Kris's Powerkite Blog

I found myself standing in the middle of a field with the wind blowing a gale surrounded by three friends all of whom were all helping out trying to untangle a bunch of twists and tangles in a bunch of string.

This was my introduction to power kiting.

It all started one saturday afternoon when a friend of mine phoned me up and asked if i fancied an afternoon out at Breacon Beacons National Park. Now for those who know me there first guess on my answer would have been NO (the thought of nature, walking, fresh air and sunshine was all a bit scary for an IT Geek). But i heard my friend mention the fact a mutual friend of ours was going and was taking his Kite along. Great i thought i can grab my little kite and spend the afternoon having a laugh and joke with them.

when we arrived at Breacon we set off into the distance and decided after 5 – 10 mins of walking that we had found a good spot to setup camp and enjoy the afternoon, apart from an overly strong wind it was a lovely day with some beutiful views of the national park.

The first hint i got that my friends Kite was not what you would class as an average kite, was when he asked me and our other friend to help him unpack the kite and get it setup.. my next thought when it was unpacked from its holdall was “thats not a kite its a parachute” after a quick question and answer question between me and the kites owner i was a little wiser and also a little more nervous about the 3m’s of Nylon lying in front of me.

whilst i was mulling through all the possible ways this giant wind collector could harm its owner or anyone near it when something inevitably went wrong, i was interrupted by the kites owner who was mumbling obscenities under his breath whilst he produced from the holdall what can only be described as the mother of all knots..

This took me, him and two other people around 10 – 15 minutes to get sorted out and untangled, at this point i was standing just behind the kites owner, who was holding a set of bars with strings connected which lead off into the distance and were themselves connected to a giant piece of Nylon sheet.

From no where he made a quick sharp movement backwards with both hands and it was at this point the largest kite i had ever seen shot straight up into the sky with very little effort.

All of a sudden my little triangle kite felt very inadequate… and i knew it was never going to be as much fun as the one floating around the sky at that moment.