Best Laid Plans

All week long I was looking forward to this weekend. The weather was finally supposed to be warm and I was going to get reacquainted with my bikes including my first mountain bike ride of the year. That, of course, was not the case.

Since my mountain bike has been on hiatus all winter I knew it was going to need a little work to get it back on the trails. I spent part of Friday trying to get things dialed in but realized that I needed a new rotor on the rear wheel. I had some obligations downtown on Saturday so I decided I would visit my local bike shop to procure the necessary equipment. I figured I would spend Sunday morning getting the bike put together and ride in the afternoon.

When Sunday morning rolled around, things didn’t go as I imagined. First, I spent way more time than I wanted getting my bike taken care of. By the time I finished I didn’t feel very motivated to ride so I thought I’d hit some golf balls instead to get my game figured out for the season. When I arrived at the driving range I noticed it was completely torn up and was being redone so that was a complete waste of a trip. With two big fat strikes I thought I’d take advantage of the light breezes and go to the park with my kite. That was reasonably successful until the wind stopped blowing.

With all of these failures behind me I decided this was some kind of a sign and so I did the next best thing and watched golf. It was much more exciting than it sounds and was a riveting final day with lots of ups and downs. That was followed by a nice meal with the neighborhood folks. I guess things ended much better then they began.

Maiden Voyage

Finally, after several months of missed opportunities and calm days, I was able to get my kite out for the first time and test my mettle against Mother Nature’s breezes. After doing some work around the house on Saturday, I loaded my kite into the car and headed to the park. It was a slightly overcast day with a few sprinkles here and there but nothing that was serious enough to discourage my attempt at flying the largest kite I’ve ever owned.

After some awkward time spent getting everything laid out and connecting all the cables, I gave the control bar a tug. In the blink of an eye the three meters worth of material was racing to the sky and I was pretending that I had a clue as to what I was doing. My plan was to try and fly the kite around and get a feel for how strong it would pull at certain points in the wind window.

I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to fly the kite; pull a little on the left and it goes left. Pull a little on the right and it goes right. The part that was a touch tricky was keeping the kite in certain areas of the sky without it trying to return to a more neutral position. One thing that amazed me the most was how strong the kite pulled. I expected it to have some force but there were several occasions when I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold on and I could feel myself starting to get dragged across the field. Fortunately, I was able to keep it under control enough to take some of the power out of the kite and recover.

I spent about an hour getting acquainted with the beginning stages of my new hobby and it was all kinds of fun. I realize there is a significant learning curve and I’m looking forward to moving up to bigger and better kites. Of course, Mother Nature decided to bring about eight inches of snow on Sunday so I might not get another opportunity to practice anytime soon.