Highlights of the 2008 KTAI Trade Show and new products
The 2008 Kite Trade Assoc. Intl. Convention and Trade Show was held in Portland, OR Jan 7 to 11. Over a hundred of the movers and shakers of the kite world attended. Kite store Dealers from all over the country and Vendor/Exhibitors and Kite Designers came together for the annual meeting to exchange ideas, see new products and celebrate and award their most influential and noted contributing members. The Revolution kite flying team I-Quad received the award for the best Kite Promotion. Emphasis here is on promoting the sport. Past years the award was for best marketing effort, catalog, etc. George Emmons, of Into the Wind, got the Checkley Lifetime achievement award. All the nominees were deserving.
The Trade Show was set in the Ballroom of the Red Lion Jantzen Beach Hotel on the banks of the mighty Columbia River separating OR and WA State. The huge wall of windows overlooking the river gave a spectacular look to the kite displays, even if sunlight was in short supply. Some new products (but not all) that caught our eye were Premier Kites new Spider line of stunt kites by Jon Trennepohl & Wayne Brunjes. Notably the Wolf and the Widow are huge steps forward for Premier. Jon’s previous kites flew well, but became design dated. The new Spider series has a velcro T at the spine base, allowing the addition of a spine weight. The older Addiction and the SR2 had a sewn in spine. Lawn darting these kites means the spine punched through the nose or tail. A certain percentage of our people will need these repaired. And none of the earlier series were easy to repair due to glued on stoppers on the spine and leading wing. The Widow has many nice features like reinforced mylar trailing edges. This should create some interesting and desirable wind flow over the wings, especially during tricks. Premier also showed a Mushroom Spinner, and the single line Pointer Kite by Ceewan of Malaysia. Their sleds got a cool new design motif and Carsten Domann has a great new Tribal Shield which sports tattoo pop art.
The folks at Flying Wings had their very adaptable Silver Fox, which we saw last year. The Acrobatx was conspicuously missing, owing to the trouble folks had with premature self breakage of some parts. Once repaired this had been a great trick kite for the money. Flying Wings showed a new trainer kite called the Rock On. A frame of 1 MM creates stays that keep the kite 1 foot off the ground when laying on the field. Whether on it’s back or belly the kite can be self launched without making the “Walk of Shame’ to right the downed kite. What a concept! These folks at Flying Wings are innovative and we look forward to see what they create each year.
Gomberg Kite Production was showing a new kite called the Softie. These are a modified sled, parafoil in the shape of a face. If they fly well, they should be popular, and lend themselves to any face, including pirate, celebrities, school mascots, lic. cartoon characters, maybe even ones own face. Presently they offer Duckface, Happyface, and Coolguy. Duckface will be popular here in Oregon with U of O duck fans. Gomberg also has introduced a line of stunts designed by Kevin Sanders, of Australia. The design is refreshingly original with soft rounded shapes instead of the geometric shapes that 99% of the stunt kites feature. The Temptation, Firefly & Charisma are equipped with yo-yo stoppers, and covered leading edges. These should be good medium to high wind kites. They do not appear to be a lower wind kites, as they have fairly stout spars like all Gomberg kites. This probably relates to the Gombergs residing in coastal Lincoln City, where they are no strangers to lots of wind. In general, there is something elegantly simple about all their designs. And you can see all of their G series kites on elmersflag.com Check them out.
Prism kite had a great booth, with both Justin, Sandy and Mark in attendance. Prism’s newest offering from late 2007 is the Zephyr, the low wind, clamshell case kite that was so scarce last Fall due to high demand and late arrival. The E-2 will be available in the new citrus color. The Jungle E-2 will be eliminated (elmersflag.com still has some Jungle in stock). All other colors and models remain the same. Prism promises good availability of their entire kite line this year, and Mark Reed will have all of 2008 to develop still more wonderful new designs for two, four and single line kites. Watch his booth next year.
HQ Kites, headquartered in Germany, has renewed all of their higher end kites. The Tattoo series was diminished down to one Tattoo 2. It is not the extreme low wind flyer of the tattoo series, nor the Plus five vented version. But it will be a relatively low wind kite. It carries the same Chinese Character motive of the past. A new kite of high wind use is the Cougar. This was the Beast in previous years. A new little Beast is also available of the same design. These refreshing designs again vary a bit from the all geometric patterns we see almost all stunt kites. A new quad kite, the Mosquito is a welcome offering less expensive than the Revolution. The Falcon is a new traditional ballet kite worth investigating for individual and team ballet flyers. On the traction side of things, the TSR is gone; replaced by the Scout with a X-over control bar. This makes turning faster, easier and safer.
HQ has also brought out a single line synergetic zero wind kite, by Thomas Horvath. Called the Hybrid, it comes in three sizes. The smallest will be a great indoor kite. The largest is made for high altitude and long range flying, while the mid size is made for urban areas. All are said to be steerable!
Revolution showed off their 20 year anniversary quad kite. Don’t even think about owning one. Only 5 exist and dealers must order 50 kites at once to get one. Next to Rev was I-Quad, reveling in their schedule for 2008 of 40 events already on the books for the quad flying team. After years of kite bumming, it must nice that they can finally pay their rent from their sport.
New Tech introduced a new cool logo, new bags for continuing stunt designs, a version two of Dodd Gross’ French Connection, and a new low end stunt also designed by Dood Gross called the Astro. It is similar in design and color use to the stunt series Gomberg has offered. NT brought a series of kites from Robert Brasington: a single hypnotic spin kite called the Psychedelikite, The Phoenix Tail, Phoenix Rising, Eclipse, and Asteroids. Other new designs included a whole series of licensed team sport spinners and team sport diamond kites. NT also brought out a parafoil design of the
with the Ball Dragon design so popular on the Detonator Ball Dragon Stunt.
Go Fly a Kite, always the best booth design, outdid themselves this year. Their “maze-like black wall structure allowed you to see and focus on each new design without the distraction of the rest of the show. GFK has licensed Star Wars kites including X-Wing and Tye Fighters and even a Death Star Station. Star Wars fans will want all the items. Anyone who likes cool aircraft, or just cool kites will want to buy one of their favorites. Designers Joel Scholtz and Randy Tom add so much to the GFK line up. Also a licensed Spiderman Storm stunt series will be popular with Spiderman fans. Both Go Fly and Premier came out with a redo of the once famous 1970’s Newport Sailboat. Who is reading who’s e-mail?
These are only some of the new kites. There were also many other products, other manufactures, toy booths and seminars and information for both dealers and vendors at the Convention. The Demonstration Flying field, at Portland Intl. Raceway, had standing water on parts of the field, but some brave souls ventured out on Thursday. An incoming thunderstorm brought rain and a rare Toronto that touched down two miles away and did damage for several miles across the River in WA state. You might say this was a whirlwind convention, as everyone enjoyed the all in one facility, visiting and networking with each other, and lots of community that a single location brings for the convention delegates. It was a good start to a new kite year!
Check out our stock of new kites on our web site, and keep coming back to see the new introductions as they are available. Go to www.elmersflag.com.
Respectfully,
Kite Guy
(Mike Hale)
