Date:	Tue, 2 Aug 1994 09:28:30 -1000
From:	Frank Kenisky <fkenisky@delphi.com>
Message-Id: <BU0wLn2.fkenisky@delphi.com>
Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
Subject: Lawrence Journal - World Sports Section

Here is an article from the Kansas Sunflower Games, held July 30 & 31,
1994.  The excerpt is from the Sports pages of three different local news
papers.  I guess kiting is growing as a "sport" in Kansas.
 
These kiters certainly know how to handle the wind.  As the saying goes if
you can handle the wind in Kansas, you can go just about anywhere.
 
Lawrence Journal - World Sports Section
By Andrew Hartsock
 
Kiting venue provides fun, visual delights
 
Kiting isn't the lazy pastime I remember it to be.  At least, it wasn't
Saturday when it made its debut as a sport in the Sunflower State Games.
 
In fact, the sport of kiting looked like hard work.
 
The only kites I've ever owned had two directions - up and down.  But the
sport kites flying over Shenk fields on Saturday went just about wherever
their pilots wanted them to go.
 
Ever see a kite fly against the wind?  Me neither, until Saturday.
 
Yep, the kiting venue was a cornucopia of visual delights.  The reinbow-
colored kites danced across the sky.  Multi-color banners fluttered in the
breeze.  Music blared from a monster sound system.
 
<Comment> This is one of the largest sound systems ever to be set up at a
kite event.  It is also used at the Prairie Winds Kite Festival.
 
One of the most laid-back venues in the games, kiting was definitely the
most colorful.
 
The sport's pretty easy to understand.  In precision flying, competitiors must
fly their kites in compulsory figures, like a figure eight or a square.  The
figures get more complex in the higher levels.  The competitors are judged
according to their range and precision.
 
The, the pilots must put on a two-minute freestyle routine, where they try to
impress the judges with hot-dog moves - sumersaults, 360's stalls, dives.
 
In the ballet competition - which will be held this morning (Sunday) out at
Shenk - the competitors must perform to music.  They're judged on
choreography, content and execution.
 
Competitive sport kites cost anywhere from $100 to $300.
 
One kite, the Phoenix, was designed by Kansas University graduate David
Bui.  Bui was studying aerodynamicas at KU when he designed the Phoeniz
for the Wind Wizards, a KC kiting store.
 
Demand for the Phoenix soon exceeded supply, and Bui went to work for
Sky Burner, a major kite supplier.
 
Now, I'm told, every serious competitor carries at least one Phoeniz to
every meet.  Its allure is that it can fly in any wind from 2 mph to 30 mph.
 
When the wind dies like it did Saturday afternoon, the pilots provide the
lift.  They compete in a roped-off area about the size of a football field.
Whe winds are slight, they cover just about every inch of the field to keep
the kite aloft.
 
Sport kites differ greatly from their more common counterparts.
 
Competitive kites have two fixed-length lines, usually between 75 and 100
feet long with ring-sized handles at the end.  They're steered by pulling on
one line or the other and can be directed with such precision they'll skim
along the ground within inches then skyrocket upward.
 
The Games' kiters promised to take a break from their cut-throat
competition and play a little today.  Wind Wizards brought along a kite-
powered cart to show off, along with several exotic kites - like the giant
octopus that hovered over Shenk on Saturday.  Store ovners Carolyn and
Chris Moore also planned to rig a kite to drop candy from the sky.
 
Now, that sounds more like my kite of kiting.


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