April 2008 Club Fly

Well, mother nature co-operated for the first fly of the 2008 season. The sun was out and the breeze was from the south west at 8-12 kms/hr. About 20 enthusiastic kiters came out to start the year of flying.

Tyrone tried out some newly acquired kites, one a $12, 2 line stunt kite from Walmart. He also had a try with a Revolution 4 line kite, and did well considering it was his first time. I gave him a 5 minute lesson and after another couple of tries, I saw him do some 360's.


I had a chance to try out the Crossdeck I made during the winter, and it looked great in the sky!
Vaino had a cool lil' devil line laundry hanging from his Sutton.

Paul tried to get Nemo up on his power sled, but even with the help of the grand master Bob White, there wasn't enough wind to get him in the air.

There were lots of different kites and characters in the air throughout the day, but none cuter than Bob's crazy kitty! This year we are starting something new, a 'door' prize draw for those in attendance. I'm not sure of who won what, but there were sand anchors, kite tails, and other prizes that I didn't see (4 or 5 in all). By the end of the day, everybody got caught up on the winter activities, new kite purchases, and getting reacquainted with good friends.

The next monthly fly will be on May 25th...hope to see more out next month!

March 2008 Kite Workshop

After 5 long months of winter that looked like it would never end, the 2008 kiting season opened with our annual kite making workshop. 24 eager kiters from 5 different clubs attended this year. Kiters mingled and caught up with the latest news while we had some coffee and donuts to help us through the morning. Bob White started things off with a very short "annual" meeting that saw no changes in the structure of the club. I guess everyone was in favour of getting the workshop underway.

The kite project was a "Big" Buka, a chinese design. Bob Luft headed up the design and tested all the steps for the workshop. Bob Luft started explaining the first steps and the 24 enthusiastic kites started cutting and sewing.


Judging from the picture of Vaino, you have to hold your tongue a certain way to get the sewing machine to cooperate. (Pete taught him this)

Some how we convinced Shephanie to prepare her famous "roast beast feast" again this year, and again, it was very delicious.

Well, there's always one in every crowd that just has to be the one to try to get on the teachers good side!

As the day progressed, the finishing touches were put on the kites, the spars were handed out and by around 3:00 pm everyone had a "big buka" to add to the ol' kite collection.

I'm sure you will see these kites with a bit more decoration the next time!

Thanks everyone who came out this year, Bob Luft for organizing, Bob White for getting the supplies, Stephanie for the great lunch, Paul and Mary Kort for getting the desserts, Fred and Donna for getting the drinks, Vaino Raun for getting the coffee.

Also a special welcome to our newest members...Rowan Sharkie, Maggie and Jason (Kate Racey's sister and brother-in-law) and Thom Shanken. We are looking forward to sharing the sky with you all this summer and getting to know you.

Hopefully the sun will stay out and help warm us up before the end of the month when we can try out our new kites. The April fly will take place at the usual Lakeview Park on the 27th. See you all at the end of the month.