Being on the Space Coast of Florida, I’d like everyone to take a moment out of their day to remember the people that lost their lives 25 years ago today when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff.

I remember being in Biology class at Astronaut High School my freshman year, when they announced the explosion. Previously we were always let out to watch the shuttle launches, but for some reason the launches had become so common place and without incident, that they were no longer “exciting” or worthy of our attention at school.

Where were you when the Challenger exploded?

Check out the commercial that our friend Dean Jordan and crew worked on… Enjoy!

Well, I finally was able to put together my first few kite instructional videos. It was nearly 97 degrees here in Sunny Florida when I shot these, so I hope you like them:

Check out some of the other videos that I produced that show you:

• How to assemble a stunt kite
• How to attach kiteline to a stunt kite using a Larkshead knot

In case you didn’t receive our newsletter last week, here is your chance to check it out.

>> read the rest of this post.

Ok, this is pretty cool:

Over the weekend, some of you may have noticed that KiteStop.com was down for some time. Well, this was due to some stupidity on my part, and ended up working out for the best.

As some of you know, I’m a web developer by trade. While kites are my passion, web development is what I have to do during the day to make a living.

Well, this weekend, I came home excited because I was going to be spending some time updating the e-commerce software that runs KiteStop.com. This upgrade promised to have some needed fixes and some really cool new features. (yeah, I’m a geek)..

So, when I got home from work on Friday, I started the upgrade process, which (as the software warns) begins with backing up the existing site. Well, being the arrogant, “I know what I’m doing” type… I skipped that portion.

About 97% of the way through the upgrade process, my server crashes, and the upgrade was corrupted.

Now, if I would have backed up my files, I would have been ok. But this time, arrogance jumped up and bit me. My files did not match up with my database, so the shop became completely unusable.

This has already gotten to be a long story, so I’ll just end with the fact that I spent the major part of the weekend, re-installing the software, uploading products and throwing on a fresh new design.

I hope you like it. If you see anything out of the ordinary while you are taking a look around, please let me know.

Enjoy.

I’ve been doing some early spring cleaning on http://www.kitestop.com. As some of you may have known, I recently moved back home to Titusville, FL, and have slowly been trying to update all the information on our website and on the Internet to reflect my new location. Kite Stop is still online-only, but if you are in Central Florida (Orlando/Cocoa Beach) I’m able to deliver.

I do want to tell you about some of the changes I’ve been working on for awhile now.

First off, we’ve been bringing in a few more skill-toys. You may have noticed (and if you haven’t, then get to the shop and check it out) that we’ve brought in some Yo-Yos from YoYoFactory. These are really top-of-the-line yo-yos and we’ve picked out a fairly large range of yo-yos for all skill levels.

Second, we’ve cleared out the Kite Forum. This is one area that I’ve let languish for far too long. This is a great resource for people to come in and ask questions (or just shoot the breeze.) If you have any questions, or are in a position to offer advice, please get in there and do so.

Third, we’re starting to beef up our Kite School section. While we already had some great tutorials written by Eric Allen and Iain Drummond, we are working to get more tutorials up.

And Finally, I’m asking people to please (pretty please with sugar on top) tell your friends about Kite Stop.

I’ve been toying (heh.. toying) with the idea of stocking some throwing toys, like boomerangs, Aerobie rings, and X-zylo products. Well, today is the day. I just got a batch of throwing toys in, and they are ready for purchase. Check out our New Arrivals section for the items we just got.