Recieved this news from Philippe and Bruce about what was going on in France this September.

From: "Philippe Gallot" 
To: johnsen@eskimo.com
Subject: In Dieppe, it is like being in Fighter kite heaven
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 08:33:10 PDT

Bonjour mon ami

I am sure you are wishing to know more...Well, I collected Bruce and 
Linda, well and not rested as expected after such a long flight. Both 
are delighted to come to France. They went to hotel and on the evening 
we went to collect them for a ride in Paris and a meal in Ile St Louis, 
near Notre Dame ( WWW. Paris. Fr) should give you some photos of Paris I 
thinks! Well, we did get a lovely meal, with a long time to talk. Then 
round 22h30 we drove a bit to show Paris by night ( the ggood side and 
saw the  beginning of this fabulous exhibition of airplane in the middle 
of Champs Elysees ( Same place were the French celebrated the winning 
world cup of soccer) Plane are lined up along the side of the avenue, a 
terrufic sight but marvelous to see.
We went to bed late , as on Friday we had to get off to Dieppe.
I meet both at 10h00 ready, they were!!!! Could not wait any longer. So 
we packed the car and went onto the road when I realised due to bad sky 
coming towards us, we shpuld make a break to drive arond Versaille and 
see the Chateau and gardens, we did not have enough time for a full 
visit as it take a day or so to see all!
Two hours later we were back onto the road thinking about you and 
speaking about the farwest group, boy it is far for the moment, from 
Bruce's mind...So it was time to eat when we got to Rouen, capital of 
Normandie...We went into a small village to have lunch . It was a nice 
place and the meal fairly fast but good. Finally we went through small 
villages with beautiful houses, many flowers and ggod food.
At the end of the road, we got to Dieppe. Discovery of the place, I left 
Linda and Bruce to find out the hotel rooms. They got one just lokking 
at the festival, dead in the middle of the flying field!
I went to look for the stands for the club to fix things into it and 
look for Ludo, who did not get into Dieppe before very late at night. He 
was caught in thebad rain and wind and overheat of his car engine!
We went to eat at the famous fish restaurant in Dieppe. and finished the 
last round of pint into one pub in Town, a good 1.30 am before looking 
at a bed.
Saturday morning all were on time to help and got things out to start 
pools and organisation of the fighting for the world cup. Lots of things 
to do, and lots of people to please!
It started fairly well but the wind got so strong that rain was falling 
very much sideways! ( I bet you know the stuff)
So end of saturday was not good enough to finsih fighting, we had a 
great time with all the players and shared lots of information, 
techinqiue and you name it, it was there. Bruce has almost gone blind 
not only from looking at French girls but alos at looking at the content 
of what each player has in his fighter kite box! ( lots of secrets 
specially with manjha for the world cup!
Sunday was excellent, the sun , wind and little people with little kites 
and big manjha were all ready for a lovely day and not giving any chance 
to any one else! really ready to win!
I will not say anu more....Bruce will for sure give you all, in the west 
a  full report and lots of photos too...But the winner is a really great 
player and we are very happy with that result!

I had a good moment with Jeanne and Don and I know Marla and co are 
coming today or tomorrow, so I will see them on Friday as I am goind 
back there for the second ween end and end of the festival!

I hope all is well with you Brian, please give my kind regards to the 
roups and tell them that we are thinking very much about them.
I had my northwest fighter kite cap on, when I did the commentary for 
the press and TV and the public, so mau be that cap will be in Kiteline 
or so and in the film that was made of the fighters!

I will feed you some more . meanwhile my good man, many thanks again for 
running a good group and sending us Bruce. You can give news from me to 
all, if you like to . I am missing you and your friends. Hope that we 
will be able to meet one time all of us for a great round of manjha!

A bientot and I will get you some more next week.

Kind regards to you all

Amities

Philippe

From: "Bruce Lambert" 
Subject: Dieppe Kite Festival Part 1
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 21:10:12 -0700

Howdy,

This is a "part 1 of 2 parts" because I am about to leave for a week or so
and don't have the time to really get the whole thing in this email.  This
will cover an overview of the fighter kite competition and a bit more.

When I arrived in Paris, I was met by Phillipe Gallot and give the golden
tour of Paris and then Phillipe took us  to Dieppe the next day!  To say
Phillipe is a generous and hospitable person is a gross understatement!!

The Manjha Club International had a very nice display at their booth!  But
meeting Manjha Club members from all over the world was one of the best
parts of the festival for me!  A wonderful experience!  Each an expert and
each willing to share any fighter kiting information they knew !  I will
include much more about what I learned and who I met in the next part.

As was previously reported:

Here are the results of the 1st World Challenge of Fighter Kites, held
Sept. 5 & 6 - Conducted with the help of the Manjha Club:

1. Akiat  - Indonesia
2. Philippe Reval  - France
3. Alan Lim  - Singapore
4. Masrur Ali Sayed  - India

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners!!

As Dennis Crowley so aptly noted, I was not part of the top 4!

But I did enter and had a blast learning about using and flying with manjha
with the best manjha fighter flyers from around the world!!  It was a
GRRRREAT experience.  It is really difficult to express it!

