World Wind Kites

great customer service. this place it little but packs a punch! theres some many great finds here and the guy working there was so super helpful and answered all my questions. highly recommend checking this place out

Glad to hear others have had great experiences with these folks… but not me!
I made a purchase at the Kite Festival this year and used my visa debit… I know, I know.
The transaction went through my bank and all is well. Until they decided 2 months later to run my debit card again for the same amount. I left 3 messages, sent an email, spoke to David who said he would tell the owner… today it has been 4 days since I first called and no response. I called my bank and they filed a claim and refunded my money.
My advice for any future customers… use cash. I can understand a mistake, but to not call a customer back when they have left several messages is just not caring and taking care of business… because, I will tell others of my experience.

4-​yr-​old to me at this year’s kite festival: ‘Who is your mermaid?’
I was THIS close to telling her ‘Ariel’ but didn’t want to cause her parent more stress during a day of what was surely endless exercises in patience, lines, holding it till there’s a vacancy, being yelled at ‘Higher!’ and so forth. Instead I said she had no name yet and offered to let the kiddo fly it.
Michael is there to serve your kite and tennis/​raquetball needs. There seems to be a shop in the back room where he restrings rackets. How racketing and kiting go together, I have yet to figure out.
Very helpful, offered to demonstrate how to assemble a viking ship kite. Yeah, almost bought that one but the mermaid was too tempting to pass up. She is sassy looking. Most kites are cool, but this one actually made me: D
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.

It’s windy this week! Everybody go grab a kite and fly it!
If you don’t have one, you could do a lot worse than shopping at World Wind Kites for a fresh flyer.

I went to the Austin Kite Festival last month, and got the urge to return to Zilker park alone on a weekday, instead of fighting the entire city for airspace. It seemed every time I got in the air (with a borrowed kite, Thanks Monica O.!) I got tangled in someone else’s line. No bueno.
Enter WWK. They are located in NW Austin, between my house and a nice park with an open field. It couldn’t get any more convenient for me.
I dropped in one day and picked out a cool kite for $ 22. That was more expensive than some, but I wanted the best easy-​to-​fly model they had.
Off I went to Zilker. My beautiful nylon sheet was up in the air shortly thereafter. I’d flown it for about 20 minutes when it crash landed. I found it broken in half. There’s a piece on the center pole that attaches the spreader poles. That piece was snapped in two, with half of it missing.
My mind flashed back to what the salesman at WWK said when he was ringing up my purchase. «We stand behind our kites. If anything goes wrong with it, bring it back.»
I brought it back. And walked out with a brand new kite of the same model in about 3 minutes. Great!
Fast forward a week to another flying adventure in that nearby park.
The kite broke in mid-​air, after about 15 minutes of flight, on a regularly windy day. Gusts up to 20 mph. Nothing that should break a kite. The culprit was the exact same piece of plastic that holds the spreader poles. One pole had busted out and poked a hole through the nylon.
I drove straight to WWK, and the man let me pick another kite out. I chose a different model, as I believe my first choice had a faulty component. In the three times I went in, there were three different salesmen to help me, but none of them gave me any guff about a trade-​in. I like that.
The next week, I went out with my fish-​shaped kite. (A Mahi Mahi)
It flew easily, and looked pretty cool too. No breakage, even though the frame flexed heavily in the wind. When I decided to pack it up for the day, I slowly reeled it in for a landing. As I did, a leashless dog was underneath it barking. I tried to steer clear of him, but it landed right on top of the dog, who proceeded to attack it. After I shooed the dog away, I expected it to be torn, but no damage! Just some dog slobber.
Moral of the story is, the friendly staff at WWK really do stand behind their kites, but I wish I didn’t have to go through two faulty kites to get the best kite for me. Hopefully, my Mahi Mahi will last a long time.

The guys at Worldwind Kites are great, as I have returned to their store location on McNeil several times, buying more kites and accessories for my Kite Flying fun for my Frontier Valley neighborhood kiddos. The sight of a 6 year old flying is first kite is what makes it all better to visit their store.
I already had someone from ABIA voice a concern about my 9′ wingspan kite flying well over a 1000′ near the runaway approach, lol.
You can watch the latest flight of
on my Facebook page aka atxniceguy.

This place is so cool, they have some amazing kites, if your into that kind of thing. My husband is a kiter and I was afraid I would be bored to tears, but there are many col things to look at, there, for any age.
and I agree with Cara’s review on Tye, the owner/​manager. He is very helpful and knowledgeable, and hot to boot.

Wow. I … won’t say I got dragged her, b/​c usually I do the dragging, so I willingly went here so as to have a bargaining chip later, to set out acquiring the goods for Power Kiting. In a nutshell, it’s flying a kite big enough to make you get airborne, if you’re so inclined, else there’s off-​road skates, land-​boarding, stuff you can do on the water, etc.
Anyway, this tiny kite shop is *packed* with all kinds of kite goods like you wouldn’t believe. Tye, the owner, is transitioning somehow — hiring more staff, maybe? to take his place while he’s pursuing his engineering degree, so he’s not in as often as he used to be – but he answered all our questions, took out models and gave good tips & instructions, and I liked how he was more interested in really matching the proper product with the buyer (rather than the most expensive in the line, say). What really impressed me was when he said that he refuses to sell a newbie any sort of advanced kite without him knowing the buyer has gained sufficient experience — I’m all about safety, and I feel like owners are partly responsible when they know their customer isn’t at the proper level to use a product that may pose some sort of danger. Okay, I know these are kites, but if we’re talking any sort of lift off the ground…
Anyway, major thumbs up. And too bad Tye is taken, cuz darn if I don’t have a cute sister he’d be great to set up with: D

So if you are looking for kites, call Tye at World Wind Kites in Austin, TX who in typical Austin fashion, is SUPER friendly and incredibly helpful. He contacted the manufacturer of the kite I bought from the useless Elmer’s in Portland, and got me a replacement at no cost to me, and a fair bit of effort on his part.
…and if you have never flown a kite or haven’t since you were still «wet behind the ears»; treat yourself!