When we were younger as
soon as autumn came we used to build paper kites out of old wallpaper,
and glue them together with wallpaper paste! If they flew later or not,
it didn't really matter, main thing was to have fun.
Later on in life other things became more important, driving flash cars, bikes, getting a job and trying to impress the opposite sex ! The long sunny autumn kite flying days were long forgotten. Jens became a carpenter and Olaf became a tool maker. All we were interested in were the Cars, the bikes and the women. Some time later in the start of the 90's Jens went on holiday to the north coast in Germany, which is very well known for its wind sailing, boating and of course kite flying. Jens was taken in by the kite flying on the beach. His girlfriend gave him a kite as a present and that was it ! The next year Jens brought a rainbow colored "Speed-Wing Pro". The thing flew brilliantly, Jens decided to build his own on an old sewing machine. Then Olaf used to laugh at his brother and think "um maybe he is going through a funny phase in his life. . . , kites....that's for kids isn't it" ? Jens used design, sew, re-design, fly, experiment, re-sew, make changes and try new things out for months on end. Olaf and their father then started then to help Jens using their knowledge of tool making to make up, and try out new fittings ( cross spreaders, leading edge plugs etc. etc. ). From this Jens founded the company FSD which is today a daughter company of LEVEL ONE. Then we would have never believed that the "funny phase" Jens was going through would have such a big impact on our lives. Olaf joined the company later and was responsible for the development of the Fittings, like the FSD T-piece, the Jaco-FSD-Stand off holder and the now legendary FSD cross spreader holders. Olaf also took over the management side of the company. LEVEL ONE turned their attention then to the competition scene. In 1996 "Lucky Landing Albatross Team" were sponsored by LEVEL ONE and used the Crazy Albatross as their team kite. This was the first successfully joint developed kite between Jens and the Lucky Landings team. The Crazy Albatross is no longer available in the shops, but those who have this kite in their kite bag, often pack it out and give it a good airing now and then. In the mean time Jens was busy developing our best seller the High Level. We worked very closely with competition kite flyers gaining a lot of experience and always working on new ideas and projects. Today LEVEL ONE is an Internationally recognized company with many friends and business partners worldwide, but one thing we have not lost, is customer contact. Be it the professional competition flyer or the weekend hobby flyer, to us the customer is always the king. We are also always on the look out for kite flyers to fly, try out and even criticize our kite range, because through constructive criticism we can ONLY improve our kites, giving YOU the "end user" a much better product. LEVEL ONE means: LEVEL ONE means: |