It’s Gone With The Wind

In early December our favorite kite store moved out of town. I’m talking about GWTW the very

popular on line kite store run by Dan Whitney. The store lives on in Chico California and the new

owners Steve and Chris are carrying on the GWTW tradition.

I would like to publicly thank Dan for his generous support of every kite event and organization here

in the Bay Area (even farther I understand). Dan always showed up with armloads of goodies for the

raffles and auctions, If he couldn't make it to the event he would sent stuff with someone! He usually was the first one to buy a sponsor spot on event t shirts or send a ck . Dan is one of those guy thatloves everybody and everyone loves him! I just hope now that he is retired from the kite business we

all will get to play with him more on the kite fields. If you see Dan out flying give him a big kiss and

a thank you. Thank you Dan for all you have done!

I spent New Years Day at the San Diego kite clubs new years fly. We had a great time , the club

real nice job of putting it together. The raffle was great as was the potluck lunch! It was especially

nice to see Ron and Sandy Gibbon flying their awesome creations at a California event for a change!

:-)

A big thanks to Susan Shampo and Al Stroh for their hospitality!

Goofy weather this winter here in Northern California, marginal winds and tons of rain, seems like it

has rained continually since October AND now its snowing! Snow at sea level, first time in about 30

years here . Hasn't been great kite weather I must say!

On February 9th a large group of us gathered at Ocean Beach In San Francisco so the TV show "Bay

Area Backroads" could film as many kinds of kites and kiters as we could get out there for an episode

on Kiting in the Bay Area.( I arrived around 9am to find the prettiest blue sky day and the beach covered with kites and colorful banners and a gentle offshore wind blowing . The Lavender winds kite club were there with their grest wind garden and they were all flying something, just down the beach the Crack o Noon bunch from Monterey had all their banners and spinners up and kites and buggies buzzing about! Dan whitney was buisy setting up his new giant octopus and purple Teady bear and the fugu was soon to follow. Brian Blatel was digging a anchor hole in the sand for his 252 with banner tails and other toys. Down the beach the entire Bay Area Sundowners team was setting up their camp and putting kites together. As the day wore on dozens of kiters showed up to play and see if they could get on the show.) It was fun and exciting and I cant wait till he show airs so I can see how many new kite stars we have! It was a great opportunity to expose thousands to this great sport we all love so much, AND I did try to get them to air it on April for National Kite

Month Phil, but alas the plan is for March sweeps week.

Thanks to you all , we truly put on one heck of a kite show for the cameras.

The Bay area Sport Kite League is gearing up for a great new season. The League will kick off the

2002 season with a seminar on the new International Rule Book, presented buy Chuck Sigal, Chuck

is on the international rules committee that struggled to get this new book completed and knows the

rules inside and out. Chuck plans to go over all the changes and field any and all questions. Ron

Despojado, Mr. Quad will also be on hand to help with the quad rules and compulsory figures. This

presentation will be worthwhile for novice as well as master fliers.

If you are interested contact bod@baskl.org You can find the 2002 schedule at baskl.org

It May be just a little early for this announcement! Watch for No Politics No Whiners Kitemaking

workshop #5 hopefully in April . Im working with Ron Gibbion this time. If it works out we will be

making one of his Astra glide kites. Participants will be given cloth in advance so they can applique'

whatever they want , then in the workshop we can concentrate on Ron's techniques for building the

kites.

Spring is just around the corner, its time to go through the kite bag and repair and tune up hose kites so you will be ready for when the days get longer and warmer!

Brian