Blade Edge

Kite Flying

Drew’s favorite thing to do is tell people he’s going to the beach to fly his kite, and getting weird looks in return, because everyone thinks of some rinky-dink one-lined kite that kids fly at beaches. Not so, in his case. Since he was around 14 Drew’s been flying stunt kites, also known as sport kites. These 2 or 4 line kites can be controlled in the air, and perform tricks like loops, dives, hovers, spins and more. He enjoys flying Revolutions the most, as they can be controlled so precisely that Drew can literally fly his kite directly over people’s heads and dangle it there for them to touch or hold out their hand for a tip of it to land on. Little kids like trying to jump and grab it, while Drew plays cat-and-mouse, keeping it hovering just out of their reach and darting in to tap them when they miss.

Drew also participates in power kiting with his 3.5m power kite (roughly 11 feet long). This kite is smallish by power kiting standards (large would be considerd 9-12m), but generates enough power to easily drag him along the sand or high up into the air given enough wind. In addition to simple allowing himself to be pulled along (called skudding) he also has used a mountain board and a kite buggy, which is a trike in which your butt sits about 3 inches off the ground between two rear wheels while your feet rest to either side of the front wheel to steer as you control the kite with your hands and zip along at speeds exceeding 15mph. To date Drew has had no serious or even minor injuries as a result of power kiting, though many other less responsible people have been either killed or disabled in this sport.

Finally, Drew also has done a little bit of kite surfing – similar to the mountain board but on a surfboard instead. Due to the greater resistance of water, kite surfing kites can reach a massive 22m in size. So far Drew has only surfed for a few hours in Aruba, but he hopes to pick up this rather expensive side of kiting as a hobby sometime soon, as local waterways support it.

Cars, Bikes and Planes

Drew has owned both a Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 and a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6 prior to his current rides, which are a Nissan 350Z 6sp and a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. He never wanted a fast car or a bike while he was growing up, with his head stuck to a computer monitor. When he started driving however, first a Nissan Maxima hand-me-down and then a Chevy Cavalier coupe his parents bought him, his addiction to adrenaline soon began to take effect on his driving habits. While he no longer races random people or zig-zags between cars on the freeway, his need for speed is satisfied by taking his car to the drag strip, and winding out his bike on empty backroads. While he hesitates to post his fastest speeds for fear of law enforcement… ah, screw em. 140MPH in his car and 155MPH on his bike.

Ever since he starting playing Flight Simulator back before it was even owned by Microsoft (he still has the flight booklet for Flight Simulator II) Drew’s been interested in flying. He tried very hard during his teen years to convince his parents to fund his flying lessons, and until he was in middle school he wanted to be an airline/charter pilot (after vision impairment kicked out his idea of joining the Navy to fly F-14 Tomcats). he still hasn’t been able to afford flight lessons, and was up in a personal plane, a Cessna 152, only once – however he still yearns to learn how to fly in real life (he still plays Flight Simulator) and is hoping to nab a Recreational Pilots License.

Weapons, Games, and Other Past-times

Drew owns a Walther P99 9mm semi-automatic handgun, as well as a Walther P22 .22 semi-automatic handgun. In addition to owning two real firearms, he also has a CO2-powered pellet handgun. he also collects swords, and has 6 total of various kinds, including samurai, ninja and sabers. When hanging out with friends, playing board games like RISK is one of his favorite things to do. He enjoys to camp outdoors and rock climb indoors. His aunt and uncle used to own a motorboat, and he loves being out on the water. He’s also ridden jetskis and would like to learn how to sail. When winter comes around you can find him carving up the slopes on a set of skis or snowblades. He doesn’t take too well to jumps yet, but only because he hasn’t practiced much during the time he’s on the slope. He enjoys more getting from the top of the mountain to the bottom while going (no surprise) as fast a possible. Reading and writing are two of his oldest and most enjoyable past-times. He’s written dozens of short stories, always tries to write a novel but never gets very far, and has easily read over a thousand books – most of them Star Wars.