Thanks for sharing the nice display! It's a pity but it's true. When I go flying kites with my son most people we meet are older than me and only very few kids around.
Yes, it's very sad, and I guess most young people are too busy with their phones and social media to have any interest in kites. The world has changed so much.
It's nice to know that there are kite-fliers in Switzerland, although I do know of Marcel Burri, in Langenthal, who designs and makes kites. His most famous is the big Smiley inflatable kites, and I'm happy to have one of those, although made in a factory, not by Marcel personally. Have fun with your kites!
A lovely fly-day with land, sea and mystical animals. The western dragons look lovely as compared to the ferocious Chinese dragons. Hope the weather will be good for flying in the new year. I will be in Beijing for 2 weeks with my wife from Feb 13. We planned to hike the Wild Great Wall in winter. This will be a DIY Great Wall hike as always. I will bring my drone and hope nobody will stop me from flying it there.
I certainly hope that our summer improves soon, as it has been the worst for many years so far. I'll look forward to seeing your videos of the Great Wall trip, and wish you luck with the weather there and success in being able to fly your drone.
One of the best octopus kites available, They look and fly fantastically! Now if only those dragons could breath a little fire, they might be able to warm up those NZ winds a little 😉
The Octopus is a masterpiece of design, and I'm very happy to have it. Our winds later have mostly been pretty wild, so they really need taming down a little.
It was quite a good day, Dewey, but the weather's been terrible in the week since then. I used to have some bigger laundry items, but they have all gone now. I hope you had a good Christmas and will have a great new year.
I thought you might be hibernating, Carl, to avoid this terrible weather we've been having. Today the sun actually made its presence felt, and I even managed to get kites into the air for the first time in ten days. Might give you a call tomorrow.
I hope you will continue flying, Evan, and maybe sometime you'll find others your age who enjoy it too. It's sad that there are so few young kite-fliers, as we old ones won't be flying forever and we don't want to see kite-flying die out.
Hi Evan, keep enjoying kiting in whatever form. It does indeed seem that young people are no longer interested in it. When I get ‘visits’ from young children during my kite sessions… strange, but they don’t know what is hanging above the lines, they have often never seen kites before. Bizarre! This has fascinated me for more than 50 years. But I'm the only kiteflyer in my environment . And I even bought myself a set from Robert Brasington; he also designs beautiful one-line kites!
Hello Jim, it's nice to see your kites flying, it's great that your white octopus flies so well, my yellow octopus had problems from the start so it wasn't flown much and ended up in the basement... you can see from your clownfish that it flew a lot on the beach and got a lot of sun, but it still flies and looks good... I wish you a happy new year and stay healthy Windy greetings from Hamburg 👍
Sorry to hear that your Octopus didn't fly well. Mine is absolutely trouble-free and flies great every time. Yes, the Clown Fish has faded quite a lot, so I don't use it so often now. The sun is very strong here and everything fades - my oldest UltraFoil 30 looks very different to the newer one. Clothing fades badly too. I hope you have a happy new year and a great year of kite-flying in 2025.
@@JimNicholls Thanks, it flies well but unfortunately no air gets into the tentacles and the suction cups feel air like you can see in your video from 2.35 - 2.40... I have another idea how I can change that, if that doesn't work then it will be rebuilt...
Did it come from the Kaixuan factory? If so, it should be good quality, and if it's not I would send it back. There are other Chinese factories making their version of the kite, and these may not be as good. I have not seen one from the Kaixuan factory that did not fly properly, although mistakes can happen in any manufacturing process. Are you using just the lower bridle lines, which is the correct method? The top ones are designed only to use the kite as line laundry, but there's no information to tell you that.
@@JimNicholls Yes, the octopus was produced by Kaixuan. It flies well and the workmanship is good, unfortunately the tentacles don't fill with air like you see in your video. I can't return the octopus, I've had it for over 5 years and have changed it too much.
