windwing fraud!

dangler · Since 26 Feb 2006 1744 Posts WINDY SPOTS XTreme Poster

Posts: 29
Location: USA
Posted Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:42 pm Post subject

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marina wrote:
Enjoy! It was an excellent podcast with lots of interaction from lounge guests.....
Marina and Ryan:
While your podcast medium is refreshing, it leaves ample room for misrepresentation and revisionist versions of history without any checks or balance. Since many of the questions referred to me and as a result, my professional reputation has been slandered and denigrated by Mr Wendler, I feel it necessary to respond. In my opinion, Wendler's interview is filled with half truths and outright lies. A strong statement indeed but one I feel needs to be made. Every story and disagreement has two sides. As an independent 'news' source, you have an obligation to thoroughly research before starting an interview unless it is simply a paid 'info-mercial.' In my opinion, Tim Russert's 'Meet the Press' would be a good example to follow in terms of background study and meaningful questions. I think you made an effort with some pointed questions but unfortunately, you didn't do enough research to properly follow-up. Now I am left with no choice. Ultimately those that are interested can decide for themselves by listening to the interview and reading the following from my specific point of view:

1 - Bob Wendler had nothing to do with Windwing's interest in kiting. Readers can download Vol. 3 No. 1 Spring 1991 Stunt Kite Quarterly at http://www.kitelife.com/skq/issues-x/v3-1.pdf and refer to page 29 for proof of this fact. That would be over 15 years ago...

2 - At Windwing, in the late 90's, we had made a management decision to 'stand by and watch' Kiteboarding to see how the market developed. Because of this decision, I was able to design kiteboarding and snowkiting foils on contract for Slingshot and others in 1999, 2000 & 2001 before Wendler's eventual involvement with the company. At the same time, I continued private development for future use and offered a number of revolutionary kite designs to hobbyists on the Foildesign forum in the late '90's and early 00's under the name 'Williwing.' These kites included high aspect 'ARC' double surface ram-air foils and more traditional bridled foils. Those interested can examine the Foildesign archives for proof. The current line of 'Skyfoils' offered by Windwing were a result of this effort and designed prior to Wendler or Chao's involvement in early 2002.

3 - I actively kiteboarded in Sri Lanka and developed the hybrid foil/inflato hi-projected area 'Staple' kite which has been shown previously on this forum. A spin-off of this design was later marketed by Gun Sails with the help of Peter Stiewe now with Best. This activity was prior to Wendler's involvement with the company. Hi-Pro is a term I coined then and have used here and elsewhere many times. My personal participation in the sport has little bearing on my ability as a technical designer. Like most designers in the industry, I worked with professionals and other skilled riders and test pilots including Lou Wainman, Flash Austin and others who were brought onto the team for this reason.

4 - I did not fire Wendler. It was not my position to do so and I did not have the authority to hire or fire. In fact, I came to his defense on a number of occasions as I did for many employees when his employment status was questioned. I lobbied management for Bob to take the position of 'product manager' and encouraged him to become computer proficient in terms of making and modifying drawings and illustrations, downloading and annotating photos for communication with the factory to facilitate production. At the time, he failed to learn the basic software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop required to do this. Later, John Bellacera took over this role. I actively encouraged Bob's involvement in kite R&D including the many modifications to designs made in-house during testing. At times he would stay actively involved. But, at other times, he chose not to. Anyone who was present at East Point in Stevenson during the summer of 2005 while Flash, John Bellacera and I were working on the many Hi-Pro design protos can attest to this fact as we were there daily and working in the open. When Bob took actions which I felt were contrary to the interest of the company, I responsively voiced my opinions regarding them in the hope of correcting them. There are plenty of past employees to verify this fact.

5 - Flash Austin and I have remained friends and stay in touch with each other. To my knowledge he has had no involvement in the current R&D since the end of 2005. According to my last conversation with Flash, the kite Bob said was sent to him in response to a lounge question was a left-over Outrage from 2004/5, which remains his favorite kite.

6 - While Wendler has wanted to get the 'flat' out, the only kite that had the specific 'flat' he refers to was the Rage series, his favorite kite at the time. Viewers can research pictures of the various Windwing kites to verify this. We worked on many 'flat' Hi-Pro designs and this style of kite has become the standard in today's market.

