Nathan Sendan got the idea that if we made Rokkakus for everyone to fly we would be able to have a grand rok battle at the Berkeley Kite Festival. In the past people have been reluctant to participate due to the fact that cut away kites sometimes land in the water. No one loves a Rok battle more than me, so i was enlisted to help.

Most of the credit here goes to Nathan, but i learned a lot about production kite making in the process. Nathan designed the "Hapi Coat" patern for simplicity, two templates, four panels. (Later he got fancy with the last few ;) We cut the sails in stacks with a utility knife. Kathy (Nathan's Wife) taped all the panel edges. We simply peeled of the second side of the tape, laid the other half in place and zig-zagged right over the tape (Nathan buys the expensive tape to make this possible, test yours first, most will gum up needles and make you VERY frustrated). Once the four panels were together, we added spar reinforcement stips horizontally accross the kite (1" strips, cheap tape down the middle to hold in place, zig zag down each side avoiding the tape), and edge bound each kite. From there it was simple, six pockets bridle and frame and we were fit to fight. In the end we made 18, i made 6 and Nathan made 12. Kathy had a hand in all 18 doing all the taping and cutting of edge binding, bridle line etc.

The Rok battles were great, everyone had a blast. Especially Monty, our champion who walked away with the Rainbow panelled rok as Grand Prize. We lost two to the bay but we wouldn't mind making more. Since Berkeley the Roks have become a travelling attraction, the shot you see is from the Mix96 festival in Sacramento. Contact Nathan if you are interested in having a Rok battle at your event.

 

 

 

see more homemade kites

return to Arnold's Homepage