Kites

Every year there is a big kite festival at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island where we live. It so happens that my secretary, Candie, and her husband, Ken, are real kite aficionados. They own a great number of kites and have made literally hundreds. They are also quite expert at flying them. So, when the festival hit last week, we got together. Here are some pictures of the event.

From time to time the organizers of the event call for everyone to launch their kites together. This is called the "mass ascension." Gotta love that name.

There is a great variety of kites. The kites in this picture a quite large and fun to watch.

Some are quite whimsical too, like this scuba diver kite. We also saw a flying castle, a shark, a number of birds, geometric designs, rings, para-sails, box kites, and more.

We thought this large yellow and black delta was the prettiest.

They even had stunt kite demos and competitions. It was amazing to watch the team demos flying four man formations.

Later in the day, we found a spot where Candie and Ken could teach us how to fly stunt kites called griffins.

Here is Ken putting together a couple kites of his own making.

Ken has been flying kites for more than 12 years. It really showed when he demonstrated flying two kites at the same time. Very impressive!

Ken was a patient teacher, so Cathy and I both learned how to handle a dual string sport kite. It was a bit tricky at first, but very very fun! Here is a shot of Cathy flying with a little advice from Candie.

This is something you have to try.