The Decorators

The team formed in 1988 and were named The Deptford Decorators on account of the painters overalls that they adopted as a uniform in rokakku battles. Deptford, an area in London near the Blackheath flying site used for team “practice” was dropped from the team name very early on. The team are sometimes affectionately known as The Decs.

In 1989 the team started to fly two line kites and when Revolution introduced their four line kite this quickly became the focus of attention. From 1989 the team formed a close association with Jørgen Møeller Hansen, the Danish Kite Designer and Graphic Artist. (Jørgen collaborated with the team and designed the distinctive graphics which feature on most of the kites that the team fly; Revolution, Rokakku and Parafoil included. On Monday 9th July 2012 we sadly learned that Jørgen died the previous Saturday morning.)

It was in 1990 that the team started to travel extensively, mostly in Europe but also to more distant places including Malaysia, South Africa, Israel as well as Canada and the USA. The team currently consists of eight fliers. This allows some flexibility in travel arrangements as the preferred format for team presentations requires six participants.

The team currently consists of Felix Mottram, Jacob Twyford, Johnny Claffey, Vaughan Livingstone, Romney Johnstone, Ashley Mottram, Martin Linford and Margaret Walker (Maggie). Tom Greenfield came back to the team in 2016 after a long absence and Rowan Mottram has also been flying with the team since 2016. Vince Wilson and Chris Beel of Fusion have occasionally been flying with The Decs since 2015.

Team presentations with the Revolution Kites are both formal and informal. Formal arena presentations usually involve some musical accompaniment and a degree of choreography determined by the caller of the moment. Informal presentations are essential to the team. This is when they fly together during a festival, often inventing new manoeuvres as they go. New ideas are often incorporated into formal presentations on the same day so the audience can really get an understanding of the creative process at work.

Revolution Kites and kite festival organisers have enabled the team to develop its project over the last 20+ years.

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The Decorators

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