A couple of weeks ago I went out to Cali for the Berkeley Kite Festival. I was told that Berkeley had a lot of dirty hippies, I never saw any though. To me Berkeley is a very young hip sort of place but not trendy, more laid back. A bunch college type folks there too.

Anyway, the local Californicators showed me a great time and made me feel rather at home. They even got me to compete in a dual line kite ballet competition... AND I WON! Anyway, here are a few photos and a link to the slideshow if you prefer.

Some eyes in the sky.


Going with the flow.


Lots of people were there.


This is the kids kite making area.


Spectators bring some serious equipment to this place. They get a nice view too.


A Therapy dog was even flying a kite.


Some Tsunami relief volunteers from Japan were there too.


Ok, so then I found out this place is a giant landfill. That stack in the background is a methane vent. You can see the gas escaping from just the right angle.


Our kite parking lot. The girl was taking video of the festival with a spensive camera in that bag.


Here is the full slideshow if ya wanna see it.
http://www.flickr.com//photos/graymusik/sets/72157627388782270/show/

That's all I got.

I know Im starting to get old because the dirty hippies in my town are starting to bother me.

Nice pics!

Love the octopi

Thanks for sharing

Of course Arwen likes the Octi... she likes her men handsy





...



I like them too... the Octi, that is



and handsy men.

Loved the slideshow so much! Headed to OC Maryland today, might have to buy a kite from that shop on the boardwalk now.

Looks cool! what happens if somebody who doesn't know what they're doing comes out and starts flying and then they're strings get all tangled up with other people's strings and start crashing and stuff.

Is there a pile-on?

They sic Steve Wilcos on you.

Smirk a lot of kite flyers use Spectra line. It has incredible near-steel tensile strength. It also has an extremely low melting point. Most inexpensive kites come with Dacron line. It stretches a lot but who cares? The problem is if a 20 dollar kite with Dacron line crosses lines with a 700 dollar kite with Spectra line, the 700 dollar kite loses. If the 700 dollar kite flies really well, you get to watch it slowly disappear over the horizon.

While at this event a cheap kite tangled with a kite that carried a very expensive camera rig. Expensive camera rig lost. (KAP = kite aerial photography)

Here is a link to some nice KAP examples.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ningaloo/galleries/72157622250704655/