Sad, Mad or Dedicated?

At the time of writing we have just abandoned practice for this weekend. Blustery is the closest word I can think of to describe the conditions when we arrived at our site on Salisbury Plain 15 miles from where we live. ‘Blustery’ doesn’t come close really - 20mph to zero and back up to 30mph in the space of one and half seconds is something they don’t have a word for – not one that the editor would allow! Non kite fliers, and even some people that do fly, just do not know what some of us go through just to see if a few turns in the new ballet will fit to the music – dedicated - or just mad? Non kite flyers would probably say “sad” - but they don’t understand do they?

When we put a ballet together it’s important to us that we make it to the end - especially when lots of people are watching, of course. And the end is as important as all of the rest of the ballet! The final landing usually starts about three quarters through the music. When flying with tails it is hard to choreograph anything exactly because so many factors come in to play – speed, wind strength, positioning in the air and movement and positioning on the ground are all much more exaggerated.

The Ending

At a certain point we will have begun the final few moves that bring us to what we hope will be a simultaneous, controlled landing on the very last beat of the music. Take a close look at the end of our Conte Partiro ballet. We do the same moves whether there are two or three of us flying. This year we hope to have enough of us knowing the routine to be able to fly it as a four person team at least a couple of times in public. Listen closely and you will hear me counting the timing near the end – each time I hope that I have got it right because the discipline within the team is such that they must and will, turn to my call no matter what – and that can be scary!