WSIKF 2001 index page
Washington State International Kite Festival (WSIKF)
Short Line Fighter Kite World Cup (SLFKWC)
August 20-24, 2001
by Pierre Gregoire

Its been already a while since I attended WSIKF, but my memory is still fresh. You see it all started back in April on the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) line #kites, each year of the last 3 years, I had promised myself a trip to WSIKF but had never gone. This year I was determined to go, the main attraction was the SLFKWC, I had exchanged information with the NFKA (Northwest Fighter Kite Association) on their listserv at topica.com.

Anyways here is a chronicle of the trip out there.

Sunday, Aug-19

3:30am, I used to fly a lot when I worked as a international service technician for a company in the US. I had forgotten all the packing prep work to get ready for a trip. Anyways, I packed my bags and met my flight partner Mario Pierre at Dorval airport. Our flight was leaving at 6:15am. Mario had told me about how long it would take to get thru checkin and customs. I'm happy I listened to him. We walked into Dorval Airport around 5:00am and stood in line.

We eventually got to Portland, Oregon around 11:45am, where we rented a car and started our trip to Long Beach, WA. We had a 100 mile drive, over winding and hilly roads, we stopped about 75miles into the trip for a coffee, at a small cafe and artisan shop. I talked with the people there and when we told them we where from Quebec, they smiled, a couple had pasted thru the day before and signed the guestbook. We both signed the guestbook.

We got to Long Beach around 1:30pm, driving down the main boulevard, we noticed 3 kite stores. We checked into the Pacific View motel, we had a cabin, right by the main thru fare (bolstad av). We didn't waste anytime, we walked down to the beach, looking for kites and especially fighter kites. We spotted some fighters down the beach and hastily made our way, full of excitement.

We walked onto the beach and introduced ourselfs to Bruce Lambert, I recognised him from the pictures I'd seen on the internet. He quickly introduced us to Dennis Crowley, Karen Gustavson, Tom Humphrey and John Mckenzie. These were people that I had had correspondance with for a good part of a year, it was great to finally meet them. It didn't take long before, Mario and I where talking about fighters. I returned to my cabin and fetched my fighter kite box and returned to the field. We flew together for the remainder of the day and finally, we all met at a local restaurent located right accross the fighter fields.

The LightHouse is a hotel and restaurent complexe located on 10th st. We had some excellant dark beer and conversation. The most notable characteristic was the passion for fighter kites, I said to myself "darn, these people are really into this stuff". Mario and I headed back to the cabin content with our new found friends. It had been a long travel day, sleep came very easily.

Monday Aug-20

Mario and I woke up around 6:00am our internal clocks still on east coast time. We drove around, looking for a grocery store, but Sid's IGA opens only at 9:00am, so we went to MacDonalds for some breakfast. We even stopped at a gas station for some milk and bought a Washington State 6/49 lottery ticket. If we won, looking back, I don't think I'd ever leave this place.

We headed to 10th st., which was exactly where the fighter kites where situated. On arrival, we met our US eastcoast counterparts, namely, Paul Peters and Mike Coons from Albany, NY. The weather was excellant, sunny but not too hot, the pacific ocean breezes were steady all day. In the morning the wind was from direct west but as the day progressed the wind shifted to, from the SW. Mario and I met some more people, like Richard Hurd, Sharon Champie and towards the end of the day Sharon Musto (winipeg,canada), and Johnny Hsiung. The day went by so fast, numerious fighting partners and lots of practice.

That evening Mario and I hooked up with Richard Hurd for some pizza at his place and he told us all about his trip to TIAPEI for the world fighter competition there. Richard had a box full of paper fighters that he was ready to give away to anybody interested in learning. Richard, Mario and I went over to Johnny Hsiung's place, where Mario and I met Gina Hsiung and their daughter Michelle.


Tuesday Aug-21

We woke up to high winds and rain, the forecast was for two days of wet windy weather. Good time to walk around the town and visit the local kite shops. There was also the kite musium, full of different kites and videos of giant Japanese Edo fights, around 50 people are required per team, quite a spectacle. During the day we ran into people who invited us for impromptu meetings to discuss fighter kite construction and building techniques.

