Since moving to Southern California, we have had the opportunity to link up with some old friends.  The Bay Area Sundowners are a kite team that we met first in Le Touquet, France.  This was the location of the 1994 Sport Kite World Championships and the Sundowners were taking part.  We (team Sky Dance) were there as spectators, since this was our first year of team flying, so to meet up with the best teams in the World was quite a treat.  The thing that struck us about the Sundowners was the kites that they fly.  These long stacks of colourful kites, with their 40 foot tails make an amazing spectacle to see.

Having met the Sundowners briefly in 1994, the next opportunity we got to meet up was in Dieppe, France.  Dieppe hosts one of the kite scenes largest festivals and is always worth a visit.  Shortly after Dieppe we made our way to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.  This was the location of the Malaysian Airlines World Sport Kite Grand Prix.  This time we not only got to meet the Sundowners again, but also were able to compete against them and more enjoyable still to fly with them in an 8 person team.  Flying eight stacks of 12

kites, with a 40 foot tail on each kite filled the sky and provided us with one of the most amazing moments of our kite flying lives.

Having experienced this once we always hoped that we would once again get the opportunity to fly with the team.  Moving to California provided us with this opportunity and in October 2000, we