Well, kite fans, guess who won the first club fight in Y2k?
That's right, Chuck Lund. I almost said Dennis,
as a pay back for the time, last year when I reported Chuck won and Dennis
was the winner. What a great position, I can piss off two
people with a single sentence. THE POWER, I love it.
Ahh but we digress.
Saturday, 15 January 2000 Gasworks Park, it was a beautiful
day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, Seattle was shining
like a jewel, when ten kite flyers descended upon the park to fight.
It was absolutly stunning, but there was no wind.
Hmmm what to do??? Well, let me tell you, we had
an alterrior motive for being there. The Second Annual
Hotdog Roast and Kite Fly.
So eleven hungry men (That's right Sharpy, this is not a typo, one came to eat and did not fight) and two hungry women gathered at the fire pit in Derelect Bay, for lunch. Now how fitting is that? NFKA meeting at Derelect Bay?
Okay, we ate, we watched the cool trick bikes do thier tricks.
That was soooo cool. We almost lost Bruce to the
bikes. And we watched King Charles risk life and limb for a
kite that got stuck in a tree. That is why we don't do Manjha.
Grown men will put it all on the line, and climb a tree to
rescue a kite. Now let's ask King Charles if he wants to tie
that kite to a glass coated line and fly out over Lake Union.
Smart money says if he got cut, he would have gone swimming.
However, how ever, it's just that tenacity that put Chuck
in the winners circle, last Saturday.
Congats to all three.And who were the cannon fodder for these flying aces? Bruce ( the spoiler and ghost flyer ) Lambert, Tom ( the self proclaimed manjha champ ) Humphey, John MacKenzie, Steve Childers, Brian ( do we really need a last name here? ), Kevin ( the fat kids little brother ), Ed Alden, and yours truly. Ed's wife Lucy and my wife Patty attended but did not fly.
After the Round Robin, Rich and Brian did some line cutting. Too cool. Make sure you suck the glass off the line at the knot, next time Brian. It is pretty fun to watch the kite sail off into the sun set.
And then, after we all left, Rich and Tom did some line cutting. I was not a witness, so I will include their eye witness accounts for your reading enjoyment.
Don't forget to keep an eye on the NFKA schedule page
for the location of the February Indoor Fly. When I get the info, I will also send it out.
Well, the last three guys on the hill yesterday were Richard
Hurd, Steve Childers and I. Rich still wanted to fly on Manjha
- and I took him on. The final score - Tom 2, Rich 0.Yes sports fans, I cut Rich down TWICE. One release cut and one pull cut. I'm now undefeated with manjha! Even though that still leaves me less skilled than the average child in India, I did all the cutting yesterday - and Steve Childers is my witness!
Now Rich really took it well, so maybe he's sandbagging me - but cutting line fights are a different animal than line touch, and Rich - thanks for the game! I've attached a write-up of the experience that I sent to the AKA to publish in KITING magazine. I hope they pick it up!
-Fly Sharp,
-Tom Humphrey
NOW THE REST OF THE STORY.
The wind conditions: 0 to 1 mph
The kites: Indonesian,Very soft flying kites.
The fly equip: Two reels w/manjha I acquired from Johnny
The two reels I got from Johnny are very diff. The
one I used is a very pretty Indian reel load with manjha that I do not know
of it's origin. The other reel is one that john picked up from
Basir,a close friend of Johnny's, with the manjha on it made by Basir
himself. Johnny told me that Basir makes excellent manjha and
now I am a true believer of that fact.
I had at least two opportunities to take Tom out. One of the times that I was in position, I tried a release cut but because the wind was low and the soft pull of the kite, it would not take my line out. The other time I tried a pull cut. I pulled that line at least 3 times to no avail, about that same time Tom decided to haul in some line and the rest is history. In defense of Tom he did do some good flying for his first time with line cutting ,BUT I also believe Basir's line was the biggest factor in Tom's TWO wins,OR did I in fact sandbag as Tom mentioned.
In Texas Hold'em poker you have to know when to hold em and when to fold em,but sometime you just give away a couple hands on purpose just to keep the player in the game.
Oh the joys of flying line cut though, I did all my line handling off the reel and in the process I may have damaged a tendon in my right hand. That eve on the way home it started to really hurt and the next morn. I had a rather large bump on top of my hand in the area of the tendon going to my first finger. Has any one out there that flies from the reel had that happen to them? Also a couple of cuts were located the next day that I did not know I had. At least my line was sharp enough to cut my finger a couple of times.
I think it was Philippe that said if you don't end up with a
few cuts then you are not flying right, it just comes with the territory
and they WILL heal. It is the fun of the battle and not the
cuts that is important. As Tom mentioned it is a VERY different
style of flying, and once you try it you find out real fast how challenging
it is.
The next time you run into me lets go give it a try and you to can whip up on me.
Fly High, Rich