Go Fly Kite!

Kite Flying is making a comeback. The last time I went out to a field and fly kite was like ages ago (I think it was back in the early 90s) then somehow, kite flying ran out of popularity with the internet age as more people prefer to stay indoor in front of their computer.

Recently, the kite was making a comeback, small makeshift stalls start appearing near open fields selling all sort of kites, from the really huge ones to the small ones for kids. The best thing is, these aren’t made out of paper and the rods holding it together ain’t bamboo sticks sliced to a tiny slim stick. Now, it’s all modern, clothe type with printing on it from a simple 3 color design to as complex as a Ben 10 one.

This is how the one I had looked like, this is all we need to have some outdoor fun. A kite that’s fairly cheap compared to those (better quality ones) sold in Toys R Us, a long long line/strings (depending on how far you want the kite to fly) and a reel (some just use a plastic bottle and wrap the string around it but I prefer mine to look like a Fishing Reel). One other major thing that is needed, a wide open field.

To get it up into the air is fairly simple, you can either get someone to hold up the kite and walk away from you before letting the kite go upwards, or you can let it go yourself if there’s a fairly good wind blowing. Normally, the crowd will come out when the condition favors easy lift off. At times like that, within a field, you can easily spot from 10 up to 20 kites flying side by side and all. One days when there’s not much wind, that’s when some people would still turn up to play. It’s just a matter of catching that one small gust of wind and lift the kite up. Neighbors tend to then come out and try to put their kite in the air wondering how the few of us manage to put ours up. It’s fairly fun, cheap, no hourly rate and outdoorly fun.

I still remember the good ol days where we would buy some large tracing paper, chop down bamboos and use rice glues to put it all together and for lines, we get one of those heavy duty fishing lines mixed (there are those that’s as flexible as normal string but durable enough to provide you with a good fight in deep sea fishing) with finely crushed soda bottles. The challenge is to see who can cut off their opponent’s line first, these days, when you try to do that, you’d get a good loud shout from the owner of the victim (the kite lah) asking us what we are trying to do. Sigh.. where’s all the fun in kite battles?

A neighbor of mine even have a giant Wau, a traditional giant kite with beautiful designs, but he seldom play these days as there’s a lot of smaller kites around and when the giant beauty take flight, everyone have to make way for it to fly about. No one complains though when he do come out and fly the Wau. It’s beautiful when it’s flying about turning, spinning and lifting up higher and higher into the sky.

I wonder how long will it be before the hype/trend of kite flying die off again, until that happens, I’ll take every opportunity I have to show my kids how it’s done (even though they don’t bother to listen to instructions and strategies that I try to pass down… sigh). It’s all good fun anyway, have
you picked up on this hobby as well?

Don’t mind the photos as I took them using the iPhone while playing. Will try to get some nicer shots and replace the photos the next time I go out bringing a proper camera.

Spread My Post!!