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December 13, 2004
Nelson Kite Club At Wakapuaka
Every month the Nelson Kite Club (of which I am a member) holds a couple of get-togethers. One is the Community Kite Day held at Neale Park, which is a public display to promote kite-flying. The other is the Club Day which we hold for our own satisfaction and enjoyment. Yesterday was the later. Usually we will meet at Rabbit Island Beach to take advantage of the Northerly sea breeze that is the norm during summer around here. Yesterday, however, it was blowing from the South-west (not good on a North facing beach) at 20-30 knots! In these conditions we move to the other side of town, to fly at the Wakapuaka Sand-flats, where a South-west wind is better suited.
The sand-flats is a very hard and fast surface and speed was the name of the game yesterday. I managed a few nice fast downwind runs reaching 65-70kph. I was flying my PL Excaliburs for most of the afternoon. These are large deltas which I fly in a stack (two of them yesterday). They are two-lined and I fly them with just padded wrist straps and no back-strap or harness. Its been a while since they have been out of the kite bag and I'd forgotten how much fun they can be. Although, they are hard work. I had to stop every half-hour or so to rest my arms. The great thing about the delta shape is their speed. Apart from the Flexifoil Power-kites (like the stacker 6) which hold the world record as the fastest kite design, I don't know of any kite shape that's faster through the air. They will go just as fast as the wind, and pilot, will allow. I had great fun working up-wind, then screaming back down wind, and power-sliding to stop when I reached the end of the sand-flats all to soon. Marty (pictured),another NKC member bent a wheel bolt doing the same thing. You can't be sure your trying hard enough until you bend or break something, so well done Marty!
More photos of the day on are in the Gallery on the NKC site.
Posted by murrayneill at December 13, 2004 01:47 PM