Fractured Axel

I'd suggest a decline in demand, 15/20 years ago new slack-line tricks were coming along on a weekly basis and often a new design was needed to help folks get that trick, when those tricks stopped coming people stopped buying!

Also with the great quality of open source kite plans that drove another nail in the coffin for boutique kite makers/designers.

It is sad to say , but I think this sport is not growing and new generations are into kitesurfing and other stuff
To me this is a niche sport and very few pass the wall to 3D flying and tricks
Imagine you are a beguinner and the time and money you need to invest just to start tricking
In France you also get L’Atelier , RSky , than can be considered premier kites, and also Level One in Germany , but less artisan products maybe
Really small comunity I am afraid
Best regards

dragonfly wrote:

OSK Lazarus

Now that's a nice looking kite

Some nice flying here from Carlo: https://youtu.be/5unAJTrdF0A

I didn't see the original post on this but I was thinking something similar the other day about the sad demise of all the independent builders. It would be useful to have a web list of who's still in the business...

100 years ago, many fantastic artisans lost their saddle and buggy whip making businesses. Today, equestrian sports are still very much alive, but it’s a more specialized market.

For good or not, the kiting community has seen something similar happen. That’s not to say there will never be a resurgence of interest, but these trends are largely out of our control.

I would suggest an alternative to Craig's theory. I think the artisan designers, as well as the larger manufacturers, consumed themselves with chasing a handful of potential customers of cutting edge trick kites, and turned their backs on the larger number of people that just wanted something fun, and easy to fly well. We forgot about the casual flyer that will pay for a good, well-made kite. We forgot about the people that aren't into spending days on end flying by themselves, but saw kite flying as relaxing, and maybe something to do with friends and family. We forgot about the people that built kiting into what it was "back in the day".

There are still a few "boutique" makers ( I really dislike that term ) out there. You've just got to look a little harder to see them.

(Hi Craig!)

kenmcneill wrote:

I would suggest an alternative to Craig's theory. I think the artisan designers, as well as the larger manufacturers, consumed themselves with chasing a handful of potential customers of cutting edge trick kites, and turned their backs on the larger number of people that just wanted something fun, and easy to fly well. We forgot about the casual flyer that will pay for a good, well-made kite. We forgot about the people that aren't into spending days on end flying by themselves, but saw kite flying as relaxing, and maybe something to do with friends and family. We forgot about the people that built kiting into what it was "back in the day".

There are still a few "boutique" makers ( I really dislike that term ) out there. You've just got to look a little harder to see them.

(Hi Craig!)

Hi Ken, thank you for your thoughts, you could very well be right, being of a certain age I started flying back in the day when a snap landing and an axel were the cool tricks, a lot of us at the time did get caught up in the latest and greatest tricks/kites (like an artificial high ) and when that plateaued off I guess the interest wained and we forgot what got us into kiting in the first place.

We're certainly living through interesting times currently but I do hope that we'll all get back together on the flying field and get some sun on our faces some day soon!

BTW. I have signed up to your forum and read it occasionally, your new designs look really nice and I hope business is going well for you, all the very best for the future

https://bluemoonkites.net/

https://bluemoonkites.net/forum/index.php

Pretty much 8 years since I stopped. Still make the odd one or two or three, but no way is there a market large enough to do it full-time again let alone the days when Tim Benson used to employ staff!

Shame

Always wondering if something in a TV ad or movie hitting a wide audience would ignite interest again? Lots of people thinking 'That's really cool, I wanna learn that!" - Just like me after seeing Andy Wardley videos, still find it funny that I didn't believe it at first

Mark