Wot??? No wind?

Here is a bit about my background

I first became involved with kites back in the sixties when my father brought home a book of kites and made a simple back-bowed Malay type kite - the first in the book. Between us we ended up making more versions of that kite than I care to remember. They were all more or less the same being made from 3ft x 1/4 inch dowel and covered with drycleaning plastic and Dad's always flew better than mine. With about 400 yards of nylon fishing line to fly them on, we had great fun. The favorite pasttime was to send paper streamers up the line.

I then got into Radio-controlled gliding but was never terribly good at it, at least not in competition. However, many pleasant Saturday afternoons were spent on the slopes of the Purbeck hills and other locations. I also did some full-size gliding and tried paragliding. I still hanker after getting airborne. Perhaps I will take up paragliding for those light-wind summer days when kite-surfing is out of the question.

However, on a cold windy day, gliding is not a particularly family-friendly pastime. The death-knell was sounded for my gliding days when my first son was born. I had to give up my workshop in the warmth of the house for a nursery and was banished to the garage. That is definitely not very pleasant in the winter and it can get somewhat lonely.

After moping around for some time wishing for some form of aerial activity, I stumbled across a small kite shop (Ocean Kites in Southampton) and was shown a Flexifoil Stacker 6. One look told me that I could make kites myself, so the business of designing and making kites started. Since there were no plans available that I could find for steerable foil kites, I had to muddle along learning mainly by trial-and-error. It was not until I reminded myself that the aerodynamics I had learned in the years of aeromodelling were relevant to kites that things really came together. And the best of it was that I could once again work in the warm in the winter months. Kite-making is a lot cleaner than model making. I now take over the dining room for extended periods of time, much to my wife's annoyance but I try to keep the disruption to a minimum.

All told, I have made around 20 foils, some from plans but mainly my own design (take a look at the Gallery pages to see some of my kites). I have also made various rigid kites - some single line and others as stunt kites. My main workhorse is a 12-ft delta that I use for parachuting teddybears. If you come to the Poole Kite Picnic run by Poole Kiteflyers, you are like to see me there hoisting bears aloft. And I do believe that the adults have more fun than the kids! Check out the gallery pages for pictures of my kites.

Outside of kiting, I am a Software Engineer and spend my working life building various web sites ranging from simple ones like this to full-blown e-business sites incorporating shopping and other forms of integration. And over-and-above all that, I am a deacon at the local Church and speak and teach for various Churches around the South.