MATERIALS: Half-inch Schedule 40, 315 PSI, PVC pipe is bought in 10-pacs of 10-foot pipes and cut to 30” lengths. 30” yields 4 pieces per 10-foot length. It is cheaper than cutting three 40” pieces, and 30” is easier to carry, transport and store.

Rebar: #3 rebar because I got tired of lugging #4. Cut to 24". Chamfer both ends. Wire brush and paint with White Rust-Oleum paint. When the White paint dries, paint again using Fluorescent Orange Rust-Oleum paint. The white paint underneath makes the bright orange really show up, and this helps prevent loss and personal injury.

String: The traditional Kite Competition field is 350 feet on a side. That is a 1,400 foot perimeter. Memphis Net & Twine sells Braided Nylon Seine Twine on 1-pound put-ups. Their 1-pound of #15 Braided Nylon has a 120-pound breaking strength and is 1,440 feet long. That has been my string of choice for kite fields.

Flagging: Keep in mind that there is no money in making kite fields. Fields are a necessary evil at kite events. Hence, the few people who ‘do’ fields tend to use whatever they have on the shelf. Kite material is twice as expensive as flag cloth. Flag cloth became the material of choice for flags, go figure.

The flags are isosceles triangles 6” wide at the base and 9” in height. A flag is sewn every 5 feet of perimeter string. A rebar/PVC post is used every 25 feet, so every 25-foot mark has a flag of a different but uniform color. My 25-foot flags are blue. My 100-foot flags are black. The short side of the flag is 6" because the fabric is 60" wide. That yields 19 flags from a quarter of a yard. 20 flags if the two leftover halves are sewn together.

The ‘standard’ LBI kite field is 300 x 125. At 68th street that is what will fit. Fencers think in terms of Posts and Lines. There is a post every 25 feet. 850 feet perimeter. 850/25 = 34. 34 posts are needed. That is 34 pieces of #3 Rebar, and 34 pieces of Half-inch Schedule 40, 320 PSI, PVC pipe cut to 30” lengths. A 10-pac of 10-foot PVC pipe yields 40 pieces.

Top Line: The Top Line is also the Layout Line. Memphis Net & Twine sells Braided Nylon Seine Twine on 1-pound put-ups. Their 1-pound of #15 Braided Nylon has a 120-pound breaking strength and is 1,440 feet long. That has been my string of choice for kite fields. Triangle Flags are sewn on to the line every 5 feet with a different color flag every 25 feet where the posts go. A third color is used every 100 feet to help keep track of things.

Flags: The best material for the flags is 200 D Oxford Nylon Flag Cloth. The flags are isosceles triangle 6” at the base and 9” in height. 170 flags are needed for a 300 x 125 field. Memphis Net & Twine Braided Nylon seine twine is very forgiving to sew, but machine tension is critical.

TMI: Fields are usually made in legs, each side being a leg. My colors, the colors associated with me, are red & yellow. So my 'fill' flags, every 5 feet, are red and yellow. A post goes every 25 feet. A 300-foot leg is twelve 25-foot sections. 24 red flags, 24 yellow flags, 9 blue flags (every 25 feet) and 4 black flags, every 100 feet plus the start end. The black flag on each end is embroidered with the length of the leg. 61 flags for a 300-foot leg.

PROCEDURE: The basic method of erecting a field, once it is determined where it should be, is to drive the first rebar and start walking towards the next corner while paying out string. When the corner flags come up on the winder, stretch the Flag Line straight, and drive in the rebar for that corner. The Flag Line should not be taut, just straight. Sight the line, eyeball a 90-degree corner, pick a pair of landmarks to stay on course, wrap the string around the rebar, and head that way until the next corner. Stretch the string straight and drive in the rebar. The next corner, Corner 3, will be a 'soft' corner. Sight the line, pick the landmarks, and head that way until the corner. This time just tie a Lark's Head to the rebar and lay it on the ground. Head to the first (last?) corner. In a perfect world, your calibrated eyeball delivered you to this corner just after you ran out of Flag Line. Put the End Loop of the Flag Line over the rebar, and head back to the third corner. Now stretch the last two 'sides' of line to straighten the string and establish the corner. The string should not be too tight. It is okay to 'cheat' the corner. 

