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It’s been almost a month since we’ve been flying our kites. Seems like forever. There are some new kites still in their packaging, waiting to be freed to touch the sky. And why have we been keeping them captive? It’s the weather.
It has just been too darn hot to do much of anything. The regular flyers have been staying home and the new flyers, who have stopped at the shop and bought a kite or had a kite repaired, have avoided the heat and humidity on the beach, too. To top it off, there has been little to no wind. The most activity the kite club has done is stand in the parking lot looking at the flag on the Fort Macon flagpole hanging straight down and sweat.
Hopefully, things will change soon. We want to fly!!
Fair Winds All.
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The heat has continued throughout the week. After almost succumbing to it on the Independence Day holiday fly, we’ve decided we will not go to the beach without some sort of shelter. Most people use a 10×10 foot pop-up tent. Considering we have to walk from the parking lot, up the road and to the beach, that option is rather cumbersome. So we invested in a new kind of beach shelter – the Cool Cabana. It is a smaller tent with only a center pole, like an umbrella, but it has four corner legs that are weighted down to make the shelter stable in higher winds. It is light weight and super easy to erect and take down. It provides just enough shade for two chairs and a cooler.
The Cool Cabana
The lack of wind made the heat even hotter. What we should have done was leave the beach and return to the air conditioning. That was the easy way out and not for us this day. The small hardcore group went down to the beach and nursed our low-wind kites into the sky.
The Skate by Into The Wind and the Penguin Critter Kite by Skydog Kites
The Laima by Flying Wings, the Skate and a vintage box Delta
The one kite that defied the odds of flying was a vintage box Delta with wooden spars. By no stretch of the imagination should that kite fly. It was too heavy for the winds available. But it did. Just goes to show what a good design can do.
Just for fun, one of our club members tried to fly the new Skeleton kite. After all, the box Delta flew so maybe there was a large enough sail to get that kite in the sky. Unfortunately, it was a no go. But it was fun to watch as it danced crazily before settling to the ground.
Black Skeleton Kite by Premier Kites
With the heat index rising, we decided to call it a day and head for a cool place. Hopefully the extreme heat will move on and the winds will come up and we can soon fly and fly and fly to our hearts content.
Fair Winds All.
Father’s Day turned out to be a beautiful day to fly kites on the beach. The temperature was lower than the past days. The humidity dropped markedly and the winds were perfect. Well, actually they were a little higher than predicted but still perfect for the new and larger kites we planned to fly.
We brought one of the two kites my husband received for Father’s Day. He had said weeks before that he liked a butterfly kite. So today he flew his own blue butterfly kite.
Blue Butterfly Kite by Skydog Kites
The slightly higher winds were perfect for the two larger kites we wanted to fly. The first was the large skeleton kite that is a new release by Premier Kites this year. They have three styles of skeleton kites in two sizes. While I don’t normally go for big kites, on a whim, I did get the larger of the skeleton kites. After seeing it in the sky, I’m glad I did. The other kite was a one that has been in our bag for two years without being flown. It is a square-headed dragon kite with a lion motif. It is a beautiful kite made by Go Fly A Kite, a company no longer in business.
Lion Dragon Kite by Go Fly A Kite
Dia de los Muertos Skeleton Kite by Premier Kites
Don Dixon of Kites Unlimited just happened to bring along the black skeleton in the smaller size. It took a little maneuvering but we got both skeletons to fly next to one another without tangling. They looked pretty good together.
All the single line kites were flying so well, I took the opportunity to get my full-vent Kites Unlimited Rev out and get some much-needed practice. And someone else took advantage of the fact I put the camera down. I’ll have to be more careful where I leave it next time.
Fair Winds All.
It’s been over two weeks since I’ve flown a kite. I am feeling some withdrawal symptoms. That may sound strange to some people. But flying kites brings relaxation and a sense of accomplishment. Relaxation from watching the single line kites floating in the sky and accomplishment from improving on my control of a stunt kite. And when the weather is good, the wind is right and you don’t get out to the kite field, the days seem wasted.
After not flying for a while, it is dangerous to walk into a kite shop. There is inevitably a kite that is new and begging to be flown. And it is sure to be a kite you’ve been debating about buying for a few weeks. The end result is an addition to the kite bag, a show kite for special occasions and festivals.
Dia de los Muertos Skeleton Kite by Premier
Tropical Storm Bonnie played havoc with any kiting plans this weekend. Not because of high winds nor lots of rain but because the rain came in irregular squalls That made us very reluctant to take our kites out to the beach. The weather predictions said rain all day, all weekend. The actual weather was warm and sunny with unexpected showers that would drench anyone and anything and then blow through, leaving more sunshine in its wake. It was aggravating to see all that sunshine and know that as soon as you walked from the car to the beach, it would start to rain again. So there was no kite flying on the holiday.
What was scheduled was a talk for an OLLI group (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) from Duke University at the Trinity Center in Pine Knoll Shores, NC. This is a group of retired individuals living around Durham, NC who do not believe that retirement means you sit at home watching television for the rest of your days. The institute coordinates continuing education classes at the university and group trips to visit new places and gain new experiences. As part of this trip, the group was learning about kites and kite flying. Don Dixon of Kites Unlimited gave the presentation and my husband helped by bringing kites to show and talk about what we like to fly. My part of the program was to show the kites I had made. As there were quilt makers in the group, this brought up discussions about the techniques used to make the kites. The group was small but they all were interested and a few came to the kite shop the next day and bought kites to take home.
The weather cleared up the day after Memorial Day. Most of the weekend visitors had left the beach so we went out for a short afternoon fly. I really needed some practice with a quad line kite so the only one I carried was the Shook Mesh Revolution. The Shook Mesh is only made by Elliot Shook of Flying Smiles Kite Shop in Corolla, NC. However, they are available from our local kite shop, Kites Unlimited in Atlantic Beach, NC. It was the perfect kite for the winds that day and we had a wonderful couple of hours on a relatively empty beach.
The Shook Mesh Revolution Kite
Fair Winds All.
