#9 Go Fly a Kite!

The town of South Padre Island (yes, that’s the correct name) covers about a 6 mile length of the island itself, with the typical beachfront hotels along the shore, souvenir and beach wear shops, lots of condos, and narrow passageways labeled “Beach Access # --“, most with about 6 parking spaces, along the way. But down towards the end of the road is something different - a large sandy open space on the bay side, reserved for – you guessed it - Flying kites! With the near constant wind and large open space, it is a perfect place for flying. And Fly they did – at the 10^th annual South Padre Island Kite Flying Festival……

This two-day event attracts enthusiasts from all over the country and features team flying, individual flying exhibitions, and competitions. Ten or more really large kites, shown below, were continuously flying along the street – presumably to attract visitors. It must have worked, because there were probably upwards of 1000 spectators.

One man from Maine flew a kite with three 120 foot tails, and he could spin the kite so fast that the tails spiraled along their full length. The kite itself was pretty big and the fellow had to lean back at a 30-degree angle to balance the pull of the kite while flying.

Another man used a large kite to pull him along on his low-slung three-wheeled cart at speeds that approached 20mph. Controlling the cart and the kite took a lot of skill.

Team flying typically entailed three to six man (and woman!) teams with each person controlling one kite. To perform the maneuvers requires a kite with four strings attached – presumably the four string kites can do more tricks. With and the ups and downs, dips and spins, it’s really hard to understand how they didn’t get all those strings horribly tangled. The teams would take the kites off from the sandy beach in unison and fly them to pre-recorded music sometimes in formation and sometimes not, for several minutes before landing them again in unison, with outer edges touching down like slowly descending rocket ships attesting to their amazing skills.

Although the day was mostly sunny and around 50F, the high winds made it pretty chilly on the beach. We would have liked to watch longer, but the wind chill nixed that idea. Nevertheless, it was a thrill to see these expert kite flyers in action.