Youre no longer a newbie when...

You stop being ashamed of damaged kites, rather you're actually _proud_ of them, and like to show off your repairs.

i.e, you say...

'I tried to fly this one in 30 mph wind, it tore right into the leading edge pocket, had to tear our the seams, take off the leading edge pocket, glue a strip of nylon on the tear, zig-zag it, then sew the dacron back on - took me three hours to fix'

As opposed to..

'I bought that one used..'

Or when you can fly for longer than 10 minutes without having to take the 'walk of shame'.

Dave

how about when you do a 360 with a non-ultralight rated down to 4! haha.

That just means that you're in better shape than me!!

My first ever 360 was with a Vibe

I think I was flying on 70 foot lines, I think there was an older guy about to come up and make some suggestions, but luckily, the friends I was there with all started cheering (it was my first 360 (720 actually) and I had been talking about it for a while) so he decided maybe I didn't screw up... or maybe he decided the pathetic out of shape guy laying in the sand was in too much pain to approach : ) I miss that old Griffin...