When I started flying in August of 1990, I stumbled into my first kite festival on the Marina Green in San Francisco… After wandering down the field with stars in my eyes I came across the Bay Area Sundowners flying their trademark 12 stacks of Hyperkites. As a complete neophyte, they welcomed me with a great deal of the warmth I’ve come to love in kiting and helped to shape my outlook on the sport… Years later, they have all become some of the finest friends I could hope to have in the industry.
Often underrated on the competition scene, what people often don’t realize is the level of difficulty involved in maneuvering stacks and tails through the sky in formation… Always having to pay attention to positioning in order to keep their tails in order and often flying in difficult conditions, they are easily one of the most professional performance teams in the world.
This being said, I wanted to take a moment with them and share with you (the reader) some of what has made them one of the most distinguished and well known sport kite teams in history… Team member Ken Osterlund was kind enough to speak with us on behalf of the team, who to this day are excellent ambassadors for kiting worldwide.
Ken, when did the Bay Area Sundowners team form and what initiated it?
Mix McGraw started the Bay Area Sundowners in 1980. The Heart of the current team has been flying together since 1989, that’s when Ray Wong and Barry Nash asked Gordon and Ken Osterlund to join the Sundowners. At that time there was no such thing as pairs competition and four person teams were the way to go if you wanted to win. Ray and Barry saw promise in the Ken and Gordon and asked them to join.
Ray left the team in 1997. We had recruited Craig Wong in 1995; he had already flown on the 1994 World cup champion Team Tsunami so the team easily moved on when Ray retired. It was a much more difficult time when Craig left in 2000… Fortunately for the Sundowners we had met Mark and Jeanette Lummas at a number of international events. They were members of the two-time World Cup championship team Sky Dance. Mark and Jeanette moved from England to Los Angeles in 2000 and became members of The Bay Area Sundowners.
Certainly getting together to practice became much more difficult but the team was able to keep going. The Sundowners have always kept their eyes out looking for potential team flyers in order to keep the team flying. Our newest member of the team is by no means new to kiting. Randy Tom, owner of Hyperkites, captain of Team Elite back in the 90’s and kite designer extraordinaire has brought a lot to the team since joining us in 2001, and long before that as the team’s kite sponsor.
Although we’ve changed teammates as the years have passed, and there are no original members remaining on the Sundowners, the soul and tradition of the team continues.
Who are the current members of your team?
The current team consists of six flyers – three from northern California and three from Southern California; Barry Nash has been a member since 1984. Ken and Gordon Osterlund have been members since 1989. Mark and Jeanette Lummas have been members since 2000. Randy Tom, sponsor from day one, has been a member since 2001.
Can you tell us a little about them?
Certainly. Barry is originally from Southampton England but has lived in the San Francisco bay area for the last 22 years. He has been a member of the Sundowners almost as long, since 1984. He recently married Anne Thrall who he met at a kite event in Washington. Anne is originally from Oregon; her father Rod has made quite a name for himself by flying big teddy bears and the like. Barry and Anne currently live in Belmont California, about 15 miles south of San Francisco. Barry makes a living as a superintendent of a large painting company. His wife Anne is currently studying and practicing massage.
Gordon and Ken are brothers and have been flying with the team since 1989. Both are married. Gordon and his wife Sharon have a six-year-old son Cheyenne, and live in San Francisco… He has lived in the Bay Area since 1968 and is an on-site foreman, working with the same painting contractor as Barry.
Ken and his wife Shirley have four children, two boys and two girls. The boys are Chris, 17 and Kenny 3. The girls are Katie, 8 and Cammie, 6. Ken, Shirley and family live in San Bruno California, about 10 miles south of San Francisco. Ken has also lived in the bay area since 1968, and is a partner in a company called Praxis that specializes in designing and installing custom audio/video and home automation systems.
Randy Tom. What can I say? What hasn’t he done in kiting? Initially he was the Sundowners main sponsor as he owned and operated Hyperkites. At that time he had his own team, Team Elite based in San Diego. Randy has won many prestigious awards and has inspired many great kite artists with his appliqué techniques, perhaps best know for his Nagel kites. We have become great friends over the years. When the Sundowners had a need for a quality team flyer Randy stepped in. He has been flying full time with the Sundowners for the last two years and we feel very lucky to have him. He has been working with Go Fly as a lead designer for the last several years. Randy still lives in San Diego, CA.
