BERKELEY, Calif. — During the annual Kite Festival and Competition of 2019, thousands of families and kite enthusiasts traveled to Cesar E. Chavez Park to view and fly kites in the windy hills overlooking the Marina. Hundreds of kites of all shapes, sizes and colors could be seen flying on that day.
Although most kites could be flown in the sky freely, controlled only by the wind, others were controlled while flying. A stunt kite is a kite that is flown with two strings instead of one, and both strings change the direction of the kite.
Stunt kite flyer John Samet said, “The two [strings] can control and alternate the direction of the kite based on how hard I pull each line.”
But these kites can be difficult to control.
“For the first hour, I drove it to the ground,” Samet said. “It’s difficult because it’s sensitive.”
The wind and its direction both play a role.
Samet said strong winds can make the kite spin at approximately 50 to 60 miles per hour; 14 to 15 miles per hour is representative of a good wind and speed.
But once a kite flyer is adept at a stunt kite, he or she can make the kite move in all directions — spinning and diving and making buzzing noises similar to stunt planes.
“I can make it dive real fast and suddenly pull up with a J-turn,” Samet said. “What I can get it to do — but it’s really difficult — is actually to make a square.”
In groups, stunt kites are often seen flying in synchronized patterns, with competitions at the kite festival on Saturday and Sunday of the last weekend in July. But for a single flyer, stunt decisions are up to the individual.
“There’s no reason to it,” Samet said. “It’s just [dependent on] how I feel.”
