From: daveb@pogo.wv.tek.com (Dave Butler)
Newsgroups: rec.kites
Subject: Longbeach Kite Fest
Date: 1 Sep 92 21:36:48 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville,  OR.

Well I got back from the international kite festival at Long Beach, Washington
last Monday, and the festival was great, but since then, the only the
discussion I've read about the festival has been about manlifting.  So I
figured I'd give a general review to those unable to make it to Washington
state.  By the way, the festival did regain the North American record for 
most kites in the air at once, with 3990 kite being flown (I put my
stack of Revs in the air for the count).  The world record is safe though;
I believe it was set back at the turn of the century in India, with 60,000+ 
kites.

Some Highlights were:
	The manlifting demonstration, which has already been mentioned,
	A powerkiting sandskiiing demo,
	A 47' diameter spinning wind sock,
	Some fantastic kite creations from all over the world,
	Some incredible inflatables including a 30' teddy bear, an
	  octopus, and a world globe. 
	Several stacks of diamond kites with well over 100 kites each.
	A two man Ballet of trlby kites each stack with about 60 kites.
	Wonderful inflatable kites (eg: the Snoopy in a Sopwith Camel
          dogfighting with the Red baron in his German triplane).
	Kite demonstration by a few of the worlds best.
	"Hands on" kite demos by many manufacturers.
	A Rokaku battle (in which I got to participate)
	Several excellent and friendly flyers doing their thing.

There were several guys doing fantastic ballets with 2 individual deltas, and
even 2 stacks of deltas, but there was one guy doing incredible ballets with
not just 2 but even 3 individual deltas.  He flew the three deltas by attaching
one kite to his waist, and putting a Revolution-like handle on each of the
other two kites so he could fly one in each hand (When he flew two deltas he
attached one to his feet and held the others in his hands). 

There were also two guys flying multiple unstacked Revs.  The first took a 
pair of long throw handles, crossed them and anchored them at the cross. This 
allowed him to fly one Revolution with one hand.  Then he repeated the system 
for his other hand.  It was neat and not that hard to master each individual 
hand (though much harder to master both at once).  He let me practice on it 
and for a just little bit I too was flying two unstacked Revs at once. 
Definitely a kick.  There was also a guy flying 3 individual Revs.  he had a 
different, more complex rig for each hand which allowed for more control, and 
he attached the last Rev to his shoulders and knees.  This guy would stack 
them up three high vertically and fly them as a unit with such precision that 
it looked as if all the Revolutions were using the same vertical spars.  Then, 
after he'd flown enough so that you were almost sure that it was all one big 
kite, he'd whip them all apart and get them going all different directions at 
once.  The disgusting part is that he's only been flying four string kites for 
about 6 months.

There were several kite gurus giving demos, like the 3 brothers who invented
the Revolution, and Dave Brittain doing his Revolution Olympics.  Mike
Sterling, inventor of the Cyborg kite was there with his team, and won a trip
to Germany (from the German version of AKA) for one of his single line 
creations.

There was also a huge amount of of sky art.  One family created some sailing
ships on ocean waves and they moved beautifully.  The ships and their sails
billowed and rocked, and the "water" formed waves underneath.  

For power kiting there was a guy from Everett, Washington who makes and sells
kites.  He had one of his huge deltas out (bigger than the new Force Ten).  I
believe that the kite is well over 20' from wingtip to wingtip, and he used it
to do a special sand skiing demo on Friday.  He also makes a huge 30' monster
crescent moon kite, behind which you can literally hide a house. 

I don't know how many different kites I got to fly (still didn't get a chance 
at a Magnum Opus though), but one of the kickiest new kite out is the Prism.
It's very radical and very strange.  If you jerk hard and then let off all
tension it pops on its back an then floats upsidedown to the ground, until you 
give the lines a second jerk and then it pops back in flight position.  It 
helicopters so well that you can easily drag it through the air sideways or 
even almost backwards.  There were so many neat and unique tricks it would do, 
that it is, definitely worth a fly (though I'll have to fly it and think about
it a bit more before I decide that it's worth it's $250 price tag).

There is also a new team kite out by Flying Circus called "Flash Angel".  It
has an incredibly sexy design, and several people started calling it the
"Flesh Angel".  It has a delta of mesh on each side of the kite which allows
air flow in high winds but not in low winds and thus you get a more constant
pull all the way across your window.  It is most definitely touted as a
precision team rather than a radical kite. 

The best thing that came out of this festival, is that my wife got interested 
in designing and sewing new kites.  She still has little interest in flying 
them (although she did put one up to help break the record), but just having 
her willing to sew them is a major plus.

The biggest disadvantage was that I knew that there were several other kite 
flyers from rec.kites there, and I had no way of finding them.  Now I know that
the people on the science fiction newsgroup had the same problem at science
fiction conventions.  Perhaps we could do something similar to what did.  They 
developed a symbol (I believe it was an "at" sign (ie: "@"), but I`m not sure),
and created buttons and other items, so that they could recognize each other.
Perhaps rec.kites could come up with a simple, unique and pleasing symbol 
which  we could put on static kites or flags, to let other rec.kite people of 
our presense.  Anybody got thoughts or suggestions on the idea?

				Later,

				Dave Butler

    Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: What more could you ask of life? 
    Aviation combined all the elements I loved...  I began to feel that I 
    lived on a higher plane than the skeptics of the ground; one that was 
    richer because of its very association with the elements of danger they 
    dreaded, because it was freer of the earth to which they were bound.  In 
    flying I tasted the wine of the gods of which they could know nothing... 
				Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.
Newsgroups: rec.kites