When I met renowned kiting enthusiast Drayton Callison, he was in his element: on Treasure Island Beach, flying a sporty, rectangular kite.
Callison is collaborating with The Studio@620 on The World’s Greatest Kiting Festival, which kicks off this weekend. Though he confesses to having a “very serious, sickening passion for kites,” he says there’s more to the sport than the kites themselves.
“It’s not a piece of fabric and some sticks out there that I’m passionate about,” he says. “It’s the experience I have with other people.”
That's why he's excited that the festival will bring together fans of diverse backgrounds, because he sees a similar phenomenon every third Saturday of the month, when Kiting Tampa Bay hosts its free monthly meetings on this very beach.
“The people that come to these events and these festivals, they’re friends for a lifetime… No matter who they’re voting for in November, or what church they go to, or what bar they like best, they like this beach most of all and each other.”
With the sounds of waves and seagulls as background, we sat down on a nearby bench to talk about how Callison got into kiting. Though he looks the part of a native Floridian — sandals, tan booney hat and a beard reminiscent of Forrest Gump’s in his 1970s running days — he was born in Ohio. He was first introduced to kites by his uncle Bruce, owner of Kiteman Productions, a company that builds custom kites for clients like the Walt Disney Corporation and hosts kite-building workshops and shows across the country. Bruce would often gift his nephews with kites for their birthdays, setting up their interest from a young age. Later on, Callison would become the owner of a small business in Ohio that rented out materials for bounce houses and feather banners, purchasing most of the latter from Kiteman.
After assisting with Kiteman events around the northern U.S., he was hired to work for the company full-time as a production manager and performer. He traveled to kiting events, taught children's kite-building workshops, and helped develop and test kites, meeting dedicated kite surfers and skiers along the way.
“I knew a little bit about kiteboarding and a little bit about how to fix the bridle on a kite, but I didn’t know anything compared to these people. My inspiration started there."
Callison now works as an independent contractor for Kiteman, and is more active than ever in the local and international kiting community. As a member of the American Kitefliers Association and Kiting Tampa Bay, he regularly attends and travels for events.
He's most proud of his website, worldsgreatestkiting.com, a growing project that includes educational videos on the craft and execution of kiting and a link to his soon-to-come podcast.
“The purpose of my website is to promote kiting around the world. I want to give an outlet for people to see what’s happening in the community worldwide and in my own town.”
The World’s Greatest Kiting Festival should generate even more content for the site. The monthlong festival will feature events for all ages, including kite-building workshops, a demonstration by Guatemalan painter Enrique Cay of his country's giant kites, and a panel discussion at 6 p.m. tonight led by Callison himself.
“I am the liaison between the kiting world and the studio, the art world…I’m going to be interviewing a panel of kiters that include Bruce Flora [of Kiteman], John Lutter [president of the American Kitefliers Association], and a few other artists that are presenting at the show. Through the month, every event we’re going to have, I’m going to be there to support the cause of kiting.”
Kites come in all shapes, sizes, and intricacies, Callison told me. They can be small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or large enough (some over 100 feet long) that they “need to be attached to things like dump trucks full of rocks.” The latter can be dangerous, he points out, “if you don’t know what you’re doing.” (Luckily, he says, he's yet to be carried off by a kite.) Kites can be simple affairs, built from a few household items, or so complex that crafting them takes years to master, as in the art of making traditional Japanese kites from bamboo. Some can even be flown indoors, their exceptionally light materials catching on to a room’s air circulation.
Technical aspects aside, Drayton says it's still the personal side of kiting that appeals to him the most. As our conversation on the beach drew to a close, he pointed to a lone kiter by the shore.
“This guy’s not thinking about what we’re doing…or those girls that are walking by him. He’s watching that kite and that's all he’s thinking about…there’s something really peaceful about that activity and sharing that experience with other people.”
Callison then invited me to fly his kite, a Revolution EXP model. It was not as easy as it looked, and as a beginner I had to meticulously adjust the kite lines to the patterns in the wind to avoid crashing. And crash I did, several times. He told me kiting is less about skill and more about learning the kite, spending time with it to get an idea of how it works because, he says, "A kite is a lot like a woman.” After about 20 minutes of trial and error, I got a solid three seconds of airtime. I walked away with a slight sunburn and a broadened perspective on what it truly means to fly a kite.
For more on Drayton, visit worldsgreatestkiting.com and for more information on the upcoming festival, go to thestudioat620.org.
This article appears in Sep 8-15, 2016.