Mighty Wind

All Sean Beaver wanted to do was go ripping across the water at high speeds, being pulled by nothing more than the magical union of kite and wind. But at the first-ever Spring Kite and Kite Surfing Festival at Clinton Lake, he encountered some concerned state employees.

Kite surfing -- a combination of power kite flying, windsurfing, paragliding and wakeboarding -- was the main spectacle at the festival nearly two weeks ago. But because sailboat owners must register for licenses, lake staffers asked event organizer Beaver whether he was licensed to hit the water with inverted spins, mule kicks and tail grabs behind a giant inflatable kite.

"They started asking me questions, but I fired questions right back," Beaver says. "'Is the state going to start regulating kites? If not, then what? The boards? Then what about those boats over there?' They just walked away sort of confused."

With a sport that's no more than five years old, enthusiasts can get away with a lot. Kite surfers regularly catch wind for the length of a football field, and many of their kites are the size of a school bus. But some areas are beginning to enforce regulations. In Hawaii, collisions with ocean fishermen were common when the craze took hold. Now, Hawaiian kite surfers have to wait until 11 a.m. to set sail.

But here in the land of lakes, kite-surfing faithfuls rule Bloomington State Park's beach area nearly every weekend at Clinton Lake, where they hook into safety harnesses and grip handles connected to giant kites by 30 meters of line.

"If you're thinking of kite string from your little Delta when you were a kid, you've got it all wrong," Beaver says. This stuff doesn't tend to break, and surfers can wind up tangled in lines, stranded in the middle of a lake with deflated kites or flattened against rocky inclines.

But Beaver says kite surfing is more than the wild antics people might have seen on TV. "Sometimes I just go from one end of the lake to the another. It's very peaceful," he says. That blissful ease is hard-earned, though. Newcomers taking lessons from the Kansas City Kite Club first learn to control kites with an aptly named training process called "body dragging." The next step is standing up and making that kite your bee-otch.

"You have to be able to stand on the board. There's nothing we can do to help with that," Beaver says. Those who do have a knack for the sport will encounter another obstacle, though. Saddling up with all the equipment at Wind Wizards in Lenexa can cost up to $1,500. Luckily, novices can train on the Kite Club's equipment for a much lower fee.

Money matters aren't slowing down the sport's growth, though. Beaver says about 3,000 people blew through the recent festival, and he's been approached about organizing another one later this summer.

In the meantime, kite surfers can hit the water anywhere they please. But beware; kite surfing within five miles of an international airport is subject to Federal Aviation Administration Regulation 101.7: "People may not fly kites in a manner that is hazardous to persons or property."