CITY FOCUS:Top fliers to descend on city

Dave Shenkman doesn’t like to use the F-word — “festival,” that is.

The fifth-annual Huntington Beach Kite Party, scheduled for Feb. 24 and 25 on a roped-off section of the Huntington Beach pier, is a little less regimented than that word implies, said the event’s sponsor and founder.

The public can watch kiting at its best, he said.

“There’s no schedule, just some of the best kite fliers in the world converging on Huntington Beach,” said Shenkman, who owns Kite Connection on the pier. “Even if you’re a retailer or a manufacturer, you’re here as a kite flier.”

That unstructured “party” has grown into one of world’s premier kiting events since its debut in 2002, drawing kiting companies and enthusiasts from as far as England and Japan. In 2005, industry group the Kite Trade Assn. International voted it the country’s best kiting event. Last year, about 100 people participated.

Now, manufacturers debut equipment at the Kite Party, from multiline sport kites built for tricks to the single-line kites more friendly to amateurs — not that Shenkman discounts the latter.

“Last year, the big, big single-line stuff stole the show,” he said. “Some of them are 200 feet long.”

When he first asked on Internet kiting forums whether a few “close industry people” would like to get together, Shenkman didn’t expect the volume of public response — 50 people came that year.

Why do so many come from so far? Shenkman says the answer might be timing and climate.

“A lot of these people are from the East Coast and the Midwest where they’re in three feet of snow,” he said.

“Hanging out on the beach in shorts and a T-shirt is really appealing for them.”

Huntington Beach isn’t a world center for kiting, Shenkman said. He said the city and the venue are perfect for the event, but the local kiting community isn’t unusually large. Most of the kites he sells are online, though his store has been around for 20 years.

“Kites are a relatively small percentage of my store’s sales,” he said. “Colorful decorative spinners and garden flags are the majority.”