7 - The large tubes in some kites I designed were based on the engineering relationship between diameter and stiffness. It allowed the original Rapture to hold it's Hi-Pro shape with only four lines and no bridle and, it gave the Rage II a highly stable de-powerable form. Now, with the advent of bridled SLE's, which we helped to pioneer, the tube diameters can be reduced. At the time, larger tubes were very effective in accomplishing the design goals.

8 - Reverse launch capability of inflatables was one of my on-going design criteria and was based on the same principle evident in foils. The Rapture I was specifically designed to have this feature without any moving leech lines, pulleys or other complications.

9 - As a designer with multiple technical degrees, years of post-graduate study and research and many years of experience, it is an insult to be referred to as a 'CAD man' operating at Wendler's direction. Since Bob, in my opinion and experience working with him, has little true knowledge of aerodynamics including the theoretical meaning of 1/4 chord, CP, CE, aspect ratio, spanwise profile distribution, Reynold's number, pitching moment, tip vortices or structural dynamics, it is a ludicrous for him to suggest I merely followed his direction. It may seem to Bob that it is simple to design a kite with cookbook software where you can interactively draw a kite on appearance alone and spit out patterns. But, without knowing the intricacies, the likely result is mediocrity at best. In my experience, his computer skills are limited which requires that he now have a 'CAD man' to do his design work, not the opposite. His reference to 'caveman' designers clearly indicates a lack of respect for the many skilled practitioners in the market and would be more appropriately directed at himself.

10 - My involvement in Formula was a management decision and had no effect on kite development. Nor did a failure to perform under a 'lackadaisical' management style. More the opposite is true. I completed instituting the Rapture II production, '06 Rage II FTB SAFE production, designed the complete Rampage I series and completed the numerous production modifications to the '06 CC and B-Safe bar systems during a 7 week stay in China in October of '05. I then started on the '06 Formula development with Devon Boulon culminating in a complete quiver of protos for the World Championships in Australia in Dec of '05. Peter and Thomas from Best and Ben Severne and others from Airush and Severne can attest to this fact as they also visited China at the same time. The challenge and scope of these many simultaneous projects exceeds that of most individual designers presently working in the market. Wendler's assertion that windsurfing in light air is a waste of time also leaves me to wonder what his intentions for light air kiting might be.

11 - My departure from Windwing and subsequent announcement on this forum was strictly economic as I was no longer being paid for my services and my business agreements were being dishonored. The same applies to Flash, Devon Boulon, John Bellacera and others. I refused to see the brand I started further tarnished while the lack of our ongoing involvement was hidden. The public facade was 'business as usual' with continuing statements and image ads on this forum and others which I felt purposefully mislead the consumer. The 'weeding out' of 'bad apples' referred to later on this forum was the result of ongoing and unresolved funding and production cuts by the supplier and increasingly hostile personality conflicts brought on by those remaining. They chose to justify their compromised position by blaming those who loyally toiled long hours for success with limited resources rather than admit their inability to continue 'business as usual.' Now, 10 months later, the 're-birth' is being publicized with ASNews' support, as a major development in the industry.

Finally, I'm glad Bob has a dream job boarding all the time while others are doing his CAD work. I wish that Ryan and Bob had stuck to the specifics of the new kite, it's design merits, mission and development process so the customer could become educated about it's heritage and purpose. They chose not to. I would sincerely like to see the proud brand I founded in 1982 on the principles of innovation, quality, performance and customer service succeed with those traits intact. I have previously urged Bob and John privately and now do so publicly to work hard to preserve that mission. Ultimately, the customers and marketplace will decide.

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dangler · Since 26 Feb 2006 1744 Posts WINDY SPOTS XTreme Poster

the preceding post is Bill Hansens response to the drivel and disinformation espoused by Bob Wendler in an ASNews podcast. I feel that the lies, slanders, and degradations heaped upon the founder and the driving forces behind what was once a great company signify the direction (definetly downward) that this company is headed. Windwing, get it together, or change your name to Whingding.

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6548 Posts Couve / Hood Site Lackey

sounds like it was a pretty bitter divorce....

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2575 Posts The 503 METAL

I don't know any of the parties involved, but if it's posted by the D, it's good enough for me!

Seems hard for ASnews to police this kind of thing. Marina, can we get Bill and Bob together on the next show to hash this thing out?

dangerD · Since 27 Jun 2005 223 Posts Bingen Heights Stoked

I heard that WINDWING actually went under six years ago, and have been putting new logos on old kites for team riders and the European market (a dude named "jacque") Am I off base here?

Hansen Design · Since 03 Oct 2006 2 Posts New Member