QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE WORLDWIDE KITE COMMLJNiTY ITALY & POLAM GUBBIO: A TOWN GOING GA-GA SKYGALLERR GREAT WPHICS BY ROBERTO GUIDORI Free Kite Catalog Send for our 80 page color Catalog and get the kites you want when you want them. We specialize in unmatched selection and fast service. We also guarantee your satisfaction with everything you buy. For the best kites and service, send for your free Into The Wind Kite Catalog today! Retail safes only. Into The Wind Catalog Whatever your style of kiteflying, you'll find what you need in the Into The Wind Kite Catalog: Hundreds of kites pictured in full color. Over 40 different stunt kites. Complete range of kitemaking supplies and tools. The best selection of kite line anywhere. Kite packs, wind meters and kite lighting systems. Windsocks, boomerangs and flying toys. Into The Wind 1408-C Pearl St.,Boulder, CO 80302 (303)449-5356 April 11th - 12th 1992 Awards and Prizes Best of Show Ben Franklin Award Flat and Bowed Cellular Train - Centipede Theme and Novelty Cooperative Pairs ballet Individual ballet Team ballet Also featuring Saturday Night Reception at Famous Boat House Row (Res. req'd) Childrens' Competition Exhibits Kite Expo and the Rokkaku Challenge Presented by the Fairmount Park Commission and Sky Festivals Call for information 21 5-736-8253 or 21 5-685-0051 4 / KITE LINES / WINTER 1991-92 I Volume 9, Number 1, Winter 1991-92 Coast Kites Proud Makers of the Contents -- - ) Feature Yes! You Can Paint Ripstop / 30 Here's a new way to produce surface design without the agony of applique. Textile expert Anne Sloboda reveals how in words and pictures. G is for Gubbio, Gorgeous and Ga-Ga / 36 The Ventomania kite festival in Gubbio, Italy brings out the weird and wonderful. Article by Marianne Nielsen. Photographs by Pietro Livi. Wet & Warm, Wild & Wooly / 44 Other Squadron Kites The 1991 AKA convention in Jacksonville, Florida will be remembered, es~eciallvfor its * Fokker Triplane weather. Text and photographs by Valerie Govig. * Sopwith Camel * Sopwith Trainer * Douglas M-2 Letter from the Publisher / 9 Spirit of St. Louis * Letters / 10 * Wright Flyer Cap'n Nemos What's New: Kites / 15 * The Angelfish and Sunfish by Sky Delight Kites, the Rotating Box by Professor Waldof, * F3F2 the Legs Team and Legs Chorus Line by Martin Lester, and another look at the * Four Dekker AstroFighter from Goodwind's Kites. * Ghost Clipper What's New: Books / 17 The latest and most lavish book on Edo kites by Masaaki Modegi. And Wolfgang Schimmelpfennig produces another winner-full of color and class. Rainbow Design Workshop / 20 Stunt The Painless Parafoil, a soft kite made easy by Hugh R. D. (Stretch) Tucker. Tips & Techniques / 23 Tethers, rippers and hummers. Good ideas from our readers. Empty Spaces in the Sky/ 48 Teizo Hashimoto, "the last kitemaker of Edo, Japan" and Horace J. (Hod) Taylor of Austin, Minnesota. Stunt Diary I / 25 An International "Sprint" in Italy attended only by Italians. By Roberto Guidori. Stunt Diary I1 / 27 The "birth" of stunt kiting in Poland. By Richard Synergy. In the Wind / 57 WE ALSO SELL Sky Gallery / 58 + Dual Spools Great graphics from Roberto Guidori of Cervia, Italy. + Candy Color Diamond Kites It Shanti Kite Line + Sky Claws I Kite Lines Bookstore / Insert Kiss Kites + BBck Issuer and Reprints / Insert + Custom Kites I Premium Kites * Paper Logo Kites I Directory of Outlets / 61 + Tiger Squadron Gliders Pocket Kite Calendar / Insert Coast Xites 15953 Minnesota Avenue Paramount, CA 90723 TO ORDER: Bobby Stanfield of Tustin, California stands tall and proud as he holds up his Grand National 1-800-735-4837 Championship creation at the AKA convention in Jacksonville, Florida. Built with dayglow nylon and illuminated by strobe lights at night, the kite is brilliant even in gloomy weather. But its primary asset is 310-634-3630 weight, so little that Bobby flies by coolly twitching the line while others sweat and race. Fax: 3 10-634-5425 Photograph by Valerie Govig. 6 / KITE LINES / WINTER 1991-92 I Yodre in control with a Skynasaur@ sport kite. Perform an amazing variety of maneuvers. Screaming power ! dives. Multiple loops. Heart-stopping ground sweeps. Graceful figure eights. Skynasaur Inc. has been bringing you quality and value in sport kites for over 13 years. We pioneered the concept of a LIFETIME WAR- RANTY in sport kites. With 11 modelsand over 15 different accessories to choose from, Sky- 1k: nasaur Inc. has what you need to keep flying. Meet the n ites: the Classicn9eries.The Skynasaur@ClassicT"series is designed to give you spectacular perfor- mance at a great price. Acombination of both 3* standard and uniaue features make these kites 3 extremely accurate; responding- sharply to each command For a color catalog and the location dealer nearest you, call or write today. 