That night most of fighter fliers joined together for some excellant pizza at Chico's Pizza parler.

Wednesday Aug-22

More rain, but around 1:30pm, the rain stopped, and we headed out to the beach and found a number of people flying stunt kites. I had heard of Brian Champie (west coast champion for many years), and was happy to meet up with him, he was flying a California Wasp kite designed by Miquel Rodriguez. I watched him fly his aggessive west coast style for about 15 minutes. Finally he let me try his kite, the Wasp is not a trick kite, but an excellent Ballet kite, very precise, and what I really liked was the way the kite would do TIP STABS (earth shattering ones), also the kite will stop on a dime, when doing SNAP STALLS. Alas the rain started again around 3:00pm, so I headed back to our cabin.

I had brought a laptop that a friend lent me in case I had to do some computer support for my customers, unfortunately most hotels in Longbeach, do not have telephones in the rooms. The PC had a DVD player in it, so Mario and I headed to the local video store and rented some movies. I bought a video cable and hooked the PC to our TV's video in port.

We invited Mike Coons and Paul Peters (Albany,NY) for some supper. We had Hamburger Helper and a big salad. As we were eating, the clouds broke and the sun came out, we quickly finished our supper and headed out to the 10th st. beach. We weren't the only ones itching for some flying, there were about 10 flyiers already there.

We all (about 7 of us) went back to our cabin for some beer. Chris Childers shared with us some new original kites he was working on. Chris is almost fanatical about building fighter kites, spending at least 3 hours every night making new prototypes.

Thursday Aug-23

The day started with heavy rains, but around 9am, the rains stopped, but the winds stayed pretty high at 10-15mph. The annual BUKA challenge was started at around 10pm. There were 21 combattants. Two groups where randomly chosen, an odd number meant group 1 and even group 2. The format was king of the mountain, (you stay you play). The two kings where Bruce Lambert group 2 and Johnny Hsiung group 1. Mario got group 2 and I got group 1.

This was the first competition since our arrival on Sunday, although it didn't count for the World Cup, I was nervous. I had picked #3, which meant I would fly 2nd, Johnny beat #1 and I was up. I had heard Johnny was an excellent flyier, so when it was time to fight, my knees were shaking. The match went very well. I beat Johnny 2 to 1. I beat the next 2 fliers, then I flew #9 Chuck Lund, Chuck is a crafty flier, and unfortunely he beat me 2-1. Chuck then flew #11 Mike Coons and was beaten. Mike won for group 1 and flew the winner of group 2 who was Tom Humphrey. Mike won against Tom and was declared the BUKA challenge winner. Dennis Crowley (alias d. on tropica) had designed and made a very unique plaque to mark the event.

The rest of the day was spent flying in the high winds.

I went back to the cabin to untangle 3 sets of lines, and relax. A knock at the door revealed Dick Barnes and his wife Linda. He came by to invite me for supper at his trailer park. I gladly accepted, Mario had made other arrangements.

I had met Dick thru IRC and I had bought 2 kites from him, all perfect in construction and flight, dick numbers his kites, and mine is #80. Dick is a well known kitemaker of the Pizazz stuntkites ( http://www.pizazzkites.com).

At the trailer park we relaxed and exchanged stories about each other and how we got into kiting. Dick is very passionate about his kites, he doesn't try to rush a kite to completion, he simply makes the kite. We had supper and then Dick and Linda took me out to the beach for an evening stroll. At some point I was taken a back by the beauty of what I saw. Here I was standing on the pacific coast, looking towards Asia. You could see the curvature of the earth across the horizon and a dim glimmer of new day appearing somewhere else. This brought back a memory I had when I lived in Portugal, standing on the beach looking west towards America. I did what I had done in Portugal, I yelled as loud as I could, maybe hoping to hear a response. The ocean responded as it had in Portugal with the ever pounding of the surf. Proving how stupid I was, but I enjoyed it. As I returned to the cabin I thought "you're here, you're now, everything seemed in place, without being understood, I was happy!".

