Category: kiting

Shooting Glasses… or Kiting Glasses?

My girlfriend and I are currently in Beijing, recovering from a rough hangover and preparing for a loooooong train ride down to Hong Kong tomorrow.  Life is pretty fun right now, but I’ve got my sights set a couple of months down the line to the beginning of March.

Bangkok.

International Kite Festival. 

Booyah.

Kiting has always been pretty big in Mongolia (the home country of my girlfriend, and my home from home) with its clear blue skies and brisk summer winds.  We’re both big fans, but the International Kite Festival in Thailand is the mother of all events.  Half a million spectators show up each year to watch the contest, and the skies above Bangkok’s parks are full to bursting with kites for weeks around the event.

Now, if you’re a fan of kiting you’ll know that one of the biggest challenges is avoiding the glare of the sun.  You need eagle eyes to keep control of your kite, and one false move can bring it crashing to the ground.  

While we’re in Beijing, then, I’m battling the hangover to go and pick up a pair of Allen Company shooting glasses.  Talk to any kiter and he’ll tell you that you just can’t beat a pair of Rugers with their four sets of interchangeable lenses.  The Thai weather is unpredictable, so you can’t just buy any old pair of polarized shooting glasses and hope for the best.  You need to prepare for any conditions, so a pair of Rugers would be ideal. 

Rugers come with lenses to suit any conditions.  The basic yellow lenses are great for overcast conditions (pretty standard in Bangkok), but if the sun is shining you can change the yellows out for black or red, and if you don’t want any tint at all you can switch to the clears. 

If you happen to be in Bangkok at the beginning of March you can pop over to the park on the west side of the Rama IX bridge (can’t remember the name right now) and check out my maaaaad kiting skills while wearing the best shooting glasses on the planet.