Feeling The Tug Of The New Season

By Kendra Bobowick

Wind flashed across thin material and cords straightened with tension. A quick yank from Robert Lynders brought his kite whipping overhead in the High Meadow at Fairfield Hills, rippling like a sail, and with its shadow jumping across tufts of grass and past an Irish setter that scampered away from the sound, he steered it in tight loops and lazier arcs from side to side. Stretched at least 30 feet away from his hands, the kite pivoted and spun overhead,  prompting hikers to stare up at the sky.

With a two-handed grip on a bar more than a foot across and attached to double sets of cords on either side, Mr Lynders also was hooked to his kite by a harness that slipped around his waist. An abrupt rush of wind tugged him momentarily as he struggled to reign in the power kite — an exercise to keep him limber for his local kite-surfing group.

The sport involves a kite like the one he practiced with Monday in the high open fields, but enthusiasts surf with a board in the ocean or a smooth lake, and let a kite in the wind propel them.

“It’s sort of waterskiing and controlling where you go,” Mr Lynders said, hurrying back and forth as he maneuvered his kite through pockets of air. Requiring kite control and board control, nearby beaches are a common place to kitesurf or kiteboard, he said.

Skipping across the recently resurfaced path leading to the meadow’s peak, Mr Lynders drew attention from others enjoying a walk through the meadow — some capturing him with a zoom lens from a distance, and others hurrying past with faces turned toward the kite above and laughing.