Mark and Jeannette Lummas have been flying with the team since 2000. We first met Mark and Jeannette in La Touque, France during the 1994 World Cup event. We became friends and saw each other occasionally at greater international kiting events over the years. One of our team’s greatest memories is flying together with Sky Dance during closing ceremonies at the World Sport Kite Grand Prix held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia . There were five sundowners at that time and the three members of the newly crowned champions of the World Sport Kite Grand Prix, Sky Dance all flying twelve stacks of Hyperkites to a routine we call The Big Picture. That fly for us is truly unforgettable it was like magic. Mark and Jeannette flew with Stephan Hoath and together they were two time world champions, make that three times including Malaysia, world Champion team Sky Dance from England.
Mark and Jeannette moved to Los Angeles in 2000 but were already members of the team as we had made the announcement while attending the Bristol International Kite Festival in England earlier that year. The Lummas’ have been blessed with a beautiful little boy while residing here in the US, his name is Ben and is now 3 years old… Mark is an IT professional and due to work visa requirements, Jeannette is a stay at home mom.
What or who inspired you to start a team?
For all of us it is the thrill of flying as a team and the desire to be called the best in the world. The team has carried on through so many years and been through a number of changes but what makes being a part of this team special is the desire to carry on a tradition. When sport kiting was first born back in the early 80’s it was the Trains that ruled the skies.
Times changed and kites evolved. Kites became feats of engineering genius that could perform tricks which a train flier could never perform. We were told we were crazy to continue flying the trains but we continued. Today the Trains have truly become our claim to fame and our ticket to be able to perform outside the competition arena. It is because we are different from almost all other teams that we are sought after to perform.
What other teams (past and present) have been a major influence?
We are from the old school. Teams I really admired were teams like the old Tsunami, High Performance, Top of The Line, Air Art, Invisible Winds (especially when the last two had recruited a young flyer by the name of John Barresi), Prevailing Winds and of course Team Elite to mention a few. The old days. Did you know it was not uncommon to have as many as 15 or more teams competing against one another at the same competition?! That was a lot of fun.
Does your team compete, or did they ever?
Did we ever! The Sundowners competed in the very first team competition ever held at the 1985 AKA convention and continued until we retired from competition in 1995. Our whole goal was to be the best in the world. We came close but never got it, at least on the competition field. We did represent the USA in world competitions on two occasions once for the world cup held in La Touque France 1994 and once at the World Sport Kite Grand Prix in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 1996. We missed qualifying for the 1993 World Cup by 6/10ths of a point… When we failed to become world champions at the ‘94 World Cup the team decided to give it one more try in ’95. In 1995 when we failed to qualify by 4/10ths of a point we decided that we had had enough of the sport kite circuit and that it was time to retire from competition.
It was actually very hard on the whole team when we had to acknowledge the fact that we would never realize our ultimate goal of being crowned the best in the world. At the same time we had also grown weary of the politics involved in competition. We had grown tiered of being told that we didn’t fit in and that we were just too different to be accurately judged. We never saw it as a problem; a ballet is a ballet regardless of the kite you fly. After all it’s just an interpretation of a piece of music. All we knew was that the crowd loved what we did and we loved how they would respond to our flying.
Where does your team generally perform, and what keeps you going without competition?
Good Question. I mean if we’re not competing where can we perform, and why would we? I can tell you that the only reason the Sundowners are still flying is because we love to fly. If we took seriously what people had recommended to us while we were competing we would never have come as far as we have.
On more than one occasion we were told by very influential people in the kiting community that we should just stop flying the trains because “we would never get anywhere as long as we continued to fly them.” This was extremely frustrating as some of these people were actually judges of international competitions. And when your whole goal is to be the best in the world its very disheartening to hear. What kept us going was the excitement of the crowds. During our last years of competition we told ourselves that we were going “to fly for the crowd and forget the judges.” The response from the spectators was always remarkable and no matter what or how the judges felt, in the eyes of the spectators the Sundowners had put on the best show. Bottom line, we love to fly what we fly best, our trains.
When we retired from competition in 95 we looked at each other and said “let’s see what happens. If we can get some invites that would be awesome but if not, well it’s been fun”. I’m happy to say the Sundowners biggest problem is figuring out which invites it can commit to. The Sundowners have traveled to Kite events practically all over the world. Japan, France, England, Thailand and Malaysia to name a few. All post competition except France, we competed there in the 1994 World Cup event. Since then, we have returned to France three times to take part in the Dieppe International kite festival.
