Walk and skank
Mar. 3rd, 2002 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hirez(I did sort-of-say that I'd keep this for historical vignettes and funny (to me, at least) stories. Oh well...)
So. History: Way back in the dim and distant (1990), a Nice Man handed me the control bar for a six-foot Flexifoil saying 'Have a crack at this, it's a bit tricky mind.' I surprised both of us by taking to it entirely naturally and spent the rest of the afternoon driving the kite around the sky above the Plumstead Marshes.
It wasn't long before I bought one of my own. A lot like this one, only completely black. (Of course) A delta followed it, for those times when I didn't fancy getting dragged bodily across Hampstead Heath, Cleeve Common or the sundry other places where the scruffy bastard and his big black kite have terrorised the populace.
Then bits of life happened and I put the kite-gear in the corner thinking "I'll come back to that when the weather's a bit better..." and then it was years later, and...
And in the meantime the 'extreme sport' mob discovered Flexifoils and a set of bastards in Oakley shades and comedy strides started poncing around with 'kite buggies' and wearing helmets while flying a three-stack. Tossers! A sodding buggy and helmet? I've skated across grassland on my feet with only a leather jacket, superb sense of balance and the knowledge that people would laugh if I fell over to support me. Lightweights.
Anyway. This weekend we (self & chums R. & D.) went out for a bimble around Brean Down and for pure randomness I brought along the Flexi.
The magic is still with me.
There will be more Big Mad Kites in my future. Mostly because it's a total blast, but it's also a cracking upper-body workout. And a top excuse to get out the house.
So. History: Way back in the dim and distant (1990), a Nice Man handed me the control bar for a six-foot Flexifoil saying 'Have a crack at this, it's a bit tricky mind.' I surprised both of us by taking to it entirely naturally and spent the rest of the afternoon driving the kite around the sky above the Plumstead Marshes.
It wasn't long before I bought one of my own. A lot like this one, only completely black. (Of course) A delta followed it, for those times when I didn't fancy getting dragged bodily across Hampstead Heath, Cleeve Common or the sundry other places where the scruffy bastard and his big black kite have terrorised the populace.
Then bits of life happened and I put the kite-gear in the corner thinking "I'll come back to that when the weather's a bit better..." and then it was years later, and...
And in the meantime the 'extreme sport' mob discovered Flexifoils and a set of bastards in Oakley shades and comedy strides started poncing around with 'kite buggies' and wearing helmets while flying a three-stack. Tossers! A sodding buggy and helmet? I've skated across grassland on my feet with only a leather jacket, superb sense of balance and the knowledge that people would laugh if I fell over to support me. Lightweights.
Anyway. This weekend we (self & chums R. & D.) went out for a bimble around Brean Down and for pure randomness I brought along the Flexi.
The magic is still with me.
There will be more Big Mad Kites in my future. Mostly because it's a total blast, but it's also a cracking upper-body workout. And a top excuse to get out the house.
