If someone tells you “Ah, go fly a kite!” you can say “Oh, thank you for reminding me! I need to get to Virginia Beach and do just that!”
Flying a kite is a terrific family activity. It costs little – just the price of a kite (and even less if you make a kite yourself) – and just about everyone in your family of any age can participate.
Kite flying also is pretty easy to learn. The basics:
• Choose your kite. Remember that the fancier the design or shape of the kite, the harder it is to fly. If you’ve never flown one before, consider purchasing a standard kite.
• Don’t go fly a kite when it’s really windy. You want to pick a day that has a nice breeze (5-25 mph).
• Make sure you have enough room. Your backyard may not be large enough. Instead, head to the beach, a park, or a large field.
• Flying a kite is best – and more fun – when you have at least one other person with you. Your buddy can hold the ball of string while you hold the kite (or vice versa).
• When holding the ball of string, stand with your back to the wind, with your buddy holding the kite so that its front is facing you.
• Unwind about 60 feet of string.
• Stand so that the wind is blowing from the person holding the string to the person holding the kite.
• Tell your buddy to release the kite while you pull on the string to give it tension.
• Let the string out if you want the kite to go higher and pull the string in to lower the kite.
And that’s pretty much it!
If you find you truly enjoy flying kites, Virginia Beach is the place to be: kite flying during the spring and summer months is popular on the beach. In fact, so popular is kite flying in summer, that people tend to bring kites along to the beach as a matter of course. They even use the kites to mark “their” spot on the beach.
What’s more, Virginia Beach holds an annual kite festival in early May. This year’s festival will be held May 6th at Virginia Beach between 16th and 18th Street.
The festival is free.
For more information, visit the Atlantic kite festival’s official website.
So, when someone tells you to go fly a kite, by all means, go! And ask him to come with you!
Last edited: March 25, 2017