However our biggest breakthrough has been to take kites onto the Air Show circuit. I’m talking about airplane shows. This has been a great fit for lots of reasons but best of all we get to show hundreds of thousands of people what kite fling has become. People who would never otherwise know what “precision” kite fling is or can be. We have established ourselves as a proven quality act for air show promoters which in short means that we receive a significant fee to perform at these events. As one act leads to another, the air shows have also been a source for the team to receive invites to other private functions. The fees we receive from these events are a big part of what allows the Sundowners to continue flying. Team flying is not inexpensive. There are so many things that need to be afforded, kites, lines, gear, and uniforms, business and travel expenses etc. It should also be known that it is very rare to get an all expanse paid trip, usually we end up paying half our air fare to participate in many of the events we attend.
To sum it up, most of our travel is to international kite events and we balance that with the air shows and other private events. We also have a number of kite events in the US that we are invited to and attend annually. We continue to fly because it’s a thrill you can’t get anywhere else, the spectators continue to welcome us and we still love to fly.
What do you look for when selecting team kites?
The Sundowners have a tradition of flying Trains. The team began fling Rainbows in 1980 but switched to Hyperkites in1983 when Randy Tom agreed to sponsor us. Obviously the sponsorship helped but the Hypers did fly much better. So as our primary kite we have had the best for a long time.
We have worked with Randy to develop the Hyperkite train to fly in a much broader wind range but basically it has not changed much since 1980. Over the years we have had a few wing sponsors. Initially it was Hyperkites, which did make a quality wing at the time. We took fourth place in precision in the 94 World Cup with them. We began to fly Level One wings in 1997. Hyperkites had stopped making wings and we felt we needed to have a quality wing to fly. We found that no US manufacturer wanted to sponsor the team because we didn’t compete and we were only known for flying trains. Level One from Germany chose to sponsor us. They had some great kites and they treated us well. In turn we sold a lot of kites for them.
But to answer the question we look for a stable relatively slow kite that tracks well and doesn’t pull too much, we get enough of that from our trains.
Do you fly with staggered or even length lines, and why?
We have flown with both. We used to fly wings in precision with staggered lines and Trains in ballet on even lines. Because of our style of flying, frequently changing flight order on the ground by moving our bodies, we soon found that it was no problem flying with even lines when flying the wing, in fact it was an advantage because of our body movement. We simply made adjustments with our body line up instead of staggering the lines. Ultimately it meant we had to carry less gear which is always a good thing.
How do you go about selecting team music, and what do you look for?
We have written routines just about every way possible. That is what we are talking about here really, the beginning step of developing a new routine, choosing the music. Choosing the music should not be taken lightly; it is probably the hardest part of building a new routine.
We have written flight paths first and then found music that fit it. We have chosen music and written routines collectively as the team. We have had members submit pieces of music to the team that could be used in a routine and had one member of the team write 90 to 95% of the flight paths. We have also had members select the music and choreograph nearly an entire routine with minimal input from the team.
The only real commonality is that the team has always been made aware of and approved of the music selection before choreography had begun. So you see with us there really is no one member who is our master choreographer and no one approach that is always used. While it is true that the approach we have found works the best is when one member is inspired by a piece of music and writes most of the routine, the other members are still very much involved. Especially when it comes time to working out all the timing and fine-tuning of flight paths when the routine is finally taken out and flown with kites.
You just started flying quad line kites as part of your performances in the last two years, how do feel this fit into the show?
John, you may remember… My brother and I used to be considered pretty darn good at flying a delta wing quad (Revs had not yet been developed), at the time it was our passion. That all ended when we met up with Ray and Barry. From that point on we flew wings because we had to (precision), and we flew trains because we loved to. Because of what we were trying to accomplish on the competition field there was no time left for play. As the team changed we also looked to add to our “show”, the team had wanted to fly Revs for along time but we really didn’t have the patience to learn it ourselves.
