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dragonfish

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Blog Entries posted by dragonfish

  1. dragonfish
    Oops, a bit overdue on this one.  
    Memorial Day weekend brought around the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival.  It is a Sunday-Monday festival, this year held on May 29-30, 2016.  
    Sunday started off on a good note, with temperatures not terribly hot, and there was wind!  Bumpy, inland wind with lots of "holes" typical of that location, but nevertheless there was wind.  Sport kite fliers flew demos most of the day, interspersed with some other attractions.  Penny Lingenfelter put on a show with kids from the audience, giving them kites to fly and briefing them on the story they were acting out before taking center stage.  
    We also ran bol races, where older kids got to pull bols into the wind and attempt to run to the finish line.  

    A couple of giant octopus kites also went up.  

    Here is Team AirZone getting ready to perform.  You can see the octopus still being put away on the ground.  

    We ended the day with a quad line megafly as we like to do.  
    Unfortunately, we were not as lucky on Monday.  Temperatures were already picking up in the morning, and on top of that, there was no wind.  But the show must go on.  For the first few hours, demo fliers were flying on short lines, some even flying their indoor routines on indoor kites.  I got creative and flew a mystery ballet with a single line glider.  
    Since it was Memorial Day, we also had a red, white, and blue fly, with people running their kites across the field to get some lift.  One guy tied three cube kites (red, white, and blue; I believe they were Shanti cubes) to a banner pole and was using it as a giant wand to fly the kites.  

    Banner display that was put up on Monday.  

    We did finally get some wind later in the afternoon, so we were able to fly the routines we typically fly at outdoor festivals.  Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head home.  
  2. dragonfish
    The 10th Annual Morro Bay Kite Festival, organized by Shaun Farmer of Farmer's Kites and Surreys, was held on April 23-24, 2016.  

    Friday morning, I picked up Penny Lingenfelter from the airport, and we headed south for Morro Bay.  As we were driving through Gilroy, we were hit by a huge downpour where I could barely see out the windshield.  What is it with rain and kite trips this year?  At least it has only been during the driving days and not the flying days.  We arrived in Morro Bay with plenty of daylight left, checked in to our motel, and went to hang out with the rest of the kite fliers who had arrived for the festival.  
    Saturday morning, after getting breakfast from a really good bakery in town (I don't even know what it's called, everyone just refers to it as "the bakery"), we headed on out to the beach.  
    Setting up camp. 

    Uh oh.  The marked off flying field was way too short.  The back boundary had not been marked yet, but some of the people flying on longer lines were already standing far enough back that their feet were getting wet from the surf.  And, tide was still coming in!  So, the camps got moved, the field boundary got moved, and the back boundary was still as far into the water as you wanted to go.  Throughout the day, a number of fliers, especially the teams, would end up with their feet in the water when a large wave came in.  We had a good mix of individual, pairs, and team dual line and Rev demos throughout the day.  
    If you look closely at the next picture, you can see the yellow caution tape near the ground that was the field boundary, and the wet sand indicating how far in the largest sneaker wave came.  It got within 20 or 30 feet of the sound table at the inland edge of the field.  On another note, can you find the Vickis?  

    Ron Gibian had a couple of his single line kites up as well.  

    Saturday night there was a Rib Fundraiser Dinner where the kitefliers got to eat for free.  The ribs were delicious.  I hope they do it again next year.  
    Sunday came, and we got ready to do it all over again.  We went to the bakery for breakfast again, and hit the beach again.  As the second day of the festival started, the wind picked up and just kept picking up.  
    Some of the large kite display before the wind got out of hand.  

