Go fly a kite: International kite lovers gather in Swift Current
Kite flyers and kite makers from around the world were soaring at the Windscape Kite Festival in Swift Current, Sask. over the weekend.
Swift Current, 240 kilometres southwest of Regina, has a population of just over 15,000 people, but attracts kite lovers from all over the world to their festival.
On their way to the festival, several passed through Regina, including Montreal's Normand Girard and his friend Réjean Bibeau, from Quebec City.
Girard and Bibeau had unique kites with them for this trip, created to look like Inuit snow goggles.
Girard said his love for kites began on a family vacation to North Carolina in 1995. For a trip to the beach, Girard bought a stunt kite.
"When I came back to Montreal, I was playing a lot with the kite and I wanted to start to make kites," he said.
It took awhile for Girard to get all the parts he needed to build kites, but soon he had an at-home business and was designing all the kites he flew himself.
In 1997, he went to his first international kite festival in Montreal and said he was inspired by all the different shapes and colours. While you may be thinking of the classic diamond kite, there are also stunt kites, power kites and some that are really abstract art pieces.
"Everybody can find a kite for them," said Girard. "For me, kites are like flying sculptures."
The architect by trade said he doesn't limit himself to only building kites he knows will fly. Instead, he experiments with a variety of creations.
"Sometimes it can take me 30, 45 or 60 hours to be able to adjust it, to change the shape a bit," Girard said, explaining that some kites take up to a year and a half to perfect. "In the end, it will fly. How? I don't know — maybe upside down— but it will fly," he said, laughing.