Thank you so much, and I'm very happy to hear from you. I was checking your channel yesterday to see if I'd missed any new upload, but I guess your winter weather is not conducive to any adventures these days. I have my eldest son and his wife here on a short visit from Sussex, and sadly they brought some of the English winter with them, but we are hoping for a change before they go back to the gloom over there. Your days are now getting longer, however, while we go the opposite way, but with luck we'll have some more summer before long. I hope that 2025 is good to both of you and that you have lots of lovely walks (and post lots of videos). All the best!
Excellent as usual Jim. I missed out buying a couple of large Fauchi Dragons this year. That lifter of yours must have 'done some hours' eh ? Owes you nothing !!!! I have just got an 18m (or is it 20m ? ) pre-owned white and purple octopus like yours. Just now need some fine (or even just dry) weather with wind to test it out. 😢
Chris, I have two of the UltraFoil 30, the older of which is now quite faded after hundreds of hours in the harsh New Zealand sun. It still flies just as well, though. Well done on getting the big Octopus. It's easy to fly, and I'm sure you'll love it. Packing it up is less fun, but it has a zipper to help deflate it (the smaller one doesn't). Make sure it's zipped up when you are launching it.
Thanks, Jim, for 2,167! And, hurray for a young kite-flier!!
Thanks, Richard. Yes, it's always good to see a young flier, but sadly they are very rare.
Thanks for sharing the nice display! It's a pity but it's true. When I go flying kites with my son most people we meet are older than me and only very few kids around.
Yes, it's very sad, and I guess most young people are too busy with their phones and social media to have any interest in kites. The world has changed so much.
It is always a pleasure to watch your videos - now I want to fly my kites! Greetings from Switzerland 🐲🪁
It's nice to know that there are kite-fliers in Switzerland, although I do know of Marcel Burri, in Langenthal, who designs and makes kites. His most famous is the big Smiley inflatable kites, and I'm happy to have one of those, although made in a factory, not by Marcel personally. Have fun with your kites!
A lovely fly-day with land, sea and mystical animals. The western dragons look lovely as compared to the ferocious Chinese dragons. Hope the weather will be good for flying in the new year.
I will be in Beijing for 2 weeks with my wife from Feb 13. We planned to hike the Wild Great Wall in winter. This will be a DIY Great Wall hike as always. I will bring my drone and hope nobody will stop me from flying it there.
I certainly hope that our summer improves soon, as it has been the worst for many years so far. I'll look forward to seeing your videos of the Great Wall trip, and wish you luck with the weather there and success in being able to fly your drone.
One of the best octopus kites available, They look and fly fantastically! Now if only those dragons could breath a little fire, they might be able to warm up those NZ winds a little 😉
The Octopus is a masterpiece of design, and I'm very happy to have it. Our winds later have mostly been pretty wild, so they really need taming down a little.
Another fine display Jim with an unlimited amount of kites to chose ...wow...thanks for sharing friend.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Craig. Thanks for watching.
Wonderful video with great kites. I especially like the octopus. Nice sharing.
Thank you. The Octopus is a very special kite and certainly one of my favourites.
Nice video Jim. Looked like a pretty good day to me. You own some big laundry. All of looks great. Thanks Jim!
It was quite a good day, Dewey, but the weather's been terrible in the week since then. I used to have some bigger laundry items, but they have all gone now. I hope you had a good Christmas and will have a great new year.
Very fun video. Love that baby tiger.
Thanks, Wayne. Yes, the Tiger is a great item.
Almost missed this last 2024 video. A lovely mix of your kites to farewell the year and hoping 2025 will be another enjoyable kiting year.
I thought you might be hibernating, Carl, to avoid this terrible weather we've been having. Today the sun actually made its presence felt, and I even managed to get kites into the air for the first time in ten days. Might give you a call tomorrow.
Very awesome Jim. Thanks, Ron
Thanks, Ron. I'm glad you liked it! I hope you're keeping warm these days, but summer won't be too far away!