Along come Mark and Jeannette. Thanks to them it really wasn’t all that hard to learn quad line. We just launched them figured out how to make ‘em go forward and fell in behind the leader. No, it wasn’t that easy either but we spent practically no time learning how to fly the kite before we started to fly them in team. And yes it was a real good laugh; just imagine four total novices trying to follow the leader. It was a mess. It took some time before we felt we flew quads well enough together to actually fly them in a show. We still aren’t great at it but it does add to the show and the crowd seems to enjoy it. That is exactly why we do fly the Revs, it adds a new dimension to our show. I must admit that learning to fly those things gave a breath of fresh air to the team. It has been a lot of fun.
How does it fit into the show? Well basically they are kites and we are a Sport Kite Show Team. They way we see it is, the more you have to offer the better the chances to get invited to events. Funny thing though, no matter what we fly or how well, the spectators always want to see the trains.
What kind of a practice schedule do you maintain?
Then or now? In the early days when life was not so complicated and we had a lot more time to dedicate to flying, we could and needed to practice significantly more than we do now. We used to practice up to 40 hours a week on top of holding down our regular jobs. But things have changed. The core of the team has been flying together for so long that they do not even need to speak when flying in practice or while performing. And the fact that the Sundowners have recruited well allows us to practice much less. We now practice one full weekend a few weeks prior to an upcoming event, that’s about it. We do get together once in a while beyond that but practice for us has become an enormous expense as half the team now lives in Southern California .
How do you prepare for extreme wind conditions, high or low?
Same as always, experience. We used to purposely seek out practice locations with various wind conditions related to them. Then we would practice in one of these locations depending on the wind characteristics of the event we were going to attend. We would practice out on the beach if we wanted ideal wind conditions. We would practice in Berkeley if we wanted to prepare for big winds. We would practice in the Marina if we wanted bumpy ugly winds and we could go inland a bit if we wanted to fly in those conditions.
What we have found is if the wind is good your routine will likely look good, the worse the wind conditions the worse your routine is going to look regardless of how hard you try. We don’t stress on it anymore, you get what you get and you deal with it.
What do you feel are some of the biggest hurdles in keeping a team together?
We have found that the most difficult factor in keeping a team together is learning to deal with individual personalities, initially and as the team matures and changes. A team will spend huge amounts of time together so it is imperative that the members are able to discuss and together work out whatever situation may arise. From correcting mistakes on the practice field to accepting and forgiving a team member if they happen to crash during a performance and everything in-between including all that happens “off the field.” The team must be able to talk about it and collectively put it behind them or the team will not last. As I said its not just about what happens on the field. Some of our most trying times have been when dealing with personal issues completely unrelated to kiting. Also, when we travel it seems to bring out the worst in us, especially on the way home. Regardless of how successful or otherwise the trip may have been, everybody is fried and tired of being with each other and tempers tend to flare easily. Its important to know when to let things go.
Another huge factor is to have similar if not identical commitment levels and goals. All members must be on the same page where these are concerned or again the team will not last. When Gordon and Ken joined the Sundowners our goal (as was Ray and Barry’s) was to be the best in the world no matter what the cost. We actually negotiated kite-flying terms with our employers. But it was conceded that if it meant we lost our job in order to make an event, then we would find a new job when we got back. This commitment to the team cemented our commitment to each other. It was learning to work TOGETHER that truly proved to be the most difficult task for us to overcome. We no longer have any desire to be crowned champions of the competition field but only a desire to fly and have fun. This being said we have met every January to discuss what the commitment level for each team member will be. It establishes right up front what types and how many events the team will be able to commit to in the up coming season. With the commitment level known, the team can budget how much time can be afforded to international travel, domestic travel, air shows other events and practice. It’s actually a pretty simple process and one that cannot be ignored.
What are your philosophies on a team’s inter-personal dynamics?
Keep it simple and don’t take things too seriously. Every member of the team must be able to accept the shortcomings of the other members, or for the health of the team, the team must make changes. As important as the commitment to the team is, all the members of the team must be able to work together as a unit which means dealing with everyone else’s personality. If it weren’t for commitment the Sundowners probably would have broken up in or about 1993.
There was a period in time when two of our team members did not speak to each other for over a year but somehow we kept going. Realizing the massive negative impact this was having on the team and with not one flyer willing to continue under the circumstances, the two members went to lunch together. What they found was that their differences were not so great and that there was plenty of room for mutual respect. The Sundowners went to World Cup the following year. Now that the team flies almost exclusively for fun it is actually more important than ever that we all be able to get along.
Do team members get together for non-flight activities?