Once the perimeter is established, the field posts can be put in. Every 25 feet, every blue or black flag gets a rebar and a PVC pipe. Once the posts are in, the field can be strung. Just a simple single wrap around each PVC will get it done. Nylon stretches when wet. The wrap allows the Flag Line to self-adjust by twisting the PVC as it changes moisture content and length.

In practice, there is usually a person that does the Flag Line, followed by a person doing rebar and another person placing PVC. The Rebar and PVC people can start working as soon as the first edge of the field is established. In a perfect world, there is yet another person standing at or near Corner 3 with a Rebar and a Pounder who can hold the corner while the Top Line/Flag Line person pays out the last edge. Then the Corner 3 person can stretch, straighten, and drive the rebar.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION: An important part of erecting fields at LBI is to establish the entire footprint of the festival as quickly as possible. The position of the tents is dependent on the position of fields, which are dependent on the position of the tents. Each field is on an independent winder, wound up Short End first, which leaves the Long Side the last on the winder, the first to come off. The north tent(s) are established, the field is unwound, one 300-length of flagged line. The cue to stop is the Double Flag, one at the end of the 300-length, and one at the end/beginning of the 125-width. Drop the Flag Line Winder, the bag of Rebar and the bag of PVC poles. Pace off 25 feet for an alley between the fields. Pound in the first stake for the next field and do it all over again.

Where the Chamber Tent goes, mark the Tent footprint with Surveyor Flags. Pace off an alley, do the next field. At the far end of the last field, as soon as the rebar for the end of the edge, Corner 2, is driven, the person with the Flag Line wraps the line around the rebar, sights a 90 angle to/from the established line, and heads towards the water paying out the Flag Line. Two people, one doing rebar and one doing PVC, can now do the posts every 25 feet along the first (dune side) line. When the Flag Line person gets to the south water corner, the third corner, they drive a rebar, hook the line, sight the next corner and head that way paying out line. They try to lean towards the water with that line. When they get to the north end, water side, fourth corner, they tie a 'quick release' knot on a rebar, drop the rebar, and head towards the first corner. In a perfect world they run out of flag line before they get to the corner and get to drag the third corner rebar that is behind them into its proper position. They place the end of the Flag Line over the first corner rebar if the Post People aren’t there yet, and heads back to the dropped rebar to tension the line(s) for straightness and drives in the rebar. As soon as that is done, the Post People can finish the field. The Flag Line person moves on to the next field to repeat the process.

Tools of the trade: Winder, on which to store the flagged string. Individual bags to store the Winder, the PVC and the Rebar. Pounder for driving rebar in place. Extraction Device for the rebar when it is in wet earth, frozen ground, or freezes in place on a frozen lake. 

TAKE-DOWN: Once all the field(s) are up, any extra remaining rebar or PVC is removed from the bags. The Rebar Bag and the PVC Bag are put into the Winder Bag along with the Winder and Spindle Pipe. This way, a single bag contains everything needed to take down the field.

It is generally more reliable for a single person to have custody of the bags. In a perfect world, each Field would have a Captain or a Monitor who would keep custody and then just employ it when needed. But kiters already have too many things to keep track of. It works best if one of the people using the field comes and retrieves the Bag(s) for that field. It is also possible to distribute the Bags an hour or so before take-down.

A person retrieves the bag for their field. When they return to their field, they open the Winder Bag to remove the Rebar and PVC bags. They hand each of those to another person. They remove the Winder and Spindle from the bag and proceed to wind up the Top Line almost as fast as they can walk. They are followed  by a person removing the PVC and sliding it into its bag. That person is followed by someone pulling the rebar and putting it in its bag.

Three people working this way can strike a field in about 15 minutes. A three-person crew working on each field simultaneously could strike the fields for an entire festival in that time.