Streatham Common Kite Day

Our 4th appearance at Streatham Common Kite Day, and it almost didn't happen .... Originally scheduled for mid-May, it had to be cancelled when the Common became water-logged following heavy rains. Fortunately, it could be rescheduled to September!

Weather on the day was absolutely gorgeous: warm sunshine, clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Wind was very low, often dropping down to absolutely nothing, and frequently changing direction .... As a result, everyone struggled to fly, from the dual-line flyers dropping out of the sky at times, to the single-line flyers not being able to fly most of the larger showier kites they had brought ...

Team Spectrum was of course present, as they have been at Streatham for 10 years or more.

Judging from Twitter, their pairs routine with tails was a clear crowd favourite!

New to Streatham Common Kite Day was Twisted Bridle. Not having that much experience yet flying in ultra-low or non-existent winds, they did a pretty good job keeping things together.

Like the other pairs, Flying Fish flew three slots. The lack of wind limited our options, and we stuck to our "Ruthless Queen" and "Adiemus" routines, which are more suitable for kites slowing down to almost nothing than a strictly choreographed routine (no opportunity for 'wind checks' and a wind recess at a festival!).

In addition to the three pairs above, Streatham Common had a dual-line team flying again! Flying Fish is part of a larger team, L-katz, and Twisted Bridle was recently invited to join the team. Sporting our new festival uniforms (branded football bibs that make it much easier to quickly switch outfit between routines, especially for the girls), we flew a simple make-it-up-as-we-go-along routine to Gloria Estefan's "Can't Stay Away from You". Between now and the new festival season, we will work on a more choreographed of this, as well as start a second team routine.

Irma and I were also interviewed for London Live. Th third Streatham appearance in a row that we were interviewed for local tv; something that, for us at least, doesn't happen at any other kite festival we fly at.

I've said it before: Streatham Common Kite Day has a community atmosphere like no other kite festival we fly at, and the local tv and other interviews we have done over the last three years fit right into that. We certainly hope to be invited back many more times, both as Flying Fish and with L-katz!

A few more pictures are available here (as I said above, not many kites managed to fly ...).

Picture credits, of Twisted Bridle: Carl Wright; of Flying Fish: Roy Reed; of L-katz: Roy Reed / Twitter

Cougar alert!

No, not that one ...

... and not that one either ...

This one!

Why is Flying Fish flying a HQ Cougar, which is basically a power kite and far from a team kite? Well, as you may be aware, we're always looking out for something a bit different to fly as a pair. And recently, we've been thinking more about 'asymmetric' pairs of kites, where the kites are not the same, but still fit together in some way. Our recent Scorpion 2-stack combined with a single Scorpion is an example of that.

Back to the Cougar, in our very early days of kite-flying, when we were really exploring what's around and what we liked, we bought ourselves a HQ Little Beast, a small power kite with a wing span of 2.20m.

The Cougar is its larger sibling, with a wingspan of 2.67m, and the thought struck us: why not try flying a Cougar together with a Little Beast? The kites differ in size, but are clearly linked together due to the same sail patterns. As Cougars are not produced anymore, we had to rely on the second-hand market, but it didn't take long to find one in excellent condition, and for a very reasonable price. So here's the happy couple!

We weren't quite sure what to expect from them flying together. After all, they're different sizes, they handle differently, etc.

But, to our surprise, it only took a bit of tweaking the Little Beast bridle to make them fly more or less at the same speed. And as long we don't try to fly sharp corners, they flew pretty well together!

We need to work with them more, get used to what they can and can't do together, but we definitely have another unusual pair of kites for our festival quiver. Have to think of how we can make use of the kites being different; for instance, come up with a story where the two play different roles, and then find some appropriate music for that story.

Now one thing I didn't tell you: when I bought the Cougar, the seller threw in a complete set of stacking lines for free. So, obviously, we just had to try out stacking the Little Beast and Cougar (would be rude not to, wouldn't it?)

Using the strongest dual line set we have (175daN), we launched the 'Stacked Cougar', and up she went!

Pulled like a truck, and the wind was only around the 8-10mph mark ...

Portsmouth Kite Festival

Where did time go this summer? It's already Portsmouth, which, for us, usually signifies the end, or at least a winding down of the festival season (we still have two events after Portsmouth this year).

Forecast was for decent weather and light winds on Saturday, and for heavy rain and very strong and gusty winds on Sunday. Turned out the forecast was correct for one of the days, and wrong for the other. Fortunately, that worked in our favour! Saturday indeed gave us smooth light winds, and although Sunday was wet and windy most of the day, the predicted heavy rains and 40mph gusts never materialised.

Good number of pairs/team-flying at Portsmouth: seven pairs and one or two team (depending on how you count). Some of the usual suspects, but also two foreign pairs new to Portsmouth. In no particular order, the pairs flying at Portsmouth were:

Team Spectrum - Carl and Bryan flying their usual set. You can always trust them to deliver a solid performance, no matter the weather.

