"Flying Kites is Weird"

Date: 8/14/09
Place: Cosmo Park, Columbia, MO
Kites: E2 on 85', 3d on 20'
Wind: 2.5 - 6 mph, SE
Weather: Sunny (humid), 67º

It was about 6:30 AM on a Friday morning and it was very quiet at Cosmo Park. A car went by and a teenager yelled out the window, "Flying Kites is Weird." It was ironic that that teenager was almost certainly headed to the skateboard park (part of Cosmo) and I bet that skateboarders are never called freaks or weird :^) So is flying kites weird?!

The grass was so wet that I think my kite's string has never been wetter. At one point I kind of snapped the lines while the kite was flying and the light was just right for me to see a good sized cloud of little water droplets fly off the lines.

I did one rung of a Jacob's Ladder (it may be a while before I can do two or more rungs -- 1st I have to consistently get the parts of one rung linked together well and then also get those parts in the other direction (with the opposite hand inputs), and then link the rungs together!). Anyway, for today's rung, I did the snappiest flare pulled to a fade that I've ever done. It was cool!

Another fun trick combo I did was three left backspins, immediately followed by three right backspins, ending up by flying out of the fade position. It was also a good day for flic-flacs.

When the wind was too slow, I flew the 3d, with lots of loops and axels. I also did several launches into fades that I held for a while.

It was a fun/weird(?) morning for flying kites!