In the late 1980s, pioneer Lee Sedgewick performed his legendary kite ballet to the tune of “The Lady in Red” by Chris DeBurgh in a highly attention-grabbing manner. The ballet starts like any other. Lee stands upwind and his kite some 40 meters downwind. The music starts playing, and Lee gets the kite up in the air, flying to the music. So far, everything is… well, normal.
But then, something highly attention-grabbing happens midway through the performance. In the middle of the field, Lee has set up what’s called a dog stake.
He runs over to the dog stake, clips the lines through a carabiner, and begins moving in a semicircle on the ground towards the kite. Finally, he ends up under his own kite while still flying to the music. Yes, he is now facing the wind, flying the kite back and forth over himself and he can even reach out a hand and catch the kite in the air!
Someone may have done this before Lee, but he was the first to do it in a competition… which definitely puzzled the judges and eventually opened up a new competition category: “Open Innovative.”
You can watch Lee’s legendary ballet on YouTube.
I’m not sure if I can call myself open and innovative, but when the wind blows strong, I can at least try to fake what’s called dog stake flying. I just need to find something to “bend” the lines around. Like a flagpole!
So, I set up the kite ready for takeoff a few meters downwind from the flagpole while I stand a few meters upwind from the same flagpole. Then, I start flying while slowly walking sideways until my lines touch the pole. I continue walking sideways and towards the kite on the opposite side of the flagpole until my lines “bend” around the pole. Eventually, I hope to end up roughly underneath the kite with the lines now tightly “bent” around the pole.
It’s far from ideal because the flagpole creates a lot of friction on the lines. Therefore, controlling the kite becomes more difficult. But the hardest part is that now you have to fly in a way that’s almost like a mirror image! Usually, you look downwind towards the kite, but now you can see the kite from behind! That makes things much more challenging … and fun!
But practice makes perfect, as they say, so if you don’t mind heavy wear and tear on your kite lines and feel up for a challenge, why not find yourself a flagpole to “bend” your lines around?!
