Surprised? Yes, by the time you read this, the crew from Kitelife will either be on their way to Beunos Aires, or will already be there. John Barresi, Editor/Publisher, and Dave “geezer” Shattuck will attend two Kite Festivals in Argentina, and John will perform demonstration flights for a contingent of “The Oil Party” and work with Argentinean pilots on both dual-line and quad-line flying in multiple workshops. The geezer will shoot photos and take notes for Kitelife event reports on these activities. As it currently stands, Kitelife’s schedule is:
Okay, so what about these events? Wind Party, 2006: This is the third year for Wind Party. It is always held in the same place – Children’s Park, right on the Rio De La Plata, which is the VERY wide river that fronts all of Buenos Aires.
2004 Wind Party report There will be demonstrations from locals all day long, including dualie and quadline demos by John Barresi, and even some dog-staking if time and weather permits. Team “El Fabuloso” is a world-class performance kite team (Berck sur Mer - ’04 and ’06), and they will demo too. As will Gustavo Di Si (our sponsor), flying multiple kites simultaneously. Plenty of kid kite-making and flying opportunities. Roc Battles will be flown. Geezer will fly his Comets if weather and local conditions permit. And other large kites galore aloft. The organizers and sponsors have come to expect thousands of visitors and attendees at this festival. Buenos Aires is a city of three million folks after all, and if you take in the surrounding municipalities, the estimate is for about ten million people within reach all told. For a bit more about Buenos Aires, click here. Patagonia Kite Festival: Okay, this one is rather ill-defined as this is being written – though we are promised all the details when we reach Buenos Aires. Comodoro Rivadavia is roughly 1100 miles south of Buenos Aires, right on the Atlantic Ocean, and instead of 10 million people, the Internet says it has roughly 140,000 inhabitants. Our research (such as it is) says the town is mostly a combined summer resort area and oil boom-town. We shall see what this festival will turn out to be… We DO know that we are part of a team of 17 pilots flying in for the festival, however – so we can certainly assume that someone will be flying down there… Hopefully, there will be places to stay and to eat as well. Still, Comodoro Rivadavia might be a very interesting place. For one thing, the winds there are legendary, since the town is close to the path of the “Roaring Forties” – a band of strong westerly winds that circles the globe at about 40 degrees south latitude. For another, it will be interesting to compare the weather patterns outside of winds, since Comodoro Rivadavia is at roughly 45 degrees south latitude, and we happen to live at roughly 45 degrees north latitude. For more information about the area, click here. Yes, of course we will let you know what happens. National Oil Party demonstrations: From what we are told, the National Oil Party is a very important political organization in Argentina – perhaps the most important party? But we DO know that Argentina, as a country, is “oil rich” and an export nation – which should make the party that controls the oil pretty important, should it not? Apparently the National Oil Party is interested in a) observing the sport of Kite Flying, and b) willing to support the sport with some sponsorship for the festival. We are told, for instance, that John Barresi’s demonstrations will be televised throughout the country of Argentina. If this means the demonstrations are available for viewing by everyone, this will be a decided “plus” for kiteflying in Argentina. If they are available only on closed circuit, then the “televised” part becomes a bit less interesting to this reporter. In any case, we expect to go to Comodoro Rivadavia, fly in the Patagonia Kite Festival, and participate in the demonstrations. Yes, we’ll let you know about the National Oil Party too. Teaching Workshops: John has long had an active interest in sharing his skills with others, coaching whenever possible. It has only been within the last year that he has consistently taught flying workshops, however. When it started to look like Kitelife would be able to go to Argentina, John volunteered to work with a “kite qualified” translator to help teach the pilots of Argentina while we were down there. Needless to say, our sponsors responded with willing acceptance. The plan is that John will work with interested pilots in groups and one-on-one to help improve their flying skills and techniques. These “workshops” really look to be something like “daily practice sessions” where John critiques and coaches the same pilots day after day. This way, these pilots can hopefully gain the expertise – the skills and techniques - to improve, with the intent (at least on our part) that those pilots can then go on to coach and assist other, newer pilots to help grow the sport of kiting in Argentina. Again – we will let you know how it all turns out.
Well, the thought occurs to give you an idea of why we’re going in the first place. And I think the best thing to say is – because it’s the right thing to do. If we’re going to support kiting worldwide, Kitelife NEEDS to be going overseas occasionally - and not just making migrations to Berck sur Mer and Dieppe and a few other European festivals, either. So if we have something to give to Argentina (and I think we do), and we have a chance to give it in a way that feels like “equal sharing” – then we aught to make that happen. Everyone we touch will learn from us, and everyone we meet will teach us something too. We need to be sharing kiting around the world. We also need to be sharing whatever human contact we can get with each other too. We need to be “growing” kite flying worldwide, and Argentina is as good a place to start as any. And we’d be remiss if we left you believing that all we were going to do in Argentina is eat, sleep, and fly kites. Like anyone traveling to a different country, you look forward to the opportunity to look around a little too. Sure, we’ll do some “touristy” things I suspect, though we have nothing specific on our planned agenda as these words are being written. I guess we might do some shopping, and perhaps even a little sightseeing too. And we might even fly a kite or two on our own, too. Where Kitelife is concerned, you never know… Yeah, we’ll be back in plenty of time to report in. We’ll be publishing as usual, so you’ll read all about it in the next issue of Kitelife – due to hit the Internet on February 1st next year. See ya there with a full report on all this… Fair Winds and Good Friends – Geezer
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