<p>Ray Bethell holds 11 world's records for flying multiple kites. Here at his 29th Kite Festival he deftly flies three Kestrel kites. Note the red handles on his right leg. The 83-year-old Bethell uses them to control one of the kites. He set the endurance record for keeping three kites in the air for 12 hours and 12 minutes. He will fly multiple kites throughout the week in Long Beach.</p>

LONG BEACH Ray Bethell, 86, is probably most famous for riding in the back of a bright red convertible down Main Street in Long Beach while flying three kites at the same time in 2003. Now a decade later the World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame is featuring the world-record holding kite flyer Bethell in its latest exhibit that opens next week, Aug. 14, at the museum at 303 Sid Snyder Drive.

Bethell, who has been to a whopping 31 kite festivals, will be featured on Evening Magazine on King5 News Aug. 15. Bethell has 11 world records to his credit, seven of them he accomplished while at the kite festival in Long Beach over the years. Most of his records are for flying multiple kites at the same time, a rare feat of dexterity, requiring he know how his kites handle and skill in reading the wind currents.

The exhibit will be presented in a chronological order of Bethells personal kite flying development. He started sport kite flying in 1980 in Vancouver, B.C. and flew with a team called The Vancouver High Flyers. Bethell began flying two kites in 1984 and by 1990 he competed by flying three kites in Napier, New Zealand. His accomplishments blossomed exponentially from that point on.

The exhibit will include his major changes, awards, the actual kites that he flew and commentary. Videos of his flying exploits will be running regularly throughout the exhibit. A display of his hobby of kite-making handiwork with wood, graphite, metal and other materials such as bones will be on exhibit. The World Kite Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and there is a modest fee.

Im into my fourth decade of visiting Long Beach for the World Kite Festival and I have loved them all, Bethell said as he deftly maneuvered a stunt kite just yards from the Pacific Ocean at the 2012 event. The ageless Bethell has been invited to be a featured flyer at more than 20 different international kite festivals worldwide during his career that began in 1980, one year before the Washington State International Kite Festival (WSIKF) got off the ground.

Bethell is famous as the worlds premier multiple kite flyer. In 2003 at the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach, he flew a world record 39 kites simultaneously and he holds 11 other multiple-kite flying world records. Wearing sandals and shirtless he took over half-dozen kites through a complex, yet graceful ballet in the sky, while steadily pedaling backwards toward the sea as one of the absolute highlights of last years festival.

He has received perfect 10 and perfect 100 scores in international competition and is the only person to have achieved either of those scores in those events even as he approached the age of 80. The jovial, yet intense Bethell says, I am three days younger than Santa Claus and hes three days older than I. He calls everyone Mate and when he shakes hands, he clasps yours in his powerful fist and finishes with a happy thumbs up gesture.

I try to do things with my kites that have never been done before in front of an audience, Bethell relates. At a festival in United Kingdom in 1996 he flew his three kites while standing on the footrests of a moving motorcycle. He often flies his kites blindfolded. It is more juggling then flying, but the spectators love it.

In 2005, he made a multiple kite flying video called Good Stuff. His clip won best short film in the New York City Tribeca Film Festival that year. At age 67 he flew his three kites for 12 hours and 12 minutes, for yet another world record, this one for longevity. When asked how he went to the bathroom during the record-breaking effort, Bethell laughs, Just like everyone else. Im no different.

Ray Bethell may not be different, but he is very much a special person when you tell him to Go fly a kite. That is like telling Michelangelo to paint your ceiling or Mozart to make some noise. For more information on Bethell, on how to fly multiple kites and a plethora of other good stuff go to his website www.raybethell.com.

Better yet, come see his exhibit at the World Kite Museum beginning Aug. 14. The Kite Festival itself is Aug. 19 to Aug. 25.