It's still a side pursuit. I have a full time job as a software engineer. I do sell the kites I make on occasion, but I have no intention of making it a proper source of income.
watty
joined 1 year ago
Kite flyer, kite maker.
I've been flying multi-line, controllable sport kites for over half of my life. I attend kite festivals very frequently and occasionally travel throughout the US or internationally for kite festivals.
About 6 years ago, I started building my own sport kites. Now days, I have a workshop with 5 sewing machines, 2 3d printers, and other equipment, all of it revolving around kite making.
I can't really imagine my life without kites involved.
I'm heavily into sport kites. These are controllable kites with 2 or 4 lines. It's an outdoor activity that can get fairly physical depending on what you are up to. There's a very small community, mostly focused in coastal areas, but it exists all over the world.
Once you get some basic skills, most people shift toward flying to music as a ballet individually or with a group as a team. If you get good enough, there are travel opportunities where kite festivals pay for all or part of your travel expenses to perform at festivals. I've been all over the US and to 11 countries across the world to fly kites in my 18 years in the community.
Past that, there's also kite making that is a nice extension of the hobby. I build my own sport kites, and build them for others on occasion. There are open source sport kite plans out there, I've got a few on my website (https://watty.us), but there are even more at https://kareloh.com.
A good starting place to get into the hobby might be https://sportkite.org, or some Facebook groups like Sport Kite Pilots Lounge.