SurfWriter Girls: Summer Kite Dreams!

Flying High at Up, Up & Away Kites

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to the following copyrighted material. For permission to reprint or excerpt it and/or link it to another website, contact them at

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When the wind kicks up during the last days of summer there’s nothing more fun than flying a kite at the beach.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel know just where to go to find the best kites ever. From traditional, diamond-shape and box kites…

to fanciful fish and even dragon kites...

the Up, Up & Away Kites shop in Seal Beach has the perfect kite for you.

Located on 139 Main Street, just steps from the Seal Beach Pier, Up, Up & Away Kites has every kind of kite you can imagine…and more.

“We’ve got kites, flags, toys, all the wind stuff…spinners and wind sox,” owner Jason Natanson exclaims, pointing out the shop’s vast inventory.

You’ll find kites for kids and kites for the kid in you – fun, easy, starter kites, advanced, “stunt” kites for competitive flyers and all types of kites in between.

SurfWriter Girls couldn’t believe all the different types of kites to choose from. There are Japanese fighting kites, trick kites, and figure kites – from pirate ships to sharks – in an array of shapes and sizes.

And, to make sure the kites really do fly, the shop tests them first, says co-owner Melissa Natanson.

“We test every different kind of kite and know which ones fly in which weather and are best for what age group. If a kite doesn’t fly we send it back.”

Jason, who’s learned how to fly all the fancy kites and do tricks with them, can often be spotted on the beach testing a kite or giving a kite lesson.

He’s learned so much about kites since he and wife Melissa bought Up, Up & Away Kites in August 2012 that he’s on the committee helping the Pasadena Museum of History to plan its Kites, Wings & Other Flying Things exhibit scheduled for November 2013 thru April 2014.

To see the Natansons surrounded by all the colorful kites, flags and toys, helping customers, and trying to find room for even more merchandise on the jam-packed shelves or hanging from the ceiling, it’s hard to picture them doing anything else.

But, running the kite shop wasn’t something they planned.

Melissa was a news anchor for NBC-TV in Bakersfield when she decided she was ready for a change from pushing past CSI crime scene tape and covering murder stories.

Plus she wanted to be closer to Southern California. So, when she spotted a “Help Wanted” sign in the window of Up, Up & Away Kites five years ago, she went inside and got the job. Later the owners offered to sell her the shop and Melissa, with Jason on board as her partner, said “Yes.”

For Jason, who majored in business at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) and worked in marketing, taking over Up, Up & Away Kites was just the right opportunity.

“Jason always wanted to have his own business,” Melissa told SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti. “Now he’s the Commander of the Kite Room. He flies, fixes, and teaches people to fly kites.”

Melissa has put her reporter’s memory and international relations degree from UNC to good use at the kite shop, too. Jason states proudly, “There are 1,500 flags and she’s memorized all of them.” When it comes to knowing the shop’s inventory, “she’s like an encyclopedia.”

Together the Natansons are the ideal ambassadors for kite flying and eager to get people engaged in this activity that originated almost 3,000 years ago in China when silk fabrics stretched across bamboo frames were sent soaring into the skies.

In addition to giving advice and helping customers to pick out kites, they give free kite lessons on weekends and are involved with the Up, Up & Away Kite Club and the annual Japan America Kite Festival, which will be held in Seal Beach on October 20, 2013. This is truly an event to see since it is the largest kite festival in Southern California.