Brazil Kite Fight
September 1, 2014 8:42 PM   Subscribe

Kite fighting in Rocinha [viz. cf.] - "In the crowded favelas of Rio de Janeiro, flying kites is more than a leisurely escape: It's also a playful form of battle."
posted by kliuless (6 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Everyone should have wings, like the birds. But since we don't have wings, we fly kites."

I remember flying into Jakarta, Indonesia, one day and looking out the window of the plane as we descended through the layer of clouds hanging low above the city. Above the rooftops of the city were thousands of kites. It was quite a sight.
posted by dazed_one at 9:00 PM on September 1, 2014


I first heard of this pasttime on reddit. Someone there said that the Taleban kite-flying ban was due to kite-fighting and the dangers it posed. Not necessarily just "banning fun" (not that, that in itself, wouldn't be something they wouldn't want to ban?)

I looked it up and there's a kite-fighter association, but it seems they play the "straight and narrow" version (i.e. "we don't use glass") - I think it was an American site, and maybe they're just covering their ass for liability purposes?

When I was in 3rd grade, I remember being in the school playground and my friend having this awesome kite and he let me fly it, and I don't know why I never got into kite flying, because i had a BLAST.

Years later, my girlfriend bought me a kite for my birthday. At least, that's what she thought it was. Turns out it was just a kite-tail. She felt really bad. Sadly, I never ended up finishing the job and getting a kite for it.

I don't know if I'd want to do kite fighting, but I think it would be a great way to get myself motivated to get outside away from these glowing screens, into nature, and a way to meditate.
posted by symbioid at 9:33 PM on September 1, 2014


a dangerous hobby
posted by idiopath at 9:53 PM on September 1, 2014 [1 favorite]




Kite Flying in Canada
posted by Evstar at 8:07 AM on September 2, 2014


> I don't know if I'd want to do kite fighting, but I think it would be a great way to get myself motivated to get outside away from these glowing screens, into nature, and a way to meditate.

Check out dual or quad line stunt kites.

My dad got into them, oh, two and a half decades ago now and even though my brother and I grew up on a steady diet of random flying toy objects with him, I remember being perplexed at first. "Gee, dad, really? You want to go down to the beach where we usually go body surfing in 10+ foot waves and mainline adrenaline like a bunch of thrill junkies and... fly a kite? That sounds swell!"

And so we went down to the beach and he put together a six to eight foot kite that was more high performance and high tech carbon graphite boned hang glider than it was a kite and tied it off to equally high tech Spectra kite lines and some seriously beefy looking padded handles that looked like they'd be more at home behind a jet ski boat than attached to a kite.

There was a pretty stiff breeze that day and the first time I tried flying that damn kite it yanked me off of my feet so hard I could have jumped right over my own height and I landed 10-15 feet downwind getting pulled through the sand like I was getting dragged behind a truck.

Turns out some people actually do fly dual line kites like some kind of perverse, backwards hang glider.

Ok, that's not exactly calm or meditative, but it sure was a lot of fun. (It was also probably the dumbest thing I've ever done on a skateboard and the fastest I've ever gone on flat land on one. Good thing iceplant is both an invasive nuisance and a suitable crash barrier.)
posted by loquacious at 8:39 AM on September 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


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