Yes. Not as often as we used to but yes. We used to get together almost every Sunday in the San Francisco Marina Green. We would work on individual techniques but mostly we would just fly and have fun. We would sit and talk to George Hamm (the undisputed “Mayor of the Marina ”) and fraternize with other kite flyers. It was here that we met a very young kite flyer named John Barresi. I wouldn’t go as far as to say we taught him to fly but we did help show him the ropes. Who would have known that John would have gone on to distinguish himself as one of the top flyers in the world? It is truly a small world.
Occasionally the members of the team will get together for dinner and we have been known to get together at Christmas time. But most often our non-kite related activities come at kite related events. Like going fishing after an event or taking tours while in places we’ve never before been. Acknowledging each other as the good friends as we have become, it really all goes back to the commitment discussed at the beginning of the year. All of our lives have changed dramatically from the time we began flying with the team, and in turn the team has changed to reflect the changes in our personal lives. We all greatly value the reduced amount of time we have to spend together. So when we do get together it’s usually kite related because for us that is the time we have to play.
Have you ever reviewed your routines on video, and how has it been useful?
We used to video tape nearly every practice and performance. Initially it helped us see places in our routines we wanted to improve. But again things change. It turned out that only one member of the team took the time to review and critique the tapes which led to massive arguments about who was right and who was wrong so we basically stopped doing it.
We know what our routines are supposed to look like. When someone makes a mistake we all see it, and we know the flyer that made the mistake knows it. We may discuss it but we no longer point fingers and rip on the poor guy. As much as we strive for perfection we know that because of factors usually beyond our control, perfection is almost an unreasonable expectation. We still use video on occasion but it is usually limited to refining new routines.
What thoughts do you have on kiting’s influence on global culture?
That’s a big question. Kiting has been a big part of almost every culture in the World, save the western world. In Japan for instance, you can tell where a person is from just by the type kite he fly’s and how it is put together. The Malaysian Wau is much the same. For the most part kites are a big part of a lot of different cultures, and each culture has its own unique fables regarding kiting. It’s very fascinating.
Do I believe kiting can stop a war? No. But it can help bridge a gap between two parties. Kiting can be the icebreaker for conversation between people who don’t even speak the same language. Sometimes words are not necessary.
What is it about kiting that most appeals to you now and keeps you involved?
The same thing that got us started is the same thing that keeps us going our love of flying especially team. The plain truth of the matter is that we all love to fly as a team. There are not words to describe how it feels to fly a perfect routine.
There have been times at practice when the conditions were ideal and the team just nailed set after set, after set. (Typically we fly three or four routines back to back in a set). It is on days like these that I realize what I continue to work so hard for. It’s all about being in the sky with your buddies flying in perfect harmony with the music.
When all factors come together and the team flies flawlessly it truly is like magic. It takes a lot of time for a team to be able to fly the way we can. Tons of practice and learning, so much so that when I no longer fly with the Sundowners I will probably not ever fly team again. So it is the team that I enjoy most, and the team that keeps me involved.
What do you enjoy the most about flying on a team?
Pretty much answered that one already. It’s the incredible feeling you get when the team is flying flawlessly it’s like magic. The camaraderie. Knowing that you are a part of something much greater than yourself. Being in the sky with the other members.
With all due respect to those who haven’t flown team, we find flying by ourselves boring. We need the other kites in the air to feel the thrill. And as all kite flyers are show-offs we love to hear the reaction of the crowd when we perform.
Do you see any differences in the way festivals are done in the USA, compared to other countries?
Yes, both in sport kite competition and with single line festivals. As there are many differences between events here in the US, local, international, invited big events, and the “all are welcome events”… So yes, there are differences between festivals here and abroad.
In Japan the events are very traditional. In the UK the kite fields are set up more for safety, the rules are actually quite similar. The big international shows are similar but the foreign events seem to finance the events more and bring in a greater variety of flyers and kites. I suppose that’s the beauty of it, no two kite events I have ever attended were exactly alike. They all have had their own nuances and personalities.
Do you have any recommendations to someone who is thinking of starting a team?
If I were to make a recommendation to someone who was just starting a team I would say these things;
- Choose members that are likely to get along. You’ll spend a lot of time with these people and it won’t always be fun.
- Make absolutely sure of the commitment level and the goals of all members are similar. This will help set the practice and event schedule and help prevent many arguments.
