I was very curious about these kites, they looked like a good challenge. Upon returning to Vancouver from the trip, the aforementioned friend (Barry Taylor of Roots Roundup) mentioned he had a couple of Revs. I tried them out one afternoon, but, I was resolved to get one, someday. And that some day came nearly two years later, my very first Rev 1.5. Since then, I've flown next to nothing else. While I've owned a few dual line kites over the years (and to this day, I have some!), flying them has never quite produced the same kind of buzz for me that Revs have. I'm currently sitting on a collection of more than 20 of them, coveniently cataloged below for your perusal and amusement.

The absolute pride of my entire collection of Revs, a one of a kind Monkey Rev. Sewn by Amy Doran as a christmas present to me years ago, this will be my main demo kite for quite some time. Amy had taken the original graphic from a hat I wore most of last year and crafted the sail, which Revolution then finished, adding the leading edge and hardward. Signed, and truly a "1 of 1" kite, its the most precious kite I own, and it now lives in a custom blue velvet and (fake) snow leopard fur bag that I put together as an experiment.

I call these "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" and they will be my main competition set for the coming years. A John Barresi Series in gold, and its Vented version in blue. Of course, I'm a LITTLE partial to the iQuad logo on them as well, however, these are easily the best flying Revolution kites ever made. A couple of key differences in them is the return of the thin leading edge. John nudged me back to those after a few years of SLE love and i've never regretted going back to them, Revs simply fly better with the flexible leading edge. Also, Rev has finally lost the Mylar material. Couple that with an extra frame set (2/3 wrap for the standard, 3/4 for the vented) and some "pre-tied" custom handles, identical to what John and I used to take the AKA precision awards in 2006, in Masters and Experienced.

Waaaaaay back in the early 90s, a renowned kite builder named Randy Tom made some custom Revolutions up, somewhere between 10 and 12, depending on who you ask. Nowdays, those original kites are worth a fortune and I've never found anyone willing to part with one. So, sometime last summer, Lolly let it slip to me that Randy Tom was doing a new design for Revolution's new Masterpiece series and I placed my order immediately. I got it JUST after the AKA convention last year and its stunning, truly a beautiful Rev that gets comments and drool marks on it wherever I take it out. The only difference between the 10 made this time around is the handle of the Katana sword, its different on each one.

Oh these two kites saw a lot of mileage last year, they were easily my two most used kites, with the nod going to the Vented Rainbow as "#1" for last season. They have been all over North America and to France. The Rainbow 1.5 is modified slightly, there's some black material over the bottom end cap tie points in order to let it flic flac and not tangle as easily, but, I'm finding it to be an unnecessary change for the most part, once you get the timing down on that move, you'll find you tangle a lot less. I still may try it on some others, just for safetly's sake in a competition. The Vented is at it's best with a 2 wrap frame in it.

Ah yes, one of the most winningest Revs in the world, one of John Barresi's personal stock of Rev 1s that he spent so much time on. The only way to get one of these is through John and this was the first and only one he ever auctioned off. Of course, mere months after I aquired this, John I managed to put a small tear in it on a chain look fence, but... That damn kite has beaten me MANY times in competition. I spent much of 2005 flying only Rev 1s, but a trip to Berck in early 2006 got me back onto 1.5s in a big way. That being said, I still like practicing on 1s here and there, its a great kite for slooooow movement. At one point, I owned all three of the ones pictured to the right, however at this point, I don't have the purple one.

To the left, one of 2 Indoor Revs that I own, this one being the older of the two. Its from the first batch of Indoors made and thusly, it has "normal" end caps on it. I find this to be a plus as its far more durable than the current method of connecting rods with the indoors. I've used this one a lot for "street" kiting fun which you can see in this video we did in late 2006 - click here. And to the right, the other, later model Indoor, which despite the picture is my usual indoor kite.

Another long time favorite from my collection, this is a pre-production 1.5 SLE that Lolly gifted to me in late 1999, just before this sail design came out and I THINK its a unique colour combo as the one that Rev put out that following January was coloured a little differently. Its also got two extra bits sewn onto the logo, as they were experimenting with the new logo size area. I've flown the crap out of this kite, it was my main one for about 4 years.

To the left, an older 1.5, which I usually have rigged for 3D flying on short line sets and on the right side, the very very first 1.5 that I bought all those years ago. #1 is currently pinned to my living room wall, its done its time though its certainly still in flyable shape, I just figured it needed to retire and rest a little.

Certainly taking the award for BRIGHTEST kites in my bag, behold the mini stack of Rev IIs, complete with bright red leader line! It's a cooperative stack, Dave "Geezer" Shattuck owns the pink one, and I own the purple one. I'm thinking it needs a purple in the front too, so, if you have one you want to part with...Its a fun little stack to play with but, wow, its sure bright!

The 1st of these two Rev 1s was the very first Rev 1 I bought, probably in about 1998. Quite a few years later, Becky pipes up, oh, hey, I'm cleaning up the attic and I have an old rev 1, would you like it? Uh, ya, I'll never say not to a Rev. So, I nearly fell out of my chair when I pulled it out of the bag and it was in fact a direct match to my first one. A few lengths of bridle line (2/3rds the leading edge for size!) later and I had my first "small" stack was born.

While we're on the topic of old Revs, presenting a nearly perfect condition Neos-Omega. Its got one ding on the left side (which doesn't show up in this photo) and I've left all the original hardware on it, including the nasty clips. With end caps that are covered aluminum, it represents the very first quad line kite sold on the market. Name hassles meant that this became the Revolution 1 shortly after its release, so these ones are kind of rare to find in decent shape these days, and often overpriced.

indoor deca

vented 1

power blast