Fenix Pair - new to Portsmouth, Stephan from Belgium and Ingeborg from the Netherlands flew Nirvanas for their routines, which featured some nice cascades and refuels.

Twisted Bridle - not officially on the programme, but squeezed in with general consent. Fun for them to be back at the festival where their journey basically started.

Flying Fish - back at Portsmouth for the 6th time. We flew routines to 'Chariots of Fire' (our competition ballet for the last three years), 'Ruthless Queen' and 'Adiemus' (and we managed the double catch at the end!)

One more routine we flew on Saturday, when the wind was deliciously light and smooth. This was a make-up-as-we-go-along routine with the 'Decorator Phantoms'. Their official festival debut under our custodianship, and good opportunity to fly them with their previous owners watching! Music we flew them to was Kayak - Phantom of the Night (I had to find some music with a phantom link!)

On to quad line pairs!

Amalgamation - in the old line-up, featuring Tom and Josh.

Dunstable Downs Old Gents - Bill and Graham, with their very laid-back routines, are becoming a fixed feature of Portsmouth.

Viento Sur - new to Portsmouth, from Spain (and having to get used to flying in the rain!), flying several routines. Especially Juan Miguel and Rafa's 'Tango' was sublime, really capturing the attraction and repulsion that's so characteristic for a tango. 

I did mention one team, and if you've been paying attention, you'll know that that team was The Decorators, featuring a line-up of seven flyers this time.

So what about that second team I mentioned earlier? A special slot we participated in was one in which STACK celebrated its 30 year existence. This slot started off with TC flying a Peter Powell Stunter (one from my collection), followed by a Top of the Line Hawaiian (also from my collection, flown by me on Saturday and by Irma on Sunday) and then a 9-strong mega-team flying North Shore Radicals (basically involving members from Flame, Airheads, Flying Fish and Twisted Bridle, with Andy and Josh thrown in as well).

It really was exhilarating flying, especially because not all North Shores were flying at the same speed ... Judge for yourself in the video below!

More pictures of the festival are here, and, as usual, I highlight one further aspect of Portsmouth: Viento Sur winning 'Portsmouth' as part of the STACK Festival League (more on that in a future blog post).

Picture credits: Carl Wright (Twisted Bridle, Flying Fish, STACK mega-team), Franca Perletti (Flying Fish), Andy Taylor (STACK mega-team); video credit: Bill Final

Exmouth Kite Festival

Back for the 4th time at Exmouth, as always brilliantly organised by David Ellison and the Rotarians. The weather was mostly sunny, whereas the wind was typically not as forecast (Exmouth tends to have its own microclimate where the wind is concerned!). Light but smooth and sweet coming off the estuary on Saturday (180 degrees different from forecast ...) and more changeable in strength and direction on Sunday (again, not as expected).

Waving the pair/team-flying flag at Exmouth were three pairs and a team, and as can be expected, some cross-fertilisation between them, and with other flyers.

First of all, the Ex-Grads, flying their 'factory' Airdynamics T5 kites. Ex-Grads won 'Exmouth' as part of the new STACK Festival League (more on that in a future blog post).

Add Peter Taylor to the mix, and you get the Airheads, also flying T5 kites.

New to Exmouth was Twisted Bridle, flying at only their 3rd festival, following their festival debut at Brighton.

Amazing to think that less than a year ago, they'd never flown together, and Lisa had never even flown a dual-line kite. Just shows what can be achieved if you're keen! Guess what they flew? Right: Airdynamics T5!

And then of course Flying Fish, flying (surprise!) T5 kites as well (there is a theme here, isn't there?). It was definitely nice to be introduced as the UK National Dual-line Pairs Champions! We flew a standard set of routines: Ruthless Queen and Adiemus. Interesting challenge on Sunday, when we set up for our slot with our backs to the estuary, and actually flew our routines facing the estuary; wind turned 180 degrees in a space of minutes.

As I said, considerable cross-fertilisation took place. Tom Greenfield flew with Brian Williamson and two or three members of the Airheads, under the name 'Easy Tom and the Exmouth Flyers'. One of their routines was a 2 + 4, featuring two dual-lines kites and two quad-line kites!

And then there was the unavoidable mega-team, consisting of, you guessed it, the Airheads, Flying Fish and Twisted Bridle.

More pictures of the festival are here, but as I do often, I want to highlight two other aspects of the festival. First of all, the Open Arena slots, in which the public (kids as well as grown-up kids) were invited to come into the arena and fly their kites. David had also made 30-odd rainbow deltas available for this. If you want to try and get people to take up kite-flying, just putting on a show they passively watch is not going to do it. They need to be actively involved, feel the connection. And the smiles on kids' faces during these slots are testament to this.

And then the rokkaku fights, on Sunday accompanied by Japanese drumming by Taiko Journey. That really added a whole new dimension to rok fighting!

Picture credits: Franca Perletti (Twisted Bridle, Flying Fish); Valerie Hancorn (mega-team)