77C ="?nt St., LOUISL~~~rn 80027-1805 I980 or (303)-666-4499. Letter from the Publisher Being Decent in Tough Times )w much has kiting been affected by meets our standards of taste, technical AA he recession? Does anybody have a quality, truthfulness. But more than that nice pat answer? it is not our business-nor our right-to There seem to be lots of answers, require. If we have to sell fewer copies dur- depending on who's talking. ing this recession, we will just have to find A retiree says not at all. As far as he's other ways to survive, lie everyone else. concerned, kites fly just as well regardless No use crying over it. of the economic weather. And kites are a We do have one suggestion for our relatively inexpensive pastime, in his readers. Be decent to that little shop that The air is abuzz - opinion, especially because he makes his introduced you to kites in the first place with the newest creation own. He's lucky he isn't living in one of and buy there. Give your appreciation, from Condor Kites. the locations where a kite shop has just and your business, to the fellow who The Bee is a nimble flier closed. He doesn't even have-to worry showed you Kevlar and how to handle it, about getting the few supplies he some- to the merchant who knocked his/her with striking graphics times wants-such as line. brains out putting on the best kite festival and a unique hummer. Contrast that with an avid stunt flier your town had ever seen, to the folks who It's guaranteed to take the who just lost his job. Is he out there flying repaired your kite for the cost of materi- sting out of flying all the time? No, he's cut back while job- als-and smiled. Don't use the display hunting, and his mood is not the best. space and the expertise of your local shop fighter kites. He's not buying kites, either, but his local for making a decision and then spend kite shop is out of business anyway. your dollars elsewhere at the lowest avail- Further up the chain is the store owner. able discount. Long established shops that have weath- Sure, this sort of thing is happening in ered past recessions are dusting off their all categories of sales across the country. strategies for survival. But some compa- And we know what results. The Mom and nies that two years ago were riding the Pop stores take a beating when the mon- crest of the "kite boom" are now really ster warehouse discounters move in. But hustling. People are just not in a hurry to pretty soon the so-called "smart" customer buy a $250 kite anymore-or even a $100 will look around and wonder what hap- kite. Two or more kite retailers in the same pened to sm'ce, what happened to exper- area now find themselves more at each tise, what happened to selection. other's throats than ever. Any form of When we don't have these anymore, competition raises their adrenalin level. Next in line are the kite manufacturers, poorer for it. paring expenses instead of planning expansions. It isn't easy for magazines these days P.S. Our telephone area code has been either. We have trusted that the quality of changed from 301 to 410. You have a few what we do at Kite Lines ought to be months during which both our new and enough that no one would be without it if old area codes will work, but note now they cared about kites. Lots of readers that our telephone number is 410-922- called the Summer-Fall 1991 issue our 1212 and our fax number is 410-922-4262. "best ever." But copies of it were sent back, before sale-time was up, by a few retailers Wrife for because of ads inside that contained competi- a free tion they didn't like. Can you imagine how that made us feel? The retailers claimed brochure! that the magazine was "hurting" them. p ' Well, of course, it wasn't the magazine, a but they didn't see it that way. Further, the Condor Kites retailers attempted to put pressure on Kite Lines to control the competition they dis- I' PO Box 1516 lied. Boulder We cannot restrain trade. It is illegal. Colorado Nor will we attempt to censor or boycott 80306 any of our advertisers. We will, as always, Your editor having launch recently with a KITES be careful to accept only advertising that fighter kite by George Peters. 8 1 KITE LINES I WINTER 1991-92 Kanno, is the only miniature kite artist of his kind left in existence.