When I was a kid my school P.E. lessons revolved around football, rugby or cricket and I hated them, notes to be excused were forged many times. When my parents divorced I joined a new school and the sports teacher was a bit more unconventional in his approach. He introduced us to Tug of war and P.E. became interesting It got a lot of us hooked so we even came back after school and weekends and we formed a team that took on local pub teams in fetes and carnivals.

That was a long time ago and work etc took over life and sports took a back seat. Several years ago I was on holiday in Devon and saw people flying kites on the beach. The kites they were flying had enough power to pull the flyer along leaving furrows in the sand. I knew I had to have a go on that. I bought myself a Flexifoil Pro Team 8 which was an 8 foot kite and started having fun. The 8 footer was changed to a 10 footer and then stacked with 2 more as I craved for more power and fun. I then discovered the power kite. These 4 line kites which are styled on para gliders or parachutes, these really opened up the sport side and before long I was kite buggying and kite land boarding. I was fitter and I lost over a stone in a couple of months without even trying to.

I enjoyed this alternative sport so much I opened up a shop selling kites and mountain boards. In doing this I found myself looking for other alternative or secondary sports to try.

Kite buggying is my favourite sport, it involves flying a 4 line power kite whilst sitting in a 3 wheeled kart which you steer with your feet. If you go for speed you can reach 70mph+ but you will need a lot of space. There are organised races all over the world including endurance races for teams of pilots. There is also a freestyle series now which involves strapping yourself into the buggy and attaching the kite via a harness, this enables you to fly much larger kites and the kite can then pick you and the buggy up to do 360 spins and many more tricks.

Kite land boarding is similar but you stand on a mountain board while flying the kite, this is more difficult in the initial stages but can be more rewarding as the freestyle is more achievable.

Stunt kites, trick kites, or sports kites are 2 line kites that can be controlled left or right by pulling the control lines. Since the Peter Powell kite of the 70