History: Turtle
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Turtle
The opposite of a fade, turtle is one of the stalled positions that a kite can be held in. A turtle is when the kite is belly up, nose away, with the lines coming over the trailing edge.
To get the kite into this position, be flying nose up with your hands far back. Push your arms forwards as quickly as possible and the kite will fall onto its back. You may need to step forward too. There must be pressure from the wind on the sail for a turtle to work: at the edge of the window or in very low wind it can become difficult to make the nose fall backwards.
To make it easier, give both lines a very quick pop before throwing them forward: this will give a deeper turtle. (If a turtle is described as "deep", it means that the nose is low and the belly pointing away from the flyer rather than straight up). To begin with it can be odd trying to pop the lines while your hands are already so far back, but once mastered you will rarely turtle without popping.
Some kites (especially French kites) are very stable in the turtle position, while others will want to rise back into normal flight position. Many tricks are initiated from the turtle position, such as the lazy susan, crazy copter, French flic-flak? and two-pop yoyo?.