The fighter competition had about 110 participants from 32 different
countries!  Each a great flyer.  Each with a unique and effective style of
flying!  Toooo much to take in in just a few days!

Some of the rules of the competition were that the kite had to be paper and
bamboo, not white in color,  the line had to be glass coated and not made of
kevlar or steel, etc.  An interesting and important part about the culture
of manjha is that the cut kite and line that is let drift into never never
land should be biodegradable, hence, paper kites, cotton line and powdered
glass that is stuck to the line with a water soluble rice based glue.

Each of the 2 flyers competing let out about 400' of line to start the
match.  During many of the matches the line would extend so far out, it was
difficult to see how the kite was behaving!  Some of the flyers would put
the line up their ears to hear the action of the line telegraphing whether
the opponent's line was touching his!  Amazing sensitivity these flyers had
to feel of their kites and lines, they rarely watched their own kite, mostly
watching their opponent's kite and line!!  The flyers had line reels that
held from 2 to 4 kilometers of line on it, just in case!!

Some of the flyers used various styles of reels to fly from, not using the
hand over hand method that we use, both the Korean team and the Hong Kong
team were really fascinating to watch using their unique reels during the
flying.  They manipulated and spun their reels to gain incredible speeds and
to release tons of line in a blink!!

The format of the competition was this.  Names were drawn in groups of 5 and
those 5 people were in a "pool".  Each pool would do a round robin with the
members of their pool.  The 1st and 2nd place flyers would advance to the
next drawing for the next series of pools, and that was repeated until the
next to the last pool where only the 1st place flyers were in the final
pool.  A point system was used where 2 points were given to the winner of a
match, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss.

Here is a first hand account of my competition experience.  Fortunately, an
Australian email friend whom I met for the 1st time in Dieppe, Peter
Stauffer, said he would coach me for the 1st couple of matches.  That is if
I made it past the 1st !!

Well, because of his good coaching, I cut the kites of my 1st 2 opponents!
So, of course I thought I knew a little about using manjha after that
initial success!!  What a joke that was!  My next opponent was an Indian
gentleman by the name of Habib.  Habib is one of India's premier manjha
makers!!  Peter, my coach, was not with me for this match.  I was on my own.

As quickly as this match began and almost without even knowing what was
happening, I felt my line go slack, I had been cut!  I didn't even think his
kite was within striking distance, but of course it was!  Now that is how
little I know about fighting with manjha!

I really enjoyed using manjha and think it would be a very good method to
learn and become expert at!  While there, I bought from the Manjha Club some
spools of manjha and a pile of inexpensive paper kites so if any of us want
to give it a go, we can!  Just let me know so I can bring the manjha and
kites!!

In addition to the manjha flying and the Fighter Kite World Cup Competition,
there were wonderful demonstrations put on by many of the delegations!  The
Indian delegation, for example, had  Babu Khan, the premier Indian kite
maker showing how he makes his kites, and Habib showed us how he makes his
super quality manjha!!  Both were a  real treat to watch, each masters of
their respective fields!!

Hope you have a great time on Saturday, the 19th, at Magneson Park!  And,
afterwards, at Ron and Patsy's!!

Bruce

From: "Bruce Lambert" 
To: NFKA & all fighter flyers
Subject: January Jadpour, India Kite Festival Information
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 09:01:07 -0700

During my visit to Dieppe, I met many of the flyers from the Indian
delegation.  All were very open and friendly, including telling the details
of their flying strategies, kite making, bridling etc.  I learned a ton of
exciting information to help us learn the skills we need to fly with manjha.

Among the Indian flyers was a fellow by the name of Ajay Prakash.  Ajay, in
addition to being a great fighter kite flyer, is in the travel business.
His company's name is Nomad Travel.

Ajay has organized a kite festival in Jadhpur, India on January 12 - 13, 1999.
It is called DESERT KITE FESTIVAL.  It is India's World Cup of Fighter Kites!!
This is his second year doing of organizing this festival.

Plus, he includes a trip to Jaipur, so you can witness January 14th, KITE DAY!!
In fact Ajay has a couple of rooftop flying areas reserved for us ;-)

Ajay's company offers a very good package travel deal to anyone wanting
to attend!

I talked with a couple of people who took advantage of his travel package
last year and they said the price was cheaper than what they could book
independently.  And it had the added advantage of having a fighter kite
knowledgeable tour guide who speaks better English than we do.

If you have ever thought about a trip to India to witness first hand, the
wonder of kite day, and to learn more about fighter kites and India,
this may be your best opportunity to do it at a fair price and with someone
who himself is a fighter kite lover and competitive flyer!

Here is Ajays' website and email address where you can get further information.
Nomad Travel's web site  is at  http://www.nomand-travels.com
Ajay's email is  nomad.travels@axcess.net.in  or  nomad@bom3.vsnl.net.in

By the way, neither NFKA nor I, get any financial benefit from sharing
this tour information.  I just thought it may be of interest and a great
opportunity for fighter kite fans.

Look forward to flying together soooon!   Bruce