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.