May 2026 be a year filled with airy adventures, wide horizons, and skies dressed in every imaginable color of ripstop nylon.

Speaking of ripstop…

For a variety of reasons, I haven’t had the chance to let any ripstop meet the wind for quite a long time. Life has a habit of grounding even the most devoted kite flyers now and then. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and suddenly the kites stay folded just a little too neatly in their bags.

But yesterday — on the very first day of the year — something aligned.

I finally had a couple of free hours. Nothing scheduled. No obligations pulling in other directions. And, perhaps most importantly, the weather gods seemed to be smiling.

At least at first glance.

The forecast looked promising enough to justify packing the gear and heading out. Not perfect, not postcard-material calm, but workable. The kind of conditions that whisper maybe rather than shout definitely. And sometimes, those are the days that turn out to be the most memorable.

As it turned out, the day still had a few challenges up its sleeve. The WIND!

As I approached the beach, the wind was absolutely absent. I walked onto the sand, all the way down to the water, but … nope! No wind.

A little disappointed, I walked back to the car and headed for another beach, hopefully a little more exposed to the current wind direction.

How it all went? Well, just check out the videos below, and I’ll let you in on it!