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Complex reports via the Midnight Squadron Twitter feed:
rok battle-lost heat 1 but won rest.Wwoods champs!
Congrats to the Midnight Squadron team for winning team rokkaku at the Wildwood International Kite Festival! I’m sure Complex will give us the tip-by-tip when he gets online next.
We’re a little late but we’re gonna fly kites this Saturday night!
Meet us at Capitol College at 9 PM to fly on the old racetrack field.
As usual, be quiet & polite b/c they’re letting us fly there, and we don’t want to disturb the students housed nearby.
We’ve got an earlier event, too — a Rokkaku duel demo with the Bam’s Kung Fu of Laurel!
Chrooke and Complex will be demo’ing Low Down Dirty Kite Fighting this Saturday at noon for the Bam’s Kung Fu of Laurel, MD. Note the update: time and place is noon Saturday 4/18 at the Bam’s (8750 Cherry Lane #C15 Laurel, MD 20707)
Obviously, if you’re interested in Kung Fu, this is probably a good chance for you to talk to the Bams about that, too. I’ve found they’re very approachable. I’m interested in what a champion sport karate & kung fu master has to say about our dueling (besides “train regularly, already!”).
That’s two events this Saturday — there’s a Fullish Moon Kite Fly on Saturday night.
Just a quick note — the Midnight Squadron team won a very tough Smithsonian Rokkaku Challenge!
The field was great, tough, and fierce. The weather was friendly to us — the ugly dampness soaked our line, protecting us from Harold Ames & Charlie Don’t Run’s skilled slicings, and the light wind was familiar from our usual low-wind Low-Down Dirty Kite Fights.
Iron Kite spooled and Complex piloted, while Kalika Chris coached. We lapped the field 3 times, and finished last in the air in the first and third heats.
More later!
The 2009 Smithsonian Kite Festival is 2 weeks from today, on Saturday, March 28!
This year’s theme is Green Environmentalism. As usual, there will be lots of fun kiting and kid-centric events for all of you spawners.
Our Rokkaku Fighting Team will be on the field seeking a fourth (? I’ve lost count) 1st place trophy. The combat is at 3pm!
(more…)
MIKE was a good bit of fun, and Complex won the individual Rok battle! Saw a lot of fantastic kites and learned some kite-making (and dyeing) tips.
Also, will start tracking kite combat scores from battles everywhere, so fighters can keep track of what’s going on in the comunity and their relative standings. I’m planning out the online systems now. In the meanwhile, you can view the scores from the 2008 MIKE individual rok battle, kindly provided by Mike van Meers.
Complex’s MIKE notes from the field:
The 2008 Smithsonian Kite Festival saw Complex and Kalika Chris flying and Bruce and Cheryl cheering, along with a host of Washingtonian co-workers. Thanks for coming out, guys!
The rokkaku battle was a beautiful melee of around 14 teams! That many teams left less than six feet between kites when we were setting up, and made it near impossible to avoid tangles in the air. It was a beautiful bar-fight of a battle. Sadly, it’s not a battle we won or placed in; the Midnight Squadron team couldn’t move beyond Thunderdome. We did earn two kills, however, and we were last up in the third heat.
A sudden-death heat had to decide the battle. The Smithsonian Associates lost to The Bike Shop, which was flying the “Fixed Gears” kite, one of the three black-and-white kites made by the same guy.
The Midnight Squadron Rokkaku team, Complex & Chris (Kalika), won this year’s Smithsonian Rokkaku Challenge!
Like last year, we faced a tough crowd: Harold Ames and his Eagle Eyes team, Charlie Don’t Run, the Rainbow Warriors, and others. We used the lessons they’ve taught us in the past and started cutting people down. We won with 23 points, followed by Charlie Don’t Run (20 points) and Eagle Eyes.
Our Rokkaku fighting team, piloted by the club Commandant, Chrooke, tied for third place in a tough field!
We won the first heat, taking nine points for kills and being the last kite flying. We followed that up by going toe-to-toe with last year’s champion and master fighter, Harold Ames, in crowd-thrilling low-down dirty fighting. The wind picked up in the third heat, and the already-dangerous Rainbow Warrior became a deadly juggernaut with their eight-foot Shannon rokkaku. They cut us down and proceeded to tie for first and then quickly win the sudden-death contest! Charlie Don’t Run took second, and we tied for third with Team MIKE.
Your lowly scribe, Complex, was the spoolman for this year’s team, and so didn’t see enough of the battle — only the deft fighting technique of Commandant Cooke. We’ll be adding additional details and photos shortly. In the meanwhile, we’d like to thank the crowd for cheering us on!
What’s that!? Fighting, did you say? Absolutely. Don’t worry, it’s all good clean fun. Teams of kite flyers take to the field in a sort of aerial demolition derby, trying to be the last kite still aloft. See our photo gallery for some pictures of previous events. Midnight Squadron is looking for people of all ages and abilities to join us in training and competition. For more details, e-mail info@midnightsquadron.org. You’ll have to be in the Washington,DC area to fly with us in person, but we can also steer you toward a local club if you are not near us.
Squadron @ MIKE