Crusaders

In February 2000, I was invited to "organise something with kites" for a local church youth organisation "The Crusaders". Ages range from 10 to 13 yrs and they meet once a week in the evening. Now there’s a challenge! Having never done anything like this before, I leapt in with both feet. The first week I took several of my kites up to show them, talked about kites a bit (unaccustomed as I am to public speaking), and gave a short demonstration in the hall with a couple which were capable of ‘flying’ indoors. There was great enthusiasm amongst the youngsters for building kites – so a couple of weeks later I returned, armed with a paper template and the required materials and tools to make some plastic, 1 metre high, Grauel Sleds.

The workshop went pretty well, and by the end of the session we had six kites constructed (some even bore a striking resemblance to the template) just waiting for bridles, which had to be postponed until the following week due to time constraints. Hopefully the sled will be a forgiving design, and will fly even though some didn’t turn out quite like I’d planned.

So, on my third visit, we sorted the bridles and made a few adjustments/repairs – in the hope of getting them all off the ground at the first attempt. Now we wait for the clocks to go forward so that their weekly meetings will start in daylight, and flying can be attempted. I had planned to get some photos of the actual building process, but managed to take everything with me except the camera – clever huh.

It’s May now, being the first Tuesday evening that’s been light, warm and dry – so of course, there’s virtually no wind! Remember the "plate spinning" acts that used to be on the telly – where the performer spends his time running from one plate to another to keep them all spinning – well replace plates with kites and you have me, but the "plates" are 50 yards apart!

A couple of the lads managed to get theirs in the air unaided, but they didn’t stay up for long......

Gave the standard lecture about not leaving line in a big heap on the ground (which meant I only had two major tangles to sort out). Tried in vain to explain the theory of launching and keeping a kite in the air in low wind – not a chance. Oh well, at least they all flew – if not at the same time. Took a few pics, but this tended to be with the Pentax in one hand and a kite line in the other, so they're nothing to be proud of. But it was fun, which after all is what it's all about. On the whole, I think I can claim reasonable success. Made six kites, all flew, gave the kids a break from playing football, and didn’t end up out of pocket (well not much).

Next time, I want a photographer, a physiotherapist (for me), a guaranteed wind, at least six kite-wise assistants, and a bunch of kids with an attention span of at least two hours – yeah right!

Then it was all over - I got out the delta to calm my nerves, and remind myself that kite flying really can be a peaceful, laid-back kind of a pastime.............................