Soccer Has Started, Indians, Kite Eating Trees

Date: 4/4/09
Place: Cosmo Park, Columbia, MO
Kites: E2 on 85'
Wind: 15 - 25 mph (gusty), E
Weather: Sunny, 50º

I didn't fly very long due to the wind being too strong and gusty. But, I'm glad I went to Cosmo Park today. Soccer started and the place was a mad house. I was able to fly on a football (American football) field that wasn't being used. While I was flying, a guy wandered over and introduced himself. His name is Albert and, although he hasn't flown for about 5 years, he used to compete at the national level in dual-line stunt/freestyle/ballet/precision AKA competitions. He was sponsored by Precision Kites. I chatted with him a while while his daughter played soccer. I gave him my contact info in case he wants to dust off his kites, come out of retirement, give me some tips, or sell any of his old kites.

As for flying today, I only did a few axels and some side slides and basically tried to keep my kite from being damaged.

Later in the day I went to a Kite Fly sponsored by the City of Columbia at Douglas Park Ballfield. It was a tiny location nestled amongst trees and buildings; not the type of place I would ever pick to fly any kind of kite. But the kids seemed to get their inexpensive kites to fly, and ran around a lot without getting too many lines tangled.

Also attending this event were a couple of families from India. They brought and flew a bunch of small, 1'-square, bamboo sparred, tissue paper kites with little pompoms at the base, possibly homemade; single line Indian fighter kites. They flew them well and got them way higher using big spools of fuschia-colored line than any of the other kites! These kites were extremely unstable when given slack, but flew fast and straight when the lines where pulled. I overheard one of their children saying that he wished they could use their kite lines to cut other people's lines like they did back in India :^)

By the time I left (I didn't fly anything at all), I counted at least six kites caught in kite-eating trees!