Friday Aug-24

The SLFKWC (Short Line Fighter Kite World Cup) starts today. All 31 of us met a 8:00am and drew our lot numbers. Each lot was composed of 5 fliers, each lot of fliers would fly each other for points. In each match 3 points were flown. Everytime you won a point (tangle) it was accumulated. Therefore a possibility of 12 points could be won (you flew 4 fliers, 4*3 -> 12 points). All three fields were used simultanously, therefore 3 lots per 2 hour period were fighting. Flyier 31 flew against 4 random flyiers to get his 4 matches.

The whole thing was finished by 12:30 and one flier already had 12 points. Mario and I had 8 points, already a bit out of the race.

But this whole process would be repeated tomorrow. So there was a chance, if luck and skill prevailed to pick up another 12 points.

That afternoon was spent walking around and meeting people who were attending the festival. I ran into all my IRC friends and took some pictures. I had a nice chat with Art Ross of BC and ran into Michelle Welsford and Gary Mark of Toronto, what a suprise. I met Elain Genser of BC, who was ready to kill me because I didn't bring any bagels from fairmount st. in MTL, but we hugged and her antipation of a bagel feast were erased.

Friday's supper was provided by the Pacific View where we were staying. This is a yearly event, a giant barbeque for their guests. Mario a seafood and fish lover, was in heaven, the food kept coming, served up banquet style. Fresh pies for desert. Everybody was smiling, between bites.

Friday night is reserved for the annual Wennie roast and Hornitos (teguilla) campfire. Almost everybody showed up for this festive affair. Terry McPherson of MI brought a Kula fighter he made for everybody to sign for the AKA convention auction in Billings, Montana. The KULA is a design that Duc le Van of Montreal and member of the FQCV had published in le vent d'ici. Kula means Gold in hawaiian, all the dimensions are based on the golden ratio (1.6???). The Hornitos teguila went down real smooth. Mike Coons had attached a very small phuoresent fishing capsile to a fighter and flew it in the dark, this was totally kewl, everybody was spellbound by this little light moving thru the sky. After a while I kept asking Mike if he was flying two kites, after he said "NO" twice, I knew it was time to hit the sack.

Saturday Aug-25

We're flying for another 12 points again today. The top 5 point getters will fly each other for the world cup. Unfortunenately Mario and I only collected 8 points each, finishing with 16 points for the two day period. The top point getters were 

	Steve Batemen	22
	Bruce Lambert   22
	Johnny Hsiung   20
	Mike Coons	19
		
	Steve Childers  18
	Chuck Lund 	18

Steve Childers and Chuck Lund flew an elimination round and Chuck won. To top off the top 5, point getters.

By 13:30 the finals started, and were spectacular, with excellent fighting. The final results were
	1st Bruce Lambert
	2nd Chuck Lund
	3rd Johnny Hsiung

Again Dennis Crowley's plaques are simply beautiful.

Its 15:30, time to dismantle everything. We say our good byes and make promises to return next year.

I went over to main festival area, for one last look, I wish I had spent more time there, but fighters were my main reason for being here.

Mike Coons and Paul Peters later treated us to some pizza and beer at chico's pizza place. We were pretty tired, but we headed back to downtown Longbeach and got ourselfs some delicious ice cream. We ran into Dennis Crowley, Dennis let us know how happy he and the rest of the NFKA were to have us (eastcoast folks) attend.

Sunday Aug-26

Its 2:30am, time to start our return trip to Montreal, its dark outside, all our bags are packed, nothing to think about except getting back to Portland, Oregon for our flight at 6:00am. The drive is uneventfull, we return the rental car, and we got lots of time, which is great, nothing worse then rushing and stressing oneself out, its a vacation, not a race. All our flights back work out perfectly. We arrive back at Dorval Airport around 16:00. We take our bus to the parking lot and we both bid our adeus's and head back to the real world.

THE END

WSIKF 2001 index page