Extreme kiting

My friend Steven is getting very excited by kite surfing these days. He has already bought one full-size kite and harness and one training kite. Today being an absolutely gorgeous day in Vancouver (25C, feels like 29C with the humidex), he invited me and Rocco along to fly the training kite in the park.

We went down to a green space along the seawall. There were plenty of people out including a community of kite-flyers. Here's a pic of Steven and Rocco setting the kite up:


The wind was quite strong today so there was no problem getting the thing off the ground. In fact, Steven and Rocco were trying to get lifted off their feet by first sitting, then diving the kite and allowing it to hoist them up on the uplift.


The whole thing was so much fun! The kite is attached to a bar that you hold onto a bit like gripping bike handles. Pulling one or the other arm toward you makes the kite go left or right. We practiced "parking" the kite which is a move that holds the kite in one place without letting it drop, doing spins and swoops, but we didn't practice landing so mostly the poor kite experienced crash-landings.

I'm not sure I'm ready for kite surfing, but spending a few hours of the day outside flying a kite was a treat. There's a specialty kite store down in gastown that we might visit in the near future to get equipped for future kite adventures. D and I also had an ambition a few years ago to build a box kite at home out of dowling and other materials, so I might look into that again. Fun stuff!