15th Oostduinekerk Wet & Windy

This was due to be an extra special Oost being the 15th running of this friendly festival.

For many of those coming over from UK last minute cancellation of some of the Sea France ferries meant some changes of plan. Some of us got over early Friday and had a day out in Brugge, hooray! Others got over even earlier Friday morning and slept in the first motorway pull-off after Calais!

Needless to say Friday evening saw the usual gathering of old friends in Rubens cafe and bar.

Saturday morning arrived with a gusty cross shore wind. Would it be standards or vented kites. By the end of the day it was super-vented kites but the gusts were completely unpredictably. At one stage in the afternoon we measured a wind gently fluctuating between 15 and 19mph for several minutes it then held steady for another minute or so at 24 to 27mph when all of a sudden a gust of 35mph came through, not easy.

Crosslines and Wind Magic were there to represent dual line flying and Tony (TC) Cartright was the in the Rokkaku as usual. We put on several demos in these testing conditions. Little did we know that conditions were to be even more "interesting" on Sunday.

Saturday night the wind had dropped off a little. The local fire brigade turned up to supervise the biggest Firework display we have seen at an Oost festival, for those who know it almost ranked with a Dog and Bell display. Nest flew an Indian fighter kite thought and over the pyrothechnic display, it kept flying but at the end it had six holes in it. The evening predictably ended in Rubens with more beer and rubens coffee.

Sunday morning was not pleasant. Mark went out for a run but quickly turned back. The wind was strong. Running into the wind trough the dunes meant eyes and mouth full of sand whipped up by the wind. Even more painful was the sandblasting of the legs as you ran with the wind down the beach.

During breakfast it also started to pour with rain. The day did not look promising. It was not just the kite flyers who were pessimistic of the days future. The fishermen who cook the very delicous flat fish lunch had decided to cancel as the thought there would not be sufficient people about. Also a marquee had had been ordered for the evening flyers reception but the contractors said it would not be safe in these high winds. Crosslines retired to the hotel to sort out non flying activities. Wind Magic were about the only people on the beach. They had multiple nappies and wind brakes.

Some of Crosslines were due back in UK some stayed till Monday. When we got to Calais Sunday afternoon it was still blowing 7 to 8 (Beaufort) but had apparently been Storm force 10 for a period in the morning!

Thanks to Nest and his team for organising everything. Good Luck for the next 15 years! (May 2000)

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