Born 06-09-1953 in Emmen
Living in Klazienaveen
Married in 1977 to Annie de Haas
Children: Monique 14-04-1984
Laura 24-07-1987
Occupation: self-employed, owner of Zonlight.nl and Zonlichtvliegers.nl
When did it start:
Flying kites started when I was around 10, my grandfather taught me how to fly, an Eddy model made out of paper with lots of straw in the tail, to make it stable, later made a kite out of found weather fabric kite, the Kite Virus never let go and I am still infected. I don’t want to take any medicine anymore, it’s alright like this, I can live with it alright, the more I fly kites, the more it soothes the pain. I have always built and designed various types of kites, these last few years a little more soft kites, which get their shape by means of much wind, and then fly well by their own models. A few of these models are:
Okkie the Octopus : Okkie is 48 meter long and 9 m wide
Wally the Wale : Wally is 15 meter long and 4 m wide
Frok the Frog : Frok is 18 meter long and 4 m wide
Luks the Carp : Luks is 18 meter long and 4 m wide
Coost the Ghost : Coost is 20 meter long and 4 m wide
Apart from that I own among others;
A big cat of 25 meters with 5 young,
And, don’t forget, a large amount of fish and sea animals in a big aquarium including a diver.
Apart fro that my wife Annie owns many bears and flying butterflies, we can build a small festival on our own, we have enough material.
What we do
We give demonstrations in the Netherlands and abroad, we also do workshops for children, we organize kite festivals of which one big one, always on the third weekend of August in Emmen. I personally am the chairman of the Drenthe kite club Stijgkracht, see www.stijgkracht.nl, and I am chairman of Stichting Vliegerfeest Emmen, see www.S-V-E.nl
Highlights
Flown kites in China, on Tiananmen Square and on the Chinese Wall in 1992. And the many kite festivals in the Netherlands and abroad, and a workshop for 90 children in Cervia (Italy).
Kite passion
Kite flying is my passion, on festivals I always make sure that I am busy with promoting my hobby the entire time. I stand for what I say, and there is no kite I cannot tame, they don’t exist small or big enough. Hopefully, we will spread our passion for a little while still, because our kites haven’t seen it all yet, and there are still so many beautiful models I want to build, and that will take a bit of time still. And there are still so many people who haven’t been infected with the Virus, I have enough fabric left for them to be infected, because kite flying we do together and together we go kite flying, so come and participate.
Please see www.vliegernieuws.nl for lots of useful information.
