Here's a picture Philip sent me of his BP promo kite:
The kite in question has a bit of history, as it won prizes! I'll hand over to Philip to tell the story:
I guesstimate that it was about 1976/7 when we holidayed in a B&B in Kingsbridge near Bantham and went to Bantham beach daily. The kite came with us, I think I had bought it about a year or so before.
The lifeguards and locals organised event days for the kids / families such as sand castle building competitions, bucket and spade races - all sorts including kite flying, which was in 4 age groups, 3 for children and 1 for adults.
I had flown the kite quite a bit and did a lot of manoeuvres but my specialist move was skimming the sands without crashing, they used to put straws in the sand that we had to ‘clip’. Distance judgement being more difficult than height! Also there was a duration competition and I think I managed the longest at something like 1.5 hours. Bantham had some really amazing winds which were also great for surfing and the odd beach sand yacht. I can’t remember what the prize was, possibly a bucket and spade or stick of rock!
I did go on to own other kites but after divorcing my wife other things took priority. All I have now is a pocket kite that my son bought me 10 years ago to keep in the boot - just in case!
The story of this kite has a further twist ... quite possibly you already saw it coming, but following donations to two of Philip's preferred charities, the kite is now in my possession. It needs a bit of TLC: the tail part of the sail had been repaired and strengthened with silver duct tape a long time ago, and this tape is now losing its adhesive properties. But nothing that some fresh tape can't deal with; watch this space for the BP kite to fly again!
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