Turbulance closes its doors in Llandudno Junction

Mar 11 2010 by Eva Ketley, North Wales Weekly News

Turbelance closes its doors in Llandudno Junction

THE first kiting store to be opened in the UK has closed in Llandudno Junction.

The Turbulence store opened in 2002, and very quickly developed a nationwide reputation for its kiting academy.

The store and academy was set up by brothers Lukas and Adam Jones, after years spent of flying kites on land and kite buggying.

Their vans emblezoned with the Turbulence branding of a whirlwind became a regular sight on the roads in North Wales.

The teaching academy was started in 1998, offering instruction in all aspects of land kiting activities. Originally buggiers, landboards were a natural progression, and offered a range of activities for people to learn. The www.ukkiting.com website started at this time as a way to provide information and show the pictures from the beach.

Turbulence became even more well known when it was featured on BBC’s Blue Peter programme, when the presenter Gethin Jones was taught how to kite by the academy’s instructors.

Turbulence also became famous for filming with the BBC, one of its idents, which are shown as clips before and after programmes.

The Turbulence team spent two days filming on Ynyslas beach, and the kite flying clip is still shown.

The shop closed on Saturday, although if anyone wants to buy any kiting equipment they can contact Adam or Lukas.

Lukas said: “If people want any equipment they can give me a bell as we still have quite a lot of stock left.

“We’ve closed the shop as other job opportunities have come up for both me and Adam.

“After eight years of owning the shop we feel it’s time to do something else.

“There have been lots of highlights with Turbulence over the years, the BBC idents filming was great fun.”

Lucas stressed that their kiting website will continue as will the North Wales Power Kite Club, which has 250 members.

“It’s sad the shop has closed because Llandudno Junction has been very good to us,” said Adam.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and have made some great friends but I was offered to be the worldwide marketing manager for Mutiny Kite, a kiting company based in Swansea.

“This means I’ll be travelling all over the world, and it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”

He added: “I’d like to thank everyone who has supported us and Tony Mead, the harbourmaster, for helping us out over the years.”

Lukas Jones can be contacted on 07771 758199.