Kites - Power Kites, Kite Fighting, Kite Festivals, Uttarayan

Kiting is fun and is a hobby that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skills; with friends or family together or on your own. Many of us are familiar with kites from our childhood which are like a colourful triangle, with a tail streaming behind in the wind, that we held on to with a piece of string. I remember some of my friends making their own out of dowel (thin wooden sticks from the hardware store) newspaper and string. But kiting has come a long way since then and the technology has improved to produce many different types so that you can also do kite boarding and buggy jumping on land, kite surfing on land or sea, and even snowboarding where you have a surfboard on the snow and get pulled along by holding on to the strings of your kite.

The history of kiting goes back a long way. They were invented approximately 2800 years ago in China and made of silk and bamboo. Later paper was used sometimes instead of silk. These days polyester is commonly used too. For all these centuries they have been flown for art (beautifully, ornately decorated in carnivals), practical (for taking weather measurements or military purposes) and more recently in our time technical versions have been developed for sports and power.

If you’re just starting your new hobby you might find a 2 string version a bit easier, as the strings tangle up a bit less than with the 4 string ones. Beginners tend to get excited and just want to get their kite up in the air and may not have so much patience for sorting out and separating 4 strings. However, later on the 4 string versions may give you more precision flying and manoeuvring if you want to develop your skills in a technical way. As you gain experience you learn how to avoid tangling up the strings, for instance taking care when you pack it away so that it’s less tangled the next time you get it out again. By the way, it’s a good idea to fly the first few times in only light winds under 12kph.

My first couple of outings all I seemed to do was crash our kite! I seemed to be very skilled at this! This was because I hadn’t yet learnt about feeling for the wind tunnel or wind window. Very simply this means the area of the sky where you can fly it. As you get to the edges of this area it’s more likely to fall or be less easy to control. You’ll usually see the wind window explained with a diagram in the instructions that come with your pack. For example, I found that having my back to the wind (in a moderate wind) I could fly it directly above my head, and this was an easy place to keep control and I would only need to twitch one of the strings occasionally to keep it up in that position. This was quite relaxing and easy. Also as you reach up high with your arms it helps your body breath and take in more oxygen and can leave you feeling good.

Kiting can be good exercise too, which I had never realised until my partner bought one a couple of weeks ago. He bought a traction design which is a similar design to the ones used by paragliders; it’s a foil that inflates with the wind to form a wing shape and can be steered to do turns and somersaults using either 2 or 4 strings. In a decent gust of wind his 3 and half metre square foil can hold him at 45 degrees as he pulls against it heels digging into the sand and it dragging him along. It’s very good exercise as you are using all your back muscles and legs to counterbalance leaning against the wind. So you can tone your arms, chest, legs and back and use it for getting fit too! It’s amazing fun and it becomes very natural as you feel what the wind is doing.

I hope you have fun as you play with your new hobby - whether you are a beginner playing for easy outdoor fun or maybe wanting to develop advanced skills and go for the more adrenalin sports versions. Do write to us if you want to share your experiences, photos or videos.