The Killer Kite

It was a beautiful, fog-less day in Ventura yesterday so we decided to take advantage of it and go the beach with some friends. We had brought our new stylin' beach chairs and a cooler full of food and drinks, so we were all set to kick back and soak up some rays. We had just gotten settled and were nearing full relaxation mode when a lady and her daughter who were sitting near us decided that it was time to bring out their enormous, terradactyl-sized kite. As soon as they started setting the kite up, it became pretty obvious that neither of them had ever flown this kind of kite before. It was one of those kites that has two seperate handles that you use to control the flight movements, so it was a little more complex than just your regular run-of-the-mill kite on a string - and it was a pretty windy day.

Once they got the kite ready to go, we were waiting for them to walk it over to an area of the beach that was less crowded, since our spot had quite a few people. But much to our surprise, they decided to start flying it right in the middle of our heavily populated section of the beach. Now, this kite didn't just soar peacefully up in the sky. Oh no. This thing was zipping wildly from side to side and making frequent Kamikazee type dives towards our poor defenseless heads. The kite even crash landed several times only inches away from terrified people on their beach towels. You'd think that after several close calls and a number of death glares from the people around them, they would realize that it was time to move to a clearing that was less crowded, but amazingly, this was not the case. And so instead of an afternoon of relaxing and listening to the waves gently lap at the shore, we were all fearing for our lives and listening for the wizzing sound that indicated that the kite was speeding in our direction. Thanks a lot, lady.

Well, a half hour later (and after multiple close calls with the killer kite), I finally yelled "Look lady, no offense, but could you take your kite somewhere that's a bit less crowded?" And she says "Oh, yeah, we were just going to do that. There's too many people here anyway." It took you 30 whole minutes of torturing your fellow beach-goers to figure that out?! Amazing.

I may never be able to look at a kite the same way again...