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When you’re on to something good, it is never a bed of roses. I started Just Kite It with Craig, a friend (fellow kiter from England), over a year ago with grand plans. We have the 102 + page wireframes to prove it and the many entries on the now defunct Google Wave. The blog was a temporary “placeholder” yet it proved a good tool for feedback and opportunity for us to write our hearts out about kiting/kiteboarding/kitesurfing, a wind and water sport. It was inspiring to witness the community participate by sharing stories from different parts of the world. Behind the curtain, I would secretly smile and relish at the thought that someone cared enough to send in their story. Thank you very much.

Our small successes in terms of content, community growth and other opportunities were slowly realized. Yet, day-to-day activities got in the way, such as my day job Mavin Digital (a company I started over 3 years ago), personal travels, resources and the hardest blow was when global brand Nike decided to pick on the approval of our trademark. We played nice with the giant swoosh for months. They played nice too, to some extent. In the end of that chapter, the best decision was to focus our time and resources to further develop the platform and the community vs. battling the big giant swoosh, Nike over our name. The night I made that firm decision to pivot, I cried. Tears that were not a sign of weakness nor defeat.They were tears of letting go and paying respect to the passion, work, thinking and creativity that was put into Just Kite It by friends and community members. Before ever making this decision, we were prepared regardless of the outcome. In short, there was always a Plan B. In kiting and in life, you must always be prepared to have an exit strategy, a Plan A, Plan B, etc.

Somehow, Plan Bs turn out to be better than Plan As. With a name like KiteSocial, we feel that we have a better opportunity to gather and engage a decompartmentalized, yet global kiteboarding community. The blog will remain for a few months longer, yet expect to see changes in the platform as you visit http://kitesocial.com, a community by kiters and for kiters. Please have some patience as we transition our destination and the social assets. And thank you very much Nike for inspiring this change.

Don’t worry Just Kite It will not simply disappear into thin air. We own and will continue to keep the Just Kite It URL but it will auto redirect to http://kitesocial.com. We’re on 301 mode effective today. We’re also producing a few stories to tickle your kiting fancy into the New Year, as we transition to the new community platform. We’re very excited for 2011. JUST KITE IT!

Many windy best wishes,

Jessica and The Kitesocial Team

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