Didak Beach keeps this swallow to the silhouette: swept wings, a deeply forked tail and nothing else but black sail, save for one red oval patch at the throat. A narrow silver-white streamer hangs under the body and turns in the wind. Spread out, the kite measures 55 by 90 cm.
It is a single-liner. So there is no steering it - you let it climb, give line and watch. That saves a good deal of explaining on the beach, because there is only one thing to do and that is to feel when to pay out more line.
A silhouette kite in the shape of a bird reads differently from the ground than a coloured diamond: up high it looks like a bird hanging still in the wind. The black holds that effect even against a grey sky, where bright colours go flat.
The Swallow sits in the Didak Beach bird range alongside the Redbird of 154 by 57 cm and the small Little Seagull of 50 by 18 cm, for anyone who wants a second one later on.
