Many years ago in a galaxy far, far away…No, not exactly. Let me try again.
Twenty years ago in Denmark… yeah, that’s more like it… I bought my first two dual lined kites. On a blustery beach in Western Jutland I took my initial stabs at flying steerable kites. And, wow! What a blast it was! …and what a downer trying to fly them in much lighter winds back home.
Was this all that was to it? No, it couldn’t be.
I dove into the Internet and a whole new world opened up to me and the snowball started rolling.
It’s been rolling steadily along now for twenty years and for those of you who have followed me on my journey, you know that for most of these twenty years I’ve been a dual line afficinado.
I think I have close to a three digit numbers of duallies in my bags and with a few of those I’ve clocked literally hundreds of hours flying.
My first big favourite was the groundbreaking Gemini by Andy W and Tim B. Then there was, and still is, the awesome Nirvana by Roger TG and R-Sky. My third fave, the mind-blowing Cosmic by the friends at German Kitehouse.
But the last year I have been breaking new grounds adding a couple of more lines to the kites. Well…. Ever since I bought a REV Exp from Anders Matson, it must have been 1999 or thereabouts, a quad lined kite has been a part of my collection. But I have never really taken any time to get to know it and fly it.
In 2011 I attended a workshop where we all made ourselves a vented REV. We had on several occasions found that it was difficult to fly duallies at the Nordic Kite Meetings in Denmark due to strong winds. Having a vented REV in our bags could remedy that.
It kind of did, but still I mostly picked a duallie every time.
Last year that changed. I was tempted to take part in the Danish Quad Clinic in Copenhagen September last year. Together with Anders M and Ivar T – another kite buddy of mine – we hit the road and met up with the legendary John Barresi.
It was a mind changing weekend!
John really showed me the world of quad line flying! With his encouraging attitude, warm personality and Incredible flying skills he really opened my eyes to this – for me – brand new way of flying.
Yes, I do consider myself quite an experienced and pretty good dual lined pilot. When it comes to quadline however, I was a complete novice. But during that weekend, both John and all the other participants really showed me what quad line flying was all about.
A whole new world to explore! A universe of untried possibilities! Learning to fly again a new way! Another dimension to my flying!
…To be continued!
