I've traveled over 75,000 miles so far this year. Visited 7 countries. And where do I find the best flying? At the festival right down the street. This was the 26th Lincoln City Summer Kite Festival and conditions were perfect. Winds came straight off the water; tide was out so beaches were wide; the river itself flowed direct to the ocean rather than across the field; and the sun beamed all weekend. It was a 9 out of 10 on the festival scale.

Each year Lincoln City adopts a theme based on an alphabet letter. You may remember the Octopus from two years ago. So that makes 2010 a "Q" year. Quads -- and more specifically, Quadzilla was a natural. The quad part was easy. And as it turned out, so was the "zilla" part.... Dale Ray, part of Team Gomberg, brought his stunning Dragon kite to the beach. It was anchored from above with a brand-new custom Airform by Rod and Cindy Thrall. Enlarge the photo and check out the detailing. The Dragon was anchored over the Rev field all weekend and fliers danced in and out of the eerie shadows.

A trio of huge 450 Suttons dominated the large kite field. From a mile down Highway 101, they were visible and drawing huge attention to the beach. Use a 450 Sutton as a pilot and nothing below is going to wander! So we unpacked a dozen Octopus and slid them up the lines. It wasn't a record like two years ago. But it was one heck of a show. Thanks to Dale, Phil & Barbara Burke, Russ & Diana Little, Barry Tislow, Ed Paulsen, Joyce Grinder, and the Thralls for making a great show.

Earlier there had been talk of going for a Revolution mass ascension record. That was not to be. But 35 kites in the sky is plenty of fun and the demonstrations, anchored by IQuad and Island Quad did a fine job. Gary MacEachern brought his one-man-team to the demo arena, flying pairs of Gulls and then three stacks of 16 custom kites to claim a new world record. Other stand-out performers included Penny Lingenfelter, Amy Doran, Lam Hoac, Spencer Watson, David Bradley, and Al Washington.

The star of the weekend was certainly America's Got Talent phenomenon Connor Doran. (See last week for Video links.) As of Sunday night, his six YouTube editions had garnered over 1.2 million hits. That's an amazing adventure for a 17 year old kid -- and great exposure for kiting. Here's Conner posing with three local pageant winners who came to the beach to help with kids' kitemaking. Right after this, we got all three women to do a running of the bols. Make up ran and tiaras were askew.

In the art imitates life category, the Quadzilla show on the beach closely mirrored the event poster. The same poster -- and likely the same kites - wull be featured at the Fall Festival here October 9-10

Sunday, we left the Octopus in their bags and brought out four big Bears. As long as there are more kites, why not give the crowd some variety! And then, perfectly on cue, the winds dropped off late in th e afternoon and everything settled to the ground to be packed away and lugged off the sand.

Susie and I fly out tomorrow for a show on the beaches of Baja California. We'll be reporting on the Cabo Wabo gathering next week. Then i plan a few well-deserved weeks at home.

Spinning Sock Sale The unique Spinning Sock from GKPI is a hit. Check out the colorful diamond pattern and the cool spikes! And now we have new sizes! We're putting our most popular sizes on sale through July 10. Order and mention the Update for a 20% savings. We have a 1 by 6 foot model for $45 - now $36. We have a 2 by 12 foot model for $70 - now $58. We have a 3 by 18 foot model for $160 - now $128.

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