- Be patient and don’t take it too seriously. Team flying is not easy. Everyone will make mistakes and no one person is always right. Remember it is a team and it takes working together to be successful.
- Do it because you love it. In hard times it may be the only thing that gets you through.
How does someone go about soliciting sponsors for a team?
Sponsorship is extremely hard to get, especially outside the kiting industry. First and foremost the team must prove they are worth investing in, both in terms of quality flying and in terms of longevity. Its very expensive for a kite company to sponsor a team and they want to know that the investment they make will last. For a kite company to sponsor a team they will typically need to supply three kites to each flyer, 12 kites. At retail cost that can be anywhere from $1,200 to $6,000 dollars, that’s a lot of money for a small company. Sponsorship outside the industry is practically non-existent but worthy of pursuing ‘cause you might just get lucky. Early on we actively sought outside sponsorship without much luck. Eventually we gave up because it was costing us way more money than it brought in.
As the Sundowners have proven their flying abilities and our longevity sponsorship inside the industry is not so difficult for us. Hyperkites is still our primary sponsor and we have received other sponsors as well in order not to over burden any one of them. Avia has been fantastic as they supply us with all our frames and fittings. Laser Pro has been supplying us with our lines for the last three years. It’s the best line I’ve ever flown with. Beginning next year Go Fly will be sponsoring us with the material needed to make our kites. Even with most of our gear taken care of there are still many other expenses we incur. Material for our custom bags, uniforms, travel, business expenses and taxes. The fees we charge to do events is what pays for all the other things. We try our best to make the team self-supporting.
It’s all about proving you are worthy and being persistent. We put together a package we would send out to potential sponsors, which included a biography, our upcoming schedule, and a list of our current sponsors. We would also do our best to tell the potential sponsor why it was in his best interest to sponsor us. Of course all this needed follow up and so on but you get the picture.
Do you feel the kiting scene will ever become mainstream, and how might we go about making it happen?
Mainstream. Unfortunately I no longer believe so. I was a part of the sport kiting “hey-day” and the renaissance of single line flying and sadly I have seen it slip into comparatively nothing. There is no one answer why this has happened but rather a multitude of reasons both for single line and sport-kites. For one, the timing was right for kiting when it experienced the great surge of the mid 80s, early 90s. Now it has tapered off. Unfortunately sport-kiting is not an “on demand” sport meaning we can’t always perform in all circumstances. If you can’t do that TV is not attainable. But if you could get TV involved its impossible to transform the dynamics of what is happening in the sky onto a small TV set. Ever watch those videos? Kiting unfortunately is not good on TV.
So there’s “mainstream”. Do I believe kiting can experience a renaissance again like it did in the 80s and 90s? Yes. I also believe competition; both for team and individuals can work. Again there is no one answer as to how to do this. But for it to happen Kite events need kite flyers so spectators will come and spend money. Hopefully. Kitefliers want to compete on all levels but they need some reasonable expectation that they will be able to recoup some, if not all of their expenses if they are successful. It’s just way too expensive to travel and compete, its no wonder why there are so few competitors these days. Events can’t grow if competitors don’t travel. There is one real good example of how to get teams and individuals together to compete. It was called The UP-Sports Challenge on Manhattan Beach, Southern California on the Fourth of July weekend. Although the setting was great, the biggest difference with this event is they had a purse for the top four finishers. There must have been at least 15 teams that showed up, as well as many top individual flyers that had not competed in years, all shooting it out for cash prizes. Keeping in mind that this was at a time when you were lucky to get four or five teams at an event and when most individual flyers retired after attaining top status.
Do I believe it only takes money to get this thing rolling again? No, but it sure could help.
Thanks for taking time out with us Ken, and our thanks to the rest of the team for putting on such a good show all these years!
John, Thanks so much for giving us this opportunity to tell a small part of the Sundowner history. The Sundowners have been around since the pre-competition era, and as such we have so many things we can talk about.
We actually have quite a laundry list of different things we were the first to do, (but what difference does that make now?). We have seen and taken part in so many wonderful events. We have traveled to so many places we would never have gone if it weren’t for kiting and we have met some very incredible people along the way. It truly has been a wonderful journey and one that we hope to continue for many years to come.
(embedded photos courtesy of Randy Tom)
(photo strip on right and mug shots by Kitelife)
For more information about the Bay Area Sundowners, or if you would like them to perform at your event, click here to visit their home page!