Dear Kite Flyer,
I have pleasure in offering you the plan of this Maple Leaf Kite.
Rob spotted a picture of it on the internet and wanted to make it available via Windsweptkites, which is now done.
This plan is proposed strictly for your personal use, not for commercial use.
I designed this kite in 2007, at the occasion of an open doors day in the familial land and forest property of a good friend of mine.
The exhibition was around sustainable development and alternative forest exploitation methods. I volunteered for a kiting demo, with the idea of having the visitors to simply pay attention to wind, which they most of the time just ignore.
That was a way to carry the message that the same idea applies for the whole nature: look more carefully than usually, and you will be surprised by what there is to discover. More practically, adults were surprised that it was possible to fly a kite in the middle of the woods, and children were immediately at ease in trying to make a leaf fly.
They eventually all got a good time, me too.
And, for you, dear kite flyers, no need to explain what it is to simply hold a kite line: enjoy what is around you, and relax.
-Christophe Tournay
Kite flyer bio
I have been actively flying kites since 15 years. I have started, like I guess the majority of us, with a two lines steerable kite and have continued for years with 2-line freestyle flying. I have in the same time also got hooked on to powerkiting, first buggying and more recently mountain boarding, not to forget to mention some Revolution flying.
But with the experience building up, or is it just the age (?), I evolved to single line kite flying and building: pure statics but mostly steerable single line. There is more poetry and mind relaxation in a gliding single liner, but a good power kiting thrill is always welcome.
If there is nothing to fly, I go landyachting.
I think I am simply wind addicted (I think I am not the sole one ;-)
Facts and figures: born and lives in Brussels, Belgium, currently aged 43.
Click here to download a zipped folder of pictures and instructions to build this kite.
You can see some pictures of Leafs that other kite builders have made here:
Christoph Tournay's Designs