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Grant L · Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 8:15 pm Post subject: Great Lakes Kite Festival

Great Lakes Kite festival
May 21, 22, & 23, 2004
At the State Park (the beach) in Grand Haven, MI

They don't have this years schedule posted yet but last year was great. Here is the 2003 Schedule to give you an idea of what all is happening. The beach is nice and large. The town is nice with shops for the non-kite addicts to look in and nice places to eat. We'll be there all weekend, ( Look for Spikey Very Happy

) so come on over and say Hi ! I have some kitemaker friends I met there and I will be trying to recruite them for the forum Twisted Evil

I may even enter my very first fighter kite competition, so that should be good for some entertainment value Shocked

. A really nice family weekend. ( If only the water was warm enough to swim in Confused

)

This isn't the festival but it will give you an idea of the beach. These are mine and a couple of kitebuilder friends' kites at Grand Haven in Sept 2003. There was a kiteboarding contest going on over the weekend and we had some of our single line stuff up. The beach is much larger than shown in the photo. This is just the very end of the north side. You can get an idea of how wide the beach is. To the right is the parking lot, to the left is the lake and straight ahead is the campground.

mhartzel · Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:30 pm Post subject:

I am planning to attend this event, as well as the Michigan Sport Kite classic on June 5 and 6.

I will bring along my entire kite bag that now includes 3 NPW9b's (.68m, 2.77m vented and Roofie the 2.77m misfit) a Sceptre 1.8, a pocket sled, my Pig (a Modified Spike) and a Skynasaur Cloudchaser (that i'm working on re-sparing in Graphite/fibreglass)
_________________
Mark
If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer.

- Take back the web.

Grant L · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 12:18 am Post subject:

mhartzel, be sure to look for me, or me you. I think we will get in friday night so we should be on the beach early Saturday. I tend to put Spikey up first and take it down last, ( it is a great beacon so my kids always know where I am Very Happy

) so look for it. I'll have a bunch of single line stuff, ( including my MAKR winnings Twisted Evil

.) plus a nsaswing or two. Very Happy

Mike · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:31 pm Post subject:

Hi guys,
I'll be there as well, perhaps as early as Friday afternoon. I'll be flying a Rev most of the time, but Mimi will be able to meet Spike!

Mike

Grant L · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:16 am Post subject:

HERE is the schedule of events. Looks like lots of fun. Hope to see a bunch of you there Very Happy

Grant L · Posted: Thu May 20, 2004 2:13 pm Post subject:

I was packing up my kites today. I was a bit worried because I had lent Spikey and my racing bols to a fellow club member to take to an event I couldn't attend. I finally hooked up with her and got them back yesterday Anxious

I was worried I wouldn't have them for the weeked. I also haven't had much chance to fly fighters this spring so the competition should be humerous.
I was worried about the insurance situation so I called earlier this week and was told everything is GO ! I should be there tomorrow evening, ( hopefully in time to se the indoor demonstration.) Look for Spikey on the beach and we can put MiMi and the pig up together with Spikey. Looking forward to meeting more forum members face to face Very Happy

mhartzel · Posted: Thu May 20, 2004 10:16 pm Post subject:

Sadly, I won't be able to make it there this weekend Crying or Very sad

Lots of house work and the 4 hour drive would be really rough with my 2 kids ages 4 and 1. Although I have been given the green light to attend the MSKC in a few weeks (june 5) in Monroe, this will only take about an hour to an hour and a half to get there...

Piggy sends along her condolences that she won't get to meet Mimi and Spike.
_________________
Mark
If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer.

- Take back the web.

Grant L · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:32 am Post subject:

The Mackinac Kite and Toys shop finally posted PHOTOS of the festival on their web page. Lots of photos of Spikey and my two bols, ( even some of the bol races.) Very Happy

There is even a photo of Mike's MIMI . Half way down on the Saturday photos you can see the dark clouds moving in. This was accompanied by the heavy winds shifting about 120 degrees, ( right next to that photo is one of me franticly scrambling to get all of my stuff down Shocked

,) . Shortly after this they almost died completely. Near the bottom of Saturday are some photos of a very large basket, ( neon pink, orange, black and yellow,) made by James,(don't have his last name handy Embarassed

) , second from the left. Not quite enough wind to get it going well, but he did get it inflated and revolving. Quite impressive.
We didn't stay for Sunday, but it looks like they had lots more fun.

Coming up is the King of the Great Lakes Kitesurfing Competition
September 9 - 12, 2004 at the State Park (the beach) in Grand Haven, MI. While not a kite festival, there were lots of kiters there last year. I'll be there with my family and Spikey Very Happy