Lets Go Fly A Kite...

I love wind sports. I've been sailing for years, Paul and I raced last summer in Laura's Tanzer 22. Buying a boat here however is currently not in the plans. I've also been looking for something a little more... adrenaline based. Two options have popped up. Windsurfing and Kite Surfing. Of the two, I've always been more interested in Kite Surfing... Seems like a much more dynamic way of riding the waves. Also, the gear's a lot easier to carry around.

I've been getting advice from my friend Nick in Canada who's been doing it for years and I decided recently to buy my own first kite. Following his advice, I bought a 4 line, 3 square meter land kite from Peter Lynn. The kite I bought was actually an end of line, called the Pepper II. It's been replaced by

Anyway, I managed to get a nice day (about 10-15 knots) and Carly had the day off, so we headed out to Berhampore Park to get a first flight in. Here's the results:



End result? I've got a sore back, shoulders, blisters on my feet and a giant grin on my face :)

The plan is to get good enough at flying this that I'd feel comfortable on the water. Kite surfing requires a kite 3 to 4 times the size of what I'm using, with proportionally more power as well. That's a lot of lift!