 :-)

I think that VF is mature enough as an event to support the occasional special event. We had a sort of Prism appendix once, fr'instance, and an Economic Downturn Special Round could be fun on its own without trying to infuse it with some special meaning towards educating a wider public who don't seem too bothered about us any way.

I seem to recall an Oldies/Vintage round was suggested once too. I'm sure other flavours could be dreamt up, all in pursuit of amusing ourselves first and foremost.

Mike.
 
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mobius
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:30 am

Zippy8 wrote:
I think that VF is mature enough as an event to support the occasional special event. We had a sort of Prism appendix once, fr'instance, and an Economic Downturn Special Round could be fun on its own without trying to infuse it with some special meaning towards educating a wider public who don't seem too bothered about us any way.

I seem to recall an Oldies/Vintage round was suggested once too. I'm sure other flavours could be dreamt up, all in pursuit of amusing ourselves first and foremost.

Mike.


Exactly.

Promotion is a possible bi-product. If people are worried about the cost, as I said in my initial post, they could sell them on after.
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:55 am

first of all my point of view: as VF participant.

@ Alex and Kostaaa.... what would you fly if there was a 60 euro budget?

I don't have any kites that would fit into budget.


have no idea yet.So why I agree with Retro/Vintage round at the moment. :cool:

We would have keep it as the "Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)" round to prevent confusion. Otherwise people will want to enter with their phantoms and other kites that can't be bought within budget.

It is possible with budget up too 100 pounds.It is very reasonable price for trick kite. I tnink for VF guys 50-60 is too less.Many current VF members will be out of the game.
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Krijn
:-( Its definitely bad.We may lose good pilots.As I understand the main idea of VF is promote freestyle kiting(fresh moves, creativity,custom kites presentation).VF has already his own way to go.

Alex
 
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Re: Flight with a reasonably priced kite(tm)

Thu Jun 06, 2013 10:03 am

I'm not sure you'd have to buy a kite especially, I'm sure a lot of folks would still have an older/cheaper kite in their bag or garage somewhere that they wouldn't normally use. It would be an interesting change to see what can be done with a cheap(ish) kite compared to the exotic/expensive stuff that usually appears in the VF rounds. Maybe if you said a kite that originally cost you below £60 with a basic spec ie nylon sail plain carbon frame with no icarex or Skyshark/dynamic. It would be fun, I might even have a go at that myself!
Current Bag:- HQ Shadow, Spiderkites Zodarion, Flying Wings Soul, Old blue HQ Jive , 'PAW' modded HQ Maestro II, Delta Hawk,