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Stunt: Axle
As for new tricks, the big one this year was the Axle. All the stunters
were either doing it or learning how (including yours truly). You can do an
axle anywhere depending on the wind, but its easiest to learn it at the edge
of the window. I'll describe a left axle, done on the left side of the
window and you can reverse it yourself for a right axle.
Start by taking the kite to the left edge of the window and stall it in an
upright position. Then do a light push turn with your left hand just to the
point where the right wingtip starts to dip. When the dip starts do a quick
strong jerk with your left hand and a punch with your right hand ( The left
wingtip will rotate forward and up, the right wingtip will drop back, and
the top will drop). Some people go so far as to slap their right shoulder
with their left hand during the move. Then quickly equalize both hands and
pull back with both to recover. This is a completely counter intuitive move,
in that you are pulling with your left hand to get the kite to spin to the
right. If done correctly, the kite seems to do a sort of sideways
summersalt and flip to the right. I hope someone gets some use out of
this description.
Now I want to talk about the Prism Eclipse. I was having a hell of a time
trying to learn the Axle on my kites. I'd jerk with my left hand and my kite
would just turn left. I was told that the Eclipse was a dream to learn the
axle on, and so borrowed one from the manufacturer (one of the benefits of
the festival). After about an hour or so on my own, I had the "axle"
basically learned (though it needs a lot of polishing), and I could then
even do them on my other kites. This situation is not unique and I know of
several newbies who had similar results. Mark Woods also demonstrated how
to do an axle from the ground, or do an axle into a perfect landing. The
Eclipse is also trivial to stall. Mark showed me a flicking move that works
great. Essentially he makes a hand movement like snapping a towel. Quickly
snap the hand forward, pull back and then equalize both hands and step
forward. Over a period of time he showed me how he was thus able to stall
the Eclipse in a 4-8 mph breeze, anywhere in the window (and thus was able
to do an axle anywhere in the window). The Eclipse also skates, tip stands,
and turtles very well. In fact once you get it in a turtle, you can either
fly it on its back or do a trivial yank and put it back right side up. This
ability to trivially recover from a turtle gives it the ability to one trick
I have seen no other kite do: the "bass axle." The axle described above is
essentially a belly down move. The bass axle is belly up. You put the kite
on the edge of the window, pop it on its back (ie: turtle it) and then do an
axle with it in that position. Instead of spinning and twisting belly down
it spins and twists belly up, and thus add an new dimension to the move. As
I said, this is the only kite that seems capable of doing the move (and many
others were trying).
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