Kite Lines - Vol.1 No. 3 - KiteLife

CALIFORNIAIndoor kiteflying as a special branch of thesport gets its annual big play at part of theFathers Day Kite Festival, San Francisco, CA .The Fifth Annual Fathers Day KiteFestival in San Francisco's Golden GatePark took flight on June 19 . A preliminaryindoor kiteflying event was heldin the Hyatt Regency Hotel lobby . Itwas won this year by Saeed Udin Khan,manager of the Come Fly a Kite shopin Carmel, CA, who kept his Indianpaper fighter kite aloft for one hour,42 minutes, 23 seconds . The feat wonhim $350 and a weekend at the Hyatt .New this - year at Golden Gate Parkwas a team kite fighting event . NorthernCalifornia and Southern Californiaeach fielded an eight-man team .The sport of kite fighting seems to begrowing in the U .S ., but its potentialwas clouded on this occasion by a disagreementover rule changes . Theofficial winner was North 5-3, and eachman took home $50 .The largest prize was $1000, andwent to a group from San Diego calledFree Form Concrete . They won for thelargest kite, a 452-square-foot Levitortypedesign . Winner of Most BeautifulKite was a centipede-style model byRainbow Kitefliers done in squaresand described as delicate and lovely .Kite Lines received two guesstimatesof the attendance at San Francisco-5000 and 1000-2000 ; in any case it wasa good turnout for a cold, gray day.The sponsors, Come Fly a Kite, Inc .,Anchor Steam Beer and KFRC Radio,cannot be faulted on financial support ;their stated budget was $25,000 .A second annual Kite Retailers Seminarwill be held in San Francisco, CA,January 16-18, 1978, sponsored byKiteworld, Inc ., kite distributor. Sessionsare planned to increase the retailer'sknowledge of kites and of merchandisingthem . If you're "in the business,"it's a chance to meet others andshare ideas . For further information,contact Gordon Teekell at Kiteworld,Inc ., 540 De Haro, San Francisco, CA94107, tel : (415) 863-5815 .CONNECTICUTJohn DeGange reports :Thomas Vasiliou had never flown akite until he came to Groton, CT, wherea program of monthly flies has beenin effect since May 8 . Mr. Vasiliou haddone lots of things in his 102 years, butkiteflying wasn't one of them . He foundhe enjoyed every minute of it, as well aslocal newspaper coverage that followed .It was surmised that Mr. Vasilioumight be the oldest person ever to flya kite, at least in the United States .The Groton Recreation Departmentconducts the kite program and has twoco-sponsors, the Ben Franklin KiteShoppe in Mystic and an organizationcalled TRIP (Teenage RecreationalInterest Program, an activity of theGroton churches) .Groton's kite flies are conducted atthe Cutler School grounds in summerand at Esker Point Beach when thevacation season is over. The flies includecontests in various categoriesand have been very popular .Thomas Vasiliou, 101, flies a kite in Groton,CT, with Frank Intelisano, proprietor of theBen Franklin Kite Shoppe .FLORIDAExclusive to Kite Lines from Will Yolen,author of The Complete Book of Kitesand Kiteflying and AKA Life Member :The Sunrise Inn Rooftop Kitefliersof Fort Lauderdale, FL, were gettinghigher than a kite -a colorful Frenchmilitary kite-in the first organizedattempt to set a new world's record forsustained flight which had been set bythe late beloved Walter Scott . Thatrecord was 168 hours . The SunriseInn's coed gang of waiters, waitresses,bellmen and busboys was coached byyours truly. Captain of the team of tenwas Chris (Junior) Morling, assistantto his boss Joe Garvin, bell captain .The team was divided into four sixhourshifts, two people to a team andtwo fliers swinging . When not on duty,they ate and slept around the clock onthe roof of the handsome seashoreresort hotel .In addition to the French kite (socalled),there were two of Ed Hanrahan'sFalcons, which lasted for al -most three days, a Rogallo wing, an AlHartig beauty from Nantucket and acoterie of small plastic kites .Two rainstorms failed to stop thekites . Nor did a 25-knot wind halt theintrepids . For the rainstorm we had torun up a jury rig, somewhat similar toa jury rig on a sailing vessel in distress .We pinned the kite to the chimney of anearby building and kept it on a shortlead line for the 30-minute and threehourrainstorms .- The team handled the kite in similarfashion during a windstorm but keptthe kite inside a ring of human bodiesthat deterred the wind from whippingit into total destruction .The worst phase of the challengecame at dawn of the final day, whenthere was a three-hour lull early in themorning . I sent out a distress call tothe swing people who responded magnificently.Each in turn waved the kitearound on a rod and reel and kept thekite aloft by sheer manpower .Three hours before the 1 :30 p .m . tietime, the wind began to pick up again .Store-bought kites, shiny new Gaylasand Hi-Fliers, went up gaily and highly,accompanying the scruffy-lookingveteran French military. My Russiankite, that I had flown in Red Square