Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1993 00:19:22 -1000 From: steveth@netcom.com (Steve Thomas) Message-Id: Organization: VisionAire, San Francisco, CA Subject: 360-slides, and other indoor moves (WAS: Re: X-1...) In article <1993Nov19.134101.11895@das.harvard.edu> jbenedict@law.fordham.edu (Jason Benedict) writes: > > I flew it the day after Lance brought it home from the auction. I flew >it at our field in the middle of the night. We were having a wind lull for the >entire week ( not unlike the weather in Georgia, from what I hear ) and this >was a welcome relief. The X-1 is probably on eof the most impressive zero wind >kites I have seen. Rumor has it, that someone out there does 360 degree side >slides.. hmm... I need to get more time with it. > At Seaside I was doing 360-slides in which one of the tips was dragging on the ground: when I was flying my sponsor's kite, I would do drag the *forward* tip--which looks really neat. I tried this with Dean's kite, but he had vinal end caps on the tips, instead of arrow nocks, so they didn't want to slide as well, and I didn't want to grind down the tips of somebody else's kite... Along with doing a slide (also called a "side slip") with one tip or another down, try it with *both* tips down--I usually fly with: a) kites that have plastic arrow nocks, b) in gyms that have slippery hardwood floors. P.S. Once again, the kite world has run into another duplicated name problem (although this time only partial). Buena Vista Kite Co., San Francisco, has a line of kites called the "XTC"--which it has been selling for the last two years. The "XTC" is often abbreviated to simply "the X". Also, about last March, BV introduced a follow-on 10 foot version of the 8 foot XTC: the XTC X-10. Needless to say, the "XTC X-10" is usually abbreviated to "X-10". There are other versions of the above kites: there's the Ultra-light version: the "XTC XXL" ("Xtra Xtra Light"), "X-10 XXL" (another kite we also fly indoors--hence the relevance here); also, there's the "XTC XS" and "X-10 XS" (vented version--I like to say that the "XS" means you fly it when you have "eXceSs" wind, but the kitemaker says it stands for, "X with Screen"). Anyhow, as you can see, Buena Vista--the only other kite company I know of besides JordanAire that is explicitly marketing indoor products--has an "X" in all of its high-end product names. Clearly, Dean's name for _his_ product will preclude BV from coming out with a 1-foot version of the XTC and calling it the "X-1", but its important to be careful when you hear the names of the existing products not to get them confused. (This comes from the files of, "Berkeley Wasp", "Prism Eclipse", and "High Performance Edge"...). P.P.S. When I asked Dean the name of his kite at Seaside, he said the name of it was the "X Minus One"... P.P.P.S. We've been doing 360 slides at Berkeley for the last two years outdoors--you've just got to run backwards like hell while keeping your hands real steady... -- _______ Steve Thomas steveth@netcom.com "I'm doing just fine. I took stock in a Mace company right before society crumbled." -- Selma/Simpson's = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1993 00:19:22 -1000 From: steveth@netcom.com (Steve Thomas) Message-Id: Organization: VisionAire, San Francisco, CA Subject: 360-slides, and other indoor moves (WAS: Re: X-1...) In article <1993Nov19.134101.11895@das.harvard.edu> jbenedict@law.fordham.edu (Jason Benedict) writes: > > I flew it the day after Lance brought it home from the auction. I flew >it at our field in the middle of the night. We were having a wind lull for the >entire week ( not unlike the weather in Georgia, from what I hear ) and this >was a welcome relief. The X-1 is probably on eof the most impressive zero wind >kites I have seen. Rumor has it, that someone out there does 360 degree side >slides.. hmm... I need to get more time with it. > At Seaside I was doing 360-slides in which one of the tips was dragging on the ground: when I was flying my sponsor's kite, I would do drag the *forward* tip--which looks really neat. I tried this with Dean's kite, but he had vinal end caps on the tips, instead of arrow nocks, so they didn't want to slide as well, and I didn't want to grind down the tips of somebody else's kite... Along with doing a slide (also called a "side slip") with one tip or another down, try it with *both* tips down--I usually fly with: a) kites that have plastic arrow nocks, b) in gyms that have slippery hardwood floors. P.S. Once again, the kite world has run into another duplicated name problem (although this time only partial). Buena Vista Kite Co., San Francisco, has a line of kites called the "XTC"--which it has been selling for the last two years. The "XTC" is often abbreviated to simply "the X". Also, about last March, BV introduced a follow-on 10 foot version of the 8 foot XTC: the XTC X-10. Needless to say, the "XTC X-10" is usually abbreviated to "X-10". There are other versions of the above kites: there's the Ultra-light version: the "XTC XXL" ("Xtra Xtra Light"), "X-10 XXL" (another kite we also fly indoors--hence the relevance here); also, there's the "XTC XS" and "X-10 XS" (vented version--I like to say that the "XS" means you fly it when you have "eXceSs" wind, but the kitemaker says it stands for, "X with Screen"). Anyhow, as you can see, Buena Vista--the only other kite company I know of besides JordanAire that is explicitly marketing indoor products--has an "X" in all of its high-end product names. Clearly, Dean's name for _his_ product will preclude BV from coming out with a 1-foot version of the XTC and calling it the "X-1", but its important to be careful when you hear the names of the existing products not to get them confused. (This comes from the files of, "Berkeley Wasp", "Prism Eclipse", and "High Performance Edge"...). P.P.S. When I asked Dean the name of his kite at Seaside, he said the name of it was the "X Minus One"... P.P.P.S. We've been doing 360 slides at Berkeley for the last two years outdoors--you've just got to run backwards like hell while keeping your hands real steady... -- _______ Steve Thomas steveth@netcom.com "I'm doing just fine. I took stock in a Mace company right before society crumbled." -- Selma/Simpson's = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =