Message from Paul, reads:

‘Be at Lodge. 9:45 at the latest.’

Not a problem I think.  I’ll get up early and see them up there.

Saturday morning arrived, bright and clear.  I headed up to Lodge Moor for about 9 to find the snow glistening under a lazy sun and a very gentle breeze blowing in from the south-west.

As long as there’s a bit of a breeze, I think to myself, I might as well try to get something flying.  So out comes the 7m Bullet.  It flys, but gives no real pull.

About half nine the other would be instructors start to arrive.  First on the scene is Chris C, we have a chat and wonder if anyone else is on their way.  Gradually everyone else turns up. Daz, Raz, Paul and Sarah.  I’m glad that I’m not the only one feeling a little nervous about what will be happening today.

Our instructor for the day is Adam from Turbulence.  A few of us had met him before (although I’m not sure he remembered my browsing around his shop and having a quick fly on a north Wales beach with him several years before).  He quickly puts us all at ease as we chat.

Juggla is still on his way, so Adam chugs a couple of cans of Pussy, he’s apparently currently working on Australian time as the team are out there testing some new prototypes.

Juggla eventually turns up – he got lost on his way to our local flying site, a place he’s only been visiting on a regular basis for the last five years or so, completely understandable.

Everyone was here, so time to crack on with the training.  Adam distributes a folder to each of us and we start eagerly flicking through them.  We talk about the structure of the training course, areas to cover, wind windows, site assessments, kite types, teaching tips and then move on to some mock lessons.

We’re split into groups and run through the set-up and pack down elements of kiting.  One of us instructing the other mostly being a pain and asking as many difficult questions as we can think of.  Adam wanders between the groups, offering advice on explaining elements of the set-up and how to get your trainee involved.

Aside from some issues with all managing to wind lines the same way (and if you want to know exactly how many twists you can put in your lines unwinding them wrong you can ask Adam) it all seemed to go well.  We all discuss good and bad points before packing up the kites and heading in to the pub for a coffee and some more theory.

In the warmth of the pub we discuss naming conventions we will use as a club, run over standard kite set-up, pack and un-pack again, lesson plans, accident and incident protocols and insurance.

Satisfied we are able to teach someone the basics of kiting Adam presents each of us with our instructor certificates.

Congratulations to Paul and Juggla for completing their retraining and to Sarah, Raz, Chris and Daz for becoming SKF’s newest kite instructors!

Many thanks to Adam for taking the time to train us.

March sees the welcome return of the SKF's Get Hooked on Life (GHoL) taster sessions. GHoL is a Sheffield based project working with 7-13 year olds. It aims to get young people into sporting activities that they might not have normally thought about.

The SKF are running three sessions in March to encourage young people to come along and have a go at kite based sports. The first will be an indoor promotional session at the Sheffield Megacentre, followed by two 6 hour Saturday taster sessions at Richmond Park. Dates, times and directions to the venues are here - GHoL Events

But that's not all, these sessions will see the maiden flights of the new SKF training quiver donated by the GHoL Project. This new set of Ozone School kites consists of:

2 x Ozone Imp Quattro 1.5m
2 x Ozone Imp Quattro 2.5m
1 x Ozone Imp Quattro 3.5m
1 x Ozone Flow 4m

The kites are brand spanking new and waiting to get muddy (as no doubt they will in Sheffield during March!).

The sessions will also welcome a new group of SKF Instructors onto the field but more on that next time.

Until then, fly safe (and probably cold and damp).

The SKF

We are only a few days into the new year and already we have had a good dose of flying in the form of Snowkiting. SKF members have flown at Lodge Moor, Roundhay Park, been Skiing/Snowboarding at Weardale and even Kite Sledging! You can see some pictures here - SKF Gallery

2010 promises to be a great year as long as Mother Nature is kind with plenty of windy sunny days. SKF have got loads of events, fly-ins, day trips and weekend camping trips planned. The year kicks off on 27th February with our yearly Demo session at Chapeltown Park. Then we have the annual trip to Black Rock Sands in north Wales in mid March. Then the begining of April returns us to summertime flyins at Splodge. All of the events and trips are on the SKF Calendar

A special mention must go to the welcome return of the Middle Wallop Kite Festival. Wallop10 promises to be a great event with more kiting than you can shake a broken control bar at. 70 hours of kite related shenanigans over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May and it looks like the SKF will be there in force. More info and ticket sales here - Wallop10

See you all in a field/on a beach soon, fly safe.

The SKF