Features & Tips
Kite Festivals
by Sharon Rushton, Teen Adventure editor
 If you want to see the sky fill with colorful shapes and have a fun filled weekend, attend a kite festival near you. A local
retailer The Kite Loft and kite manufacturer Go Fly A Kite invited
Teen Adventure to the Maryland International Kite Festival held
in Ocean City, Maryland and we had a wonderful time.
The type of wind during a kite festival dictates what flying objects will be set into motion. The winds were strong in Ocean City and
kite associations from several surrounding states filled the sky
and beach with almost every shape imaginable. Once a large kite
is airborne, kite flyers add what they call "line laundry"
to the kite string at various intervals. Three forty-foot cartoon-like
human figures flew from one kite string. Others had 30-foot frogs
and circular swirling colors. Kite string for this type of flying
requires strengths of 1,000 pounds. Some creations like the puffer
fish wind forms don't get far off the ground; they just fill up
with air and bounce up and around.
 Kite associations and manufacturers like Go Fly A Kite are also on hand to help individuals learn how to fly kites. Most festival
goers wanted to learn how to fly the stunt kites which have two
hand controls allowing you to send the kite right, left, up, down,
flip.... You get the idea.
Volunteer Harvey Wolf instructed me with a lot of patience. He
wouldn't let me give up until I learned how to control the kite
and believe me it was great fun. The key to learning to fly stunt
kites is to start with your elbows bent and hands out from your
waist. He said to pretend that your hands are handcuffed. In other
words, start with small movements. My arms kept going all over
and the kite kept crashing. As soon as Harvey coached me to discipline
myself to small movements, the kite stayed in the air and I could
make it go right and left.
 Learning to fly stunt kites gave me total appreciation for the kite flyers that participated in the competitions and the precision
in which they had their kites dance in the air to music. Some
competitions involved four kite flyers flying their stunt kites
in unison. It was amazing to watch them purposely cross and uncross
lines to work their kites in the complicated dances. Other competitions
include the "Rokaku Kite Battles" where teams work together
to knock other team's kites out of the sky.
If you haven't looked at kiting lately, you might want to check
out what's available today. Kite festivals are a great place to
discover what's new. If you can't make it to a festival, check
out a kite specialty store. Teens find the iridescent colors fun
to fly and enjoy the challenge of mastering the variety of stunt
kites.
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