Celebrity Kiters 2019

Paul has been building and flying kites over the past 20 years. His handcrafted kites have received awards at the Smithsonian Kite Festival and the American Kitefliers Association nationals.

Lance Kryger lives in Delta British Columbia and has been a professional mechanic for over 28 years.

This group formed with hand-picked pilots from around the USA with the unified goal of pushing our skills to their limits and beyond with a broad focus on nearly all types of kiting in almost any possible condition or environment.

Luca Piattoni is a kitemaker from Rimini, Italy. He began flying kites at the age of 5 years.

Masters of Fine Arts and Colombian kite flyers, Marco Aponte and Sayde Brugès create a perfect team that eventually took the name MAXIMUS KITE acrobatic family team.

The Kite Collective is a group of quad line kite fliers from the Pacific North West including Spencer Watson, Willow Robin, Steve DeRooy, and David Hathaway.

Terry Zee Lee is the founder of SkyWindWorld, and has transformed kites into public art exhibits and magical learning experiences in classrooms and community workshops for more than a decade.

Bill has been flying single line kites all his life. Started out with Eddy type kites that his dad taught him how to make using small branches from bushes, newspaper and flower and water paste.

After 9 years as editor of KITING Magazine, 5 years coordinating National Kite Month, and countless years organizing kite festivals, Phil opened Fly Market Kitemaking Supply in 2014. It’s now North America’s top kitemaking shop.

Mr. Orlando T. Ongkingco is the founding President of the Kite Association of the Philippines, and kite making and kite flying are both his passion.

Barbara Meyer is best known as a single line kite builder. Several of her designs are licensed to a major manufacturer, and shipped worldwide.

Wayne has been kiting for over 30 years. He’s had the pleasure of attending numerous International kite festivals including China and Japan.

Eric Curtis has been flying kites all his life and has been making kites professionally since 1980 when he began screen printing original designs on silk pongee and sewing the silk into small fighters and deltas. Anne Sloboda is an artist, art teacher and kite designer, who lives in a century schoolhouse in Sparta, with her partner Eric Curtis.

Ron is a graduate from the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California (Honors) and worked in advertising for thirty years as an Advertising Art Director in Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, where he raised two children and lives with his wife Emily.

Donna and Fred Taylor from Port Colborne, Ontario enjoy getting out kite flying and sharing the experience whenever they can. Sewing unique kites when their children were young to fly at the local park opened up an outlet to explore the various styles of kites.

Tom White is from Winnipeg and got into kite making (with an artistic flair) and traction flying shortly after Y2K. Tom specializes in soft (sparless) kites, four, two and one liners, kites for serious traction/exercise/speed and kites for fun.

David Tuttle has been interested in kites since the late 1970s when at the Ontario College of Art he was assigned a kite design project. This piqued his interest and he eventually became totally involved in kites and kite flying.

Mike has built and flown his hand-crafted kites for 20 years throughout the United States and attended festivals in Canada, France and Italy.

Sharon is an award winning kite builder and flyer and remains passionate about sharing her skills and sharing the joy of kites with anyone and everyone!

Gary Mark is a flyer and enthusiast, who has fully immersed himself into the kiting world. He has an extensive collection of kites from around the world, is proud owner of Blue Sky Kites, and organizes kiting events all over Canada.

The majority of Deb’s kites tell the story of the respect and admiration she has for the Native American cultures of her birthplace in the Pacific Northwest, her work life in North Dakota and now her retirement days in the desert southwest.

Rob is a photographer from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He enjoyed kites as a child and then later as a parent, but it was never a serious undertaking until 2008 when he came again to kite flying, using kites as tools to take a camera to new heights.

Raj grew up flying kites where kite flying was especially celebrated at Easter. He was exposed to a tradition of kite flying, not only as a recreational activity but as a form of leisure which brought friends and family together.

Don was bitten by the “Kiting Bug” in 1998 on a beach in Mexico. On his return home, he bought a single line delta kite, followed by a dual line kite and it has grown from there. Don enjoys building kites, doing flying demonstrations and other outings.

Ray Gowan is straight out of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and has become our resident Stunt Kite Expert. You might be able to catch him around the festival giving lessons and flying his stunt kite train in the dual line field.

Bev Dockrill, of Edmonton, Alberta, makes and flies single line kites and loves to come to the Windscape Kite Festival.

Bud Taylor, of Airdrie, Alberta is Canada’s #1 Kite Guy. He’s also a very familiar face at Windscape, having attended every year since its inception — it’s the best in the West!

John Pollock is an Artist and Kitemaker. He has won the National Grand National Champion Award in kitemaking from the American Kitefliers Association four times with the most recent being in 2016.

Dorothy and Andrei started flying kites in 1985, and building them a few years later.

Kenny first became interested in traction kites 20 years ago after meeting Ken Ruhr, an inspirational kite buggy enthusiast.