Yesterday Graham, Eoin and I went to the beach for a day of Kiting. Eoin and I got a bit lost on the way so we didn’t actually meet Graham at Camber Sands until about ten despite having got up at six on our day off. Being late had it’s advantages though as it meant all the kites were set up and ready to fly, thanks Graham!

Graham kindly let us fly his power kites as neither I or Eoin have any (yet). So we had a 3.5M Bullet, a 4.9M Blade and his girlfriend’s brand new 8.0M Venom. He’d also been lent a massive 15.0M Phantom by a friend of ours who works at a kite shop.

I should probably backtrack a little, when I was about 12 or 13 I used to be really into kiting, I was in the Kent Kite Klub and I flew regularly. At one of the meets a guy let me fly his power kites. I was flying a 10′ Flexifoil and it pulled quite hard but I was coping with it so he stacked another one on. As he walked away he told me not to do a figure of eight. Obviously as soon as he had walked away I did. The result was the kites dragging me a good few feet up in the air and depositing me about thirty feet down the field. That was it, I promised myself I would buy one when I had the money and until yesterday that was the last time I’d flown a power kite.

So Graham suggested I try the Blade first of all as it wasn’t that windy down there and it’s a similar size to the kite I’ve been considering buying. It took a little while to get used to again as I haven’t flown any kites for a few months. I just couldn’t believe the power this thing was generating though, as soon as you turned it it dragged you up the beach, it was amazing. The wind started to pick up a bit though and very quickly my arms were aching so I swapped with Eoin and moved down to the smaller Bullet.

The Bullet was much better as it didn’t pull all the time so you could relax your arms every now and then. It could still generate plenty of power when you got it going though, I was able to lean back and the kite would hold me up and drag me skidding over the beach. It was great fun.

Meanwhile Graham was happily amusing himself with the Phantom and whizzing up and down the beach in his buggy, while Eoin was being dragged about by the Blade and attempting land boarding. It was an excellent day and the weather was fantastic.

All photos were taken by Eoin except the first two

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