After Farid arrived we were back to the original crew and we could take on the four man routine again. So on Thursday we started to practice the new elements. We gave it a proper go all day, but in the difficult conditions we had serious problems getting to grips with things.

In a smooth and steady onshore breeze things would have been different, but in the strong, and very bumpy offshore winds, things got more, much more complicated. The wind was supposed to be offshore for the weekend as well so we had to cope with similar conditions at the festival too.

That evening we had a discussion what to do. Should we still try to fly the routine and hope for the best or should we re-arrange it all and hopefully be able to present a good performance to the audience?

We didn’t take long to reach a conclusion. We were there to put on a show for the spectators so we decided to keep it simple and discussed what figures or elements we could manage to fly in these very demanding conditions. It didn’t take long until we had worked out a list of enough elements that could be put together in a routine and that would be possible to fly in a bumpy and unpredictable offshore wind.

We even created a song to help us along the way!

Some heavy stuff this! 🤘

So on Friday, we brought out our Nirvanas, added a tail for the showing off and started to practice the new routine. And it worked!

We could fly it all on the first attempt and seamlessly alter the sequence of the different elements while flying. Now… This felt good! Yes, there are no intricate figures up there, but something that looked pretty good and would hopefully wow the audience!

So come Saturday! The winds were still out from the east but not as strong as the previous days, thus making things a little bit easier … or…? Well, kind of, but now the mainly eastern winds have always changed direction. With a main direction from the east suddenly it turned more north by northeast, then southeast, back to east, southeast, south by southeast, and …well, I guess you get the picture.

So when you blend this with a turbulent wind from the dunes, you get a pretty interesting wind window. The bumpy winds change its size while the ever-changing wind directions make it move from side to side. Definitely interesting!

But we managed to keep the kites in the air, well, mostly, put on a good show for the spectators, and everybody was happy.

On Sunday things changed. The wind now came from a more north-westerly direction, which means in from the sea! Onshore wind! What more could one ask for?

Yes, the wind was light, 2 to 3 meters per second, but nothing that a Nirvana UL or NW (No Wind) could handle. So we could put on yet another show for the audience and now better than the one on Saturday.

If you didn’t have the chance to see us perform live at the Blokhus Windfestival, why not take a look at the video below? Second best to being there!