Northwest Fighter
Kite Association
4107 N 32nd St.,
Tacoma, Wash. 98407, (253) 761-2248. Email: north32nd@
email.msn.com.
www.eskimo.com/~johnsen/nfka/index.html
Beverly Beach
State Park
US 101, seven
miles north of Newport; call (800) 452-5687 for info, (800)
452-5687 for reservations. Yurts are $28.62/night and sleep
five comfortably
in three beds. (www.prd.state.or.us)
What comes to mind when you hear the word manjha?
Some bright-eyed, spiky-haired, more-or-less pornographic
Japanese comic character? No, no, no--that's manGA.
Manjha is a mixture of ground glass and flour coating a
wet cotton string. What's the use of that? Pretty much just
one thing: shredding an opponent's string to frayed strands
in a friendly round of kite-fighting.
Truth be told, there are too many lawyers in America for
manjha to thrive here. But in India, where kite-fighting
is an organized sport, manjha is the norm. It's also the
cause for sliced fingers and throats; India's premier kite-fighting
event, held during the Uttarayan festival, sends about 40
people to the hospital a year.
Still, kite-fighting happens, right in our backyard. Just
ask the wacky gang from the Northwest Fighter Kite Association.
This Washington group holds regular kite-fighting meets,
generally on the third Saturday of each month. Their fighting
rules are markedly more genteel than the Subcontinent's
(often literally) cut-throat version: They try to "tag"
the enemy's line either from the top or from underneath.
That's not to say there isn't a healthy sense of passion
(if not bloodlust) displayed on the group's website. Most
of the players are hardcore enough to build their own fighters.
Even so, they're eager and forthcoming with info for newcomers
to the sport. Check them out.
For the rest of you, don't think you need an organized
group to turn a serene day of kite flying into no-holds-barred
carnage. Try heading out to Beverly Beach State Park, for
example. Rent a couple of yurts, bring a motley crew of
friends, and pack in enough tequila and firewood to keep
them toasty and happy. On the way over, stop by any store
with a toy department and buy two or three of those $1.79
plastic kite jobs per person, along with some extra spools
of string and maybe some gloves to ward against both stringburns
and cold. You are prepared for battle.
If you want some semblance of order, pit two people against
each other for each fight. Draw a line in the sand that
each person must avoid crossing. Have each person send their
kite up a good 200 feet or so, until they agree they are
ready to fight, and then have someone flip a coin. Heads,
the object is to tag the other's line from above; tails,
from below.
Personally, I avoid this method. It's not messy enough.
I prefer the free-for-all, deathmatch, string-severing variety
of kite-fighting.
This is where everyone with a kite ranges out along the
beach and gets their fighters airborne. Then you pick out
a victim, run at him, and try to cross strings. Only one
survives. Hopefully you. Madness inevitably ensues as those
with cut strings set about trying to retie and relaunch.
Meanwhile, warm and fuzzy grudges of pure hatred begin to
develop against those whose flyers dominate the sky.
For bonus fun, try taping a tail of five or more crêpe-paper
strands to your kite and demand a tail for bragging rights
from every kite you take down. When you're out of tails,
you're out of the game, tough guy.
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Death in the Air! 
