megram - Index

megram - 55JulOttawa - Index

TRYING TO SURVIVE
TO A RIPE OLD AGE
WITHOUT LOSING
MY MARBLES,
OR ANY OTHER
PART OF ME.
Eric Brackenbury from
www.therecycledteenager.blogspot.com
Eric Brackenbury shows off his hallow-core cedar-strip kitesurfing board with
all the pride of a teenager on the cusp of a great adventure. He tells its story
with ease, as if painting a picture with words; his voice rising and subsiding
like the ebbs and flows of the wind.
“I never wanted to live a boring life,” he admits, ready to deploy his characteristic
British wit.
Life’s possibilities astound and challenge Eric.The beauty of an idea.The adrenaline
it produces. The logic and perhaps even fear it requires as it grows and
expands.
“If you can combine fear and logic, you will survive,” is his personal credo.
One of Ottawa’s earliest kiter’s, Eric has kiteskied and kite snowboarded, kitebuggied,
kitesurfed and kitecatamaraned.
A 62-year-old “senior”, he has been clocked going 83.5 kilometres an hour tethered
to a kite, being literally blown across the frozen Lake Dore, near Eganville.
“He’ll go larger and harder than anyone out there,” says industrial designer
and fellow kiter, Myles Hammond, 32.“He’s out there in most conditions, even if
it’s -35ºC on glare ice.”
Regardless of the season, when the wind is up and his work is on track, Eric
tethers himself to a kite and sits in a buggy or catamaran, straps himself to skis or a
snowboard, puts on skates, or hops atop a surfboard — giving himself over to science,
nature, preparation and ample protective padding.
Eric explains,“I first tried it (kiting) on ice with a 10-foot-wide, early two-line
traction kite, wearing skates. From then on, I was hooked. After cutting my
kite lines the first time by accidentally skating over them, I decided to
switch over to skis and I haven’t looked back.”
That was a mere 15 years ago.Today he has nearly 20 years of kiting
experience.
“For me it all started with a three-wheeled stainless steel buggy,
which I would sail on the local soccer fields, and at the beach, and at
Sandbanks Provincial Park,” he recalls.
Over the years he has learned, and then taught others, that you have to not
only be able to hold onto the kite,but you also have to be able to get it off the ground.
As far as the wind is concerned, on the water at least, the challenges are not
much different than sailing with a boat.The usual standard is: the lighter the wind,
the bigger the kite.
These days, Eric uses a ram air foil kite. It is a twin-skin kite with an aircraft
wing profile. Most kiter’s use a single-skin, pump-up or inflatable kite.
The unofficial Ottawa Kiting Club, a loose-knit group made up primarily of
engineers, meets weekly in Britannia on Lac Deschenes, at the beach in Alymer, or
anywhere open and free of obstructions. From December through March they
gather, weather permitting, on Saturday afternoons at Britannia.
Eric has a wealth of experience building traction kites, from one to 10-squaremetres
in size, in his basement kite room. Outfitted with an eight-foot cutting table
and a top-of-the-line Bernina sewing machine — a power tool of sorts — the room
is a kiter’s dream.
Myles credits Eric with teaching him how to sew.It’s a basic kiting skill,and one
that he says Eric shared without reservation.
“I’d always been a water person and I’d heard about this emerging sport,”
recounts Myles.“I decided I couldn’t afford to buy a kite so I was going to make my
own. Halfway through, something was not right. I met Eric on a discussion board
and he taught me how to sew. I’ve now sewn thousands of hours on a machine,
thanks to Eric.”
Eric has designed, built and installed kites for the National Arts Centre, the
July/August 2008 • 11 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine