come with the wind: A power kiter gets carried away (Reuters); expert Josef Wirsching (top)

Josef Wirsching looks like he?s taking an open-air geography lesson at the Parade Ground in Bangalore. He notes the birds have to flap their wings to fly. Branches are not swaying. There?s a stillness in the air.

?No wind,? concludes Wirsching with a shrug and starts rolling up a three-metre-long parachute-like contraption he?s brought with him. ?Power kiting needs wind speeds of eight knots and above,? he adds.

Say the word ?kite?, and it conjures up images of bright pieces of paper flying lazily in the air ? wind speed, direction and dynamics no bar. But power kiting is a different ball game. It needs skill, technique, strength and understanding of wind behaviour. ?We?re talking about a three-metre long kite which can pull up to 164 kilos off the ground if the wind is good,? says Wirsching.

Power kiting is hugely popular in the US, Germany and the Dominican Republic. But in India, the sport is still to make a mark. Wirsching thinks that is a shame. ?Kite-flying has been India?s favourite sport since the days of the rajahs and maharajahs. It?s high time we upgraded to power kiting too,? he says.

Wirsching plans to do just that. ?My agenda is to promote the sport in India,? says the lanky, pony-tailed power-kiting enthusiast, originally from Coimbatore. For starters, he will be flying his power kite on January 14 next year ? that?s Makar Shankranti day ? at Bangalore?s Parade Ground, where the city?s kite lovers converge to celebrate the season?s kite-flying festival. ?It?s the right occasion to gain visibility,? he says.

His love affair with the wind began two years in a backwater town in Kerala. At that time, he was working as a sales executive with a private firm in Coimbatore and was completely down and out in life and his job. ?I was 97 kilos then ? fat, fatigued and fed up with life,? he says. Life had hit rock bottom, so he decided to take a break. He visited his friend in Cannanore, who ran a small-time business of producing and exporting power kites to Germany.

Wirsching gave power kiting a shot and it changed his life. His spirit lifted each time he sent a kite soaring in the sky. ?I was hooked to the sport. It filled me with energy and changed my tired attitude to life,? he says. So he quit his job and moved to Bangalore. ?Bangalore is always open to new ideas. So I decided to start promoting the sport from here,? he says.

Wirsching is now on the lookout for a corporate sponsor to fund a cross-country power kiting yatra. His vision is to make India a top power kiting destination. ?Wind conditions in India are perfect for power kiting,? he says.

A power kite is made of parachute material and comes in three sizes ? of three, six and eight metres. It looks like an inflated, elongated pillow in its full-blown version. The triangular vents on one side allow the wind to enter the kite, give it power and lift it in the air.

Two strings ? fixed on to an aluminium rod and made of the super-strong, fire-retardant kevlar rope-making material ? manoeuvre the three-metre kite. The six-metre and eight-metre kites are operated by four strings each. A three-metre kite can cost up to Rs 6,000.

The sport is not for the weak-hearted. It needs agility and alertness to handle, says Wirsching. The uninitiated can get swept off their feet if the kite decides to take off on a wind crest, he warns.

Wirsching is not going to let anyone take such chances. He has developed a one-hour crash course for those who want to learn the sport from him. ?The course includes everything from how to fly a kite, maintain it, repair it, patch holes, fix valves ? right upto to understanding wind patterns,? says Wirsching.

Power kiting, he claims, is just what the doctor ordered for the high-strung, stressed-out youth of today. He also calls power kiting a sport with a live and beating heart. ?You are not lifting dead weights. A kite is a live object. Power kiting releases the spirit,? he says.