Born in New Zealand, I moved to Australia some years ago, but apparently still not long enough to lose my Kiwi accent.

I only started flying kites back in 2003 after thinking about a toy that could be taken on holiday. Of course a kite was the answer and being pretty handy with a sewing machine, I went the whole kaboodle and made that great little airplane designed by David Holt. I even went so far as to modify it a little and turned it into one of the Australian Roulettes. It's about retired now, but as time went on I guess somewhere along the line I became an enthusiast.

A few years after the Plane, I joined the Queensland Kite Flyers Society and added Kite buggying to the repetoire. It's a great sport and while I'm not particularly gung ho at it, I enjoy getting out there and having a good run on some of the local beaches.

For the past couple of years, I've been beginning to work with 3d software as an aid to design and template making for my ideas. It has been a learning curve but I am getting more proficient and while it still takes a few months from the intitial sketch to template stage, I've found that as I get better, the possibilities are endless.

While I have purchased the occassional kite, most everything that comes out of the kite bag these days started off as an idea in my head. I generally try to create a couple of new things every year.

See you at the beach
Jan O'Loughlin