Tony Rice of Brisbane, Australia, has for years been able to live and thrive largely by giving kite workshops. Teaching all ages, he spreads joy wherever he goes. His secret is his outgoing nature.  An artist at the age of 16, he studied painting and pottery, and in that quirky but wonderful moment of life, he discovered kites. Read more in this 2005 article from the Drachen Foundation Kite Journal.

After dallying with kites for seven or eight years, I got seriously hooked in 1983 when I walked into Reza Ragheb’s Hi Fli Kites, a store in Aurora. Very shortly thereafter, I picked up a Saturday Evening Post and saw the shocking back-page photograph of Steve Edeiken being lifted by a huge kite on the Northwest Coast. Steve’s shocking death sent a wave through the kite world and gave us sobering insight into the power and danger of these behemoths. 

On July 7th, I made a presentation on “The Kite Flying Tradition in Nepal” followed by a kite making workshop and demonstration of flying Nepali fighter kites at The National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute: Literatures, Religions and Arts of the Himalayan Region at Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA. Professor Todd T. Lewis, Department of Religious Studies, Holy Cross College, was director of the Summer Institute. The participants were high school teachers from various states of the United States. 

Some Greek said that if an Ox drew a picture of God it would look like and Ox. Perceptive for 2,500 years ago, I thought, and also I thought that it’s time my writings became a bit less serious again. But then I thought, like hell they should, this having fun is a serious business. "I look through a glass darkly, etc." Ah, to know the future. What will be the standard kite surfing kite five years from now? The Big Question!

Mr. P. Poirier spoke of towing bicycles with the help of kites. Having had several experiences with this concept ourselves, we believe that making our results known will be useful to our readers. The idea to use kites for the traction of vehicles is not new. It is only necessary to refer to Mr. Lecornu’s book to find the story, sufficiently documented, of the first experiences of this type which took place in England (Pocock’s car in 1828), and then during Colonel (then Captain) Cody’s 1903 crossing of the English Channel in a canoe pulled by a cell kite.

Eden Maxwell made his name in the world of kiting with his 1989 book Kiteworks. Smoothly written and well illustrated, the volume, issued by Sterling Publishing of New York, covered the fascinating global spectrum of kiting. It sold well and remained in print for a decade.

Samoans and other island sailors of Polynesia used kites to propel their canoes throughout the vast Pacific. (Although I have it on good authority that using kites in this manner by Polynesian sailors is a fact, I haven’t seen the documentation. Grist for one’s own mill and, perhaps, another article.) Because he wrote about it (we’ll take him at his word), we do know that in the early 1700’s, a young Benjamin Franklin, while floating on his back, employed a kite to pull himself across a pond.

Samoans and other island sailors of Polynesia used kites to propel their canoes throughout the vast Pacific. (Although I have it on good authority that using kites in this manner by Polynesian sailors is a fact, I haven’t seen the documentation. Grist for one’s own mill and, perhaps, another article.) Because he wrote about it (we’ll take him at his word), we do know that in the early 1700’s, a young Benjamin Franklin, while floating on his back, employed a kite to pull himself across a pond.

Evaluating Kite Performance: When one acquires several kites, it is likely that one or two will be more favored and get the most flying time. While it is normal to have favorites, the reasons why this is so may not be easy to understand or express in words. The purpose of this article is to try to explain what makes some kites favored over others. There are three basic ways to evaluate a kite: by objective means, by subjective means, or both. First, the objective, or non-judgmental-seven methods in all.

Reading Istvan Bodoczky’s small, elegant volume titled Hidden Symmetry proves to me the value of individual expression in kite-making. Istvan explains in the preface that his recent works "have irregular asymmetric outlines" and that "I make line drawings first, and only later decide which lines will be ‘real'(painted) and which ones will be ‘only’ part of the physical structure."