    I also noticed there was a High Surf Advisory and a Wind Advisory in effect on Sunday.  They probably were in effect on Saturday as well, but I didn't take note.  However, Sunday was a lot windier.  It was already blowing around 20mph around noon, and 25mph+ before 1pm.  You could see the sand blowing over the beach.  Revs on the ground were quickly getting covered with sand.  And, any time I bent down to do something, I was getting a face full of sand no matter if I was facing the wind or turned the other way.  The audience was quickly disappearing too, a big change from Saturday when it felt like there was the most attendance we had seen at this festival.  With the challenging conditions, we ended up wrapping up the festival early.  
    The kitefliers got out of the wind and some of us hung out for a bit since it was still relatively early in the day.  Then it was time to drive home.  Well, now we had to drive in this wind!  I had a 200 mile drive to get home, and I'd say at least half of that was through 20mph or so crosswinds and headwinds.  (I checked windfinder reports after I got home to get a sense of the wind speeds on my route.)  I made it home safely, but I've got sand everywhere now.  
  3. dragonfish
    Friday, March 11, 2016
    I set off early in the morning with a fellow kiteflier on our 400 mile drive down to Huntington Beach for Kite Party 14, my first Kite Party.  It was raining for most of the drive as a storm was moving south at the same time we were.  When we reached the LA area, the rain was so heavy it was hard to believe that the forecast for the weekend called for sun and good kite flying wind.  By the time we reached Huntington Beach though, there were slivers of blue sky poking through, and the rain had mostly let up.  We paid a visit to Kite Connection on the Huntington Beach pier to meet the owner Dave, who is also the organizer of Kite Party, then said hi to the early arrival kitefliers who were still flying on the beach despite the rain that had passed through earlier.  We finished off the day with dinner at Fred's Cantina, where we met more kitefliers who had arrived for Kite Party.  
    Saturday, March 12, 2016
    Saturday morning, I awoke to blue sky and light wind.  What a difference from the day before.  

    Kitefliers began to gather on the beach for Kite Party.  There were two roped off fields for the registered kitefliers to fly in, one for sport kites and one for single line kites.  Fliers set up "camp" (chairs, banners, sunshades, assembled kites, etc.) along some of the edges of the fields.  There was a fliers meeting where everyone gave a quick introduction, and then Kite Party was on.  Since Kite Party was a party, and not a festival, the roped off fields were for everyone to fly in, and there was no schedule.  There were always many people flying in a small space, so sharing space was important.  In fact, lines were limited to 75' for sport kites.  There was a lot of Rev team flying (yes, on 75' lines), which I participated in quite a bit.  
    I took a few opportunities to walk around to the single line field to take some pictures.  Jose Sainz set up a banner display in one corner.  


    In the afternoon, we did a memorial fly for Ron Despojado.  More than 30 Rev fliers participated, and the line of kites and pilots stretched from one side of the field to the other.  We spelled "RON" and made a few balls.  With that many pilots spread across the field, instructions had to be passed down the line from one end to the other.  
    After the sun set, we all migrated over to Lamppost Pizza for dinner and the kite auction.  
    Sunday, March 13, 2016
    Sunday was much of the same, albeit with a slightly slower start due to the Daylight Savings Time time change.  I decided to set up a dualie, but by the time I did and walked around looking for a place to fly, I was feeling claustrophobic with all the kites already flying.  I can fly a Rev in close quarters no problem, but I am not quite comfortable enough with dualies to do that yet, so I left my WidowMaker by my kite bag and went off to fly my Rev again.  I did find a brief opportunity around lunch time to fly my WidowMaker, so I didn't set it up for nothing.  
    One of the major attractions on the single line field on Sunday was this dragon.  

    I also took a walk on the Huntington Beach pier to get some pictures from a different angle.  

    Somehow most of the sport kites were on the ground when I took the next picture.  

    Kite Party ended with dinner right next to the beach at Zack's, where we said our goodbyes.
    Monday, March 14, 2016
    Monday morning, I looked out the hotel window and saw gray sky and wet ground once again.  At least the drive back was mostly dry.  We really lucked out with the weather during Kite Party.  Ron must have been looking out for us from above.  
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