3:10 I seem to be the only one in my age group that enjoys kite flying… I’m almost 18
I hope you will continue flying, Evan, and maybe sometime you'll find others your age who enjoy it too. It's sad that there are so few young kite-fliers, as we old ones won't be flying forever and we don't want to see kite-flying die out.
Hi Evan, keep enjoying kiting in whatever form. It does indeed seem that young people are no longer interested in it. When I get ‘visits’ from young children during my kite sessions… strange, but they don’t know what is hanging above the lines, they have often never seen kites before. Bizarre! This has fascinated me for more than 50 years. But I'm the only kiteflyer in my environment . And I even bought myself a set from Robert Brasington; he also designs beautiful one-line kites!
Hello Jim, it's nice to see your kites flying, it's great that your white octopus flies so well, my yellow octopus had problems from the start so it wasn't flown much and ended up in the basement... you can see from your clownfish that it flew a lot on the beach and got a lot of sun, but it still flies and looks good... I wish you a happy new year and stay healthy
Windy greetings from Hamburg 👍
Sorry to hear that your Octopus didn't fly well. Mine is absolutely trouble-free and flies great every time. Yes, the Clown Fish has faded quite a lot, so I don't use it so often now. The sun is very strong here and everything fades - my oldest UltraFoil 30 looks very different to the newer one. Clothing fades badly too. I hope you have a happy new year and a great year of kite-flying in 2025.
@@JimNicholls Thanks, it flies well but unfortunately no air gets into the tentacles and the suction cups feel air like you can see in your video from 2.35 - 2.40... I have another idea how I can change that, if that doesn't work then it will be rebuilt...
Did it come from the Kaixuan factory? If so, it should be good quality, and if it's not I would send it back. There are other Chinese factories making their version of the kite, and these may not be as good. I have not seen one from the Kaixuan factory that did not fly properly, although mistakes can happen in any manufacturing process. Are you using just the lower bridle lines, which is the correct method? The top ones are designed only to use the kite as line laundry, but there's no information to tell you that.
@@JimNicholls Yes, the octopus was produced by Kaixuan. It flies well and the workmanship is good, unfortunately the tentacles don't fill with air like you see in your video. I can't return the octopus, I've had it for over 5 years and have changed it too much.
Hi Jim, we just wanted to wish you a happy new year. Best wishes for 2025. Tim and Selina
Thank you so much, and I'm very happy to hear from you. I was checking your channel yesterday to see if I'd missed any new upload, but I guess your winter weather is not conducive to any adventures these days. I have my eldest son and his wife here on a short visit from Sussex, and sadly they brought some of the English winter with them, but we are hoping for a change before they go back to the gloom over there. Your days are now getting longer, however, while we go the opposite way, but with luck we'll have some more summer before long. I hope that 2025 is good to both of you and that you have lots of lovely walks (and post lots of videos). All the best!
3:10 I've also been finding good days to go kite flying whenever I could at 23.
That's good. Maybe you can upload a video of your kite-flying sometime.
Awesome 🎉
Thanks! I hope you are having fun with your kites.
Excellent as usual Jim. I missed out buying a couple of large Fauchi Dragons this year.
That lifter of yours must have 'done some hours' eh ? Owes you nothing !!!!
I have just got an 18m (or is it 20m ? ) pre-owned white and purple octopus like yours.
Just now need some fine (or even just dry) weather with wind to test it out. 😢
Chris, I have two of the UltraFoil 30, the older of which is now quite faded after hundreds of hours in the harsh New Zealand sun. It still flies just as well, though. Well done on getting the big Octopus. It's easy to fly, and I'm sure you'll love it. Packing it up is less fun, but it has a zipper to help deflate it (the smaller one doesn't). Make sure it's zipped up when you are launching it.
3:13 that’s really unfortunate!
And here I am planning to visit china in the summer to learn traditional Chinese kitemaking
Yes, it's sad that there are so few young fliers. I hope you enjoy your trip to China.
Hi PeterPan, may I know where in China will this traditional Chinese kite making be?
@@SingaporeCityWalks don’t know yet, maybe weifang or Beijing