Duo soar with unique and high-flying kites
PASIR GUDANG: The lack of wind does not matter to Qian Jian Guo if he needs to fly his kite.
The 67-year-old retiree’s swallow-shaped kites still flutter in the air as they are attached with strings to a fishing rod.
“A kite flyer’s nightmare is when there is no wind,” he said at the 17th World Kite Festival at Bukit Layang-layang here on Friday.
“But I do not have to worry about that as my kites are attached to a rod so I can make the ‘swallows’ fly even when it is not windy.”
Qian, who started making kites 10 years ago after he retired as a technician, said flying a kite was a good way to de-stress, especially for the elderly.
“I also have dragonfly and butterfly kites, which are also attached to rods.
“People are usually fascinated by the rod kite as it is like walking a dog, but I am flying a bird,” joked Qian.
Another enthusiast, Karl Longbottom, 54, from Wales, Britain, also created a kite that can fly without the need for wind.
It took six months of trial and error for him to come up with his pterodactyl kite.
“The idea came from a customer who requested for one that is easy to fly. So I designed a kite that was easy to control,” he said, adding that only a few designs could fly under windless condition.
Longbottom, who has been making kites for a living for 25 years, said his was made from ripstock nylon, also known as sail cloth, stitched onto carbon fibre sticks.
The five-day World Kite Festival ends today.