EUREKA SPRINGS : Birds, planes — but no boats — fare well at kite party
Posted on Sunday, March 23, 2008
EUREKA SPRINGS — The skies were overtaken by birds, planes and an occasional tiger, but boats weren’t faring as well.
“It actually does fly,” Pamela Levering said about the boatshaped kite that she and husband Chuck were struggling to get off the ground Saturday at the 18 th annual Eureka Springs Kite Festival.
The Leverings of Holiday Island call their kite “Waterworld” after the 1995 movie of the same name. But strong, sustained winds were as rare this day as fans of the Kevin Costner flick.
The Leverings’ kite, which resembles a galleon, was too heavy to take flight under the circumstances.
About 100 people attended the event at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, seven miles south of downtown Eureka Springs.
Some of the most successful flights were carried out with kites whose materials cost about $ 3 and were made under the direction of members of the American Kitefliers Association.
The “sled kites” were assembled using shopping bags, Scotch tape and bamboo poles.
Richard Dermer of Stillwater, Okla., has attended the festival for the last 10 years.
A past president of the association, Dermer was making kites instead of flying them. He was eager to share his knowledge with the teachers and Scout leaders who wanted him to teach children how to make kites.
Kites can be as expensive as one wants, he said. They also can be cheap and easy. A kite can be made from a Styrofoam plate, construction paper or trash bags, he said.
“It doesn’t get much easier than that,” he said.
Dermer became interested in kites during the 1980 s.
He purchased a two-line sport kite, designed for trick flying, and after hearing a radio advertisement for a competition, he entered and did well enough to be invited to a national event.
From there, he went to an international festival in China.
He has a kite collection that ranges from stamp-sized kites to one that measures 1, 000 square feet.
Dermer said it’s the people who keep him coming to festivals.
“A group of adults who admit to enjoying doing something as frivolous as kite flying are goodnatured people,” he said.
Steve Rogers, co-owner of Kaleidokites, a Eureka Springs kite shop that sponsored the festival, said he’s been flying kites for 55 years, or nearly all of his life.
He said that he enjoys it because it is relaxing and what he calls a “green sport.”
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