Hmmmm, I thought I would have gotten some sort of response to this question?

Hi mate, I was lucky enough to have a brother in law who was into kite design back when it first started, he founded a few start ups and hired some of the best kite designers available and also ran the first online open source kite design forum. Below is a startup he put together...

http://www.makanipower.com/company/team/

I was lucky enough to hang out and get wisdom from the masters of kite designing over a few years

re your questions:

download free surf plan and have a play + there are others

I know some designers that would go through 50 prototypes every 2 months

I think no chance getting a job, most kite companies use one or two rent a designers I believe, + its so easy for a competitor to start a kite brand, why would they teach you to become the competition?

There were a number of great online kite design forums but they have all been taken down. zeropresteige google that and time machine

Kite designing sucks!!!!!!!!!!!
When ever its windy, your always thinking about what to make better and coming in to try different lengths settings etc etc when everyone else gets to kite all day, But any kite trip is a tax deduction...

I like working with people who can contribute and people who like to mess around with stuff. Good luck...

GriffinKites said...

Hi mate, I was lucky enough to have a brother in law who was into kite design back when it first started, he founded a few start ups and hired some of the best kite designers available and also ran the first online open source kite design forum. Below is a startup he put together...

http://www.makanipower.com/company/team/

I was lucky enough to hang out and get wisdom from the masters of kite designing over a few years

re your questions:

download free surf plan and have a play + there are others

I know some designers that would go through 50 prototypes every 2 months

I think no chance getting a job, most kite companies use one or two rent a designers I believe, + its so easy for a competitor to start a kite brand, why would they teach you to become the competition?

There were a number of great online kite design forums but they have all been taken down. zeropresteige google that and time machine

Kite designing sucks!!!!!!!!!!!
When ever its windy, your always thinking about what to make better and coming in to try different lengths settings etc etc when everyone else gets to kite all day, But any kite trip is a tax deduction...

I like working with people who can contribute and people who like to mess around with stuff. Good luck...

Thanks for the input; I did suspect what you said was true about kite companies not being willing to train potential competition; it's a shame some people have attitudes like that; I encountered them a bit when I was working as a tradesman. I believe though there are just as many of the opposite attiude too though.

Yeah, I've got surfplan, its a good program & I've had some fun with it; trouble is now to go further it could get expensive quickly with the cost of materials etc, and there is the reinventing the wheel aspect of it too.

I disagree, I believe that kite designing would have a tremendous amount of satisfaction to it- to be able to achieve a working design based on certain performance criteria and nailing it, would be awesome.

p.s.- nice website & concept; I love cutting edge stuff like that

GriffinKites said...

Re kite design, I love it, I start work at 9am, and finish office work at 15knots. I get to make and fly alto of different designs and I get to listen to tire kickers tell me all kinds of different stuff.

I am going to start an open source kite designer forum shortly, join up as I have a number of other wanna be designers talking to me about stuff. this way you can get feedback if something wont work before you make it.

You my friend are in a very envious position!
Got any jobs available?

Hell yeah, keep me posted with details of your forum!

Cheers