Monthly Archives: March 2022

New kites

So at times, I have promised Jennifer, and probably others, “I am never buying another kite – I have plenty’ …….as any good kiter would tell you, FAT CHANCE OF THAT HAPPENING… so yes, I bought a few more kites, these are kites that are outside of my replacement for selling Charlie. That will be announced at a later time. I am just not sure when. It is being hand crafted, and will then need to make it’s way across the Atlantic from Europe. It will be a one off, with none like it in all of the United States.

While I am looking forward to it arriving, I did start a quest looking for a few additional fish kites created by Juergen Ebbinghaus. I currently have the Mega fish in a print called ‘Cool Orbit’ – that kite is over 45 feet long, and about 6 foot tall, and 7 – 8 foot wide. I also have what I have always referred to as the, ‘Peace Fish’ that is not mega, but instead, it is considered only ‘Giant’ it is only 23 foot long, and 3-4 foot tall by 4-5 foot wide at most. I continue to try and pare my collection down to things I can easily fly myself, and only by myself, as both Jennifer and I get older, it is important to be able to fly things that are completely in your control, and not dependent on others helping you to get it down. This was the reason we decided to sell Charlie, and why I choose to also sell off other pieces – to make sure as I continue to get older, I can fly them on my own. These fish easily allow me to control them in any wind range, plus are a spectator favorite over the years. The manufacturer stopped making the 23 foot size a few years back, like maybe 15, so it has been very difficult to find any of these for sale anywhere.

I decided to yet again, this spring, to start looking for the kites, to add to my manageable collection, and only a few days ago, I found some.

Another Peace fish, and then 2 fish in a, ‘Wavy Gradient’ pattern – these are not cheap, so when I found them – I looked to see the seller, and to my surprise, they were listed for sale by an Omaha kite shop that was part of my old club, in Omaha. It was not Picture Pretty Kites, but another merchant in Omaha.

When I reached out, to make sure they really were available, JoAnn confirmed for me that they were, so I was excited to pick up 3 more of these kites – which will give me a fantastic alternative, on certain days, on pieces to fly. I was appreciative that I could find one, let alone 3 more, and brand new.   I doubt that will ever happen again in my lifetime, or at least kite flying lifetime, but it definitely made me excited and happy.

Spring is just around the corner, and I look forward to getting out and flying, whether on my own, or at an event. Right now, our Wisconsin club does not have many spring events scheduled but I am hoping to see that change soon.

 

Empty Promises

So I looked at my last post, and noticed it was September 2021… And I am sure even in that post, I *Promised* that I would post more (Sorry Denise).

While kite flying is finally picking up, I am now hoping this will cause me to also post more. It is still cold up here in Wisconsin, and Iowa, and Michigan, but this year I participated in two “Ice Fly” festivals. Ultimately – these are kite festivals on frozen lakes. There is the ability to drill holes with ice augers, into the lake, and through the ice – with 20 – 30 inches on the lakes, this allows us to then anchor on the lake – with the ice. I also anchor off of my car hitch ball – this requires me to drive the car onto the ice, but it is nice, that I do have a warming hut connected to my kite. Most of the time, the kite fly is very successful, tons of spectators on the ice, and watching. And there is nothing blocking the clean winds. What we do run into at times, is heavy winds that are too heavy for the kites. This happened in Iron Mountain, Michigan – we had a few hours of good winds (12 – 20 mph) but at around 2 PM, the winds increased to a steady 35 – 30 mph, with bursts over 35 mph. Kites will not fly in this unfortunately.

In Clear Lake, Iowa, it was a different story, winds in the 15-20 mph range, and things stayed up after 11 am for the rest of the day. The festival in Clear Lake, Iowa is so popular that they think they had over 19,000 spectators, and literally, the off ramp on both Interstate 35 North, and South were backed up for over 4 miles each way. We are seeing additional festivals occur in the winter – as it gives communities something to do during the dead cold of winter, and it makes great use of a frozen lake. I have a friend that is a ice fisherman, and I was hoping to go out with him this year, both to learn how the other half of the world lives on the lake, but apparently, he feels strongly that all the fishermen would enjoy the kites… Now with that said I am not sure I am a total believer that guys out fishing REALLY want a guy out flying kites around them, but hey, I will be willing to give it a try at least once. Now, on to another subject, am I going to continue to keep up this site? I don’t know. why? because I am fairly certain not many people even read it, and while at times it is cathartic for me to write these up, I am just not sure I will continue to do it. I will probably give it another year, and then make a final decision.

There will be many festivals this spring and summer, and I am looking forward to that, and I hope to do some more flying outside of the normal events. It may be more stunt kite flying instead of show kites, but you never know. Enjoy the weather where you are, spring is just days away, and soon we will be huffing and puffing just how hot Summer is….