Folke Gfrörer

Germany

At the age of about 5, my father built me an Eddy/ Rokkakulike kite made from wooden sticks and paper. 1st attempt: too less wind, so we put it under the staircase until we got wind. 2nd attempt: with more than enough wind it did not sound healthy and I have had a kite – mice did like the wooden sticks for whatever reason.  

In 1980, in the middle of my time studying aeronautics and space technology at the university of Stuttgart, I met a school friend who was just sewing a kite. I was impressed, it was a short winged Cody, never seen something like this before! Another friend attended a kite building class and we 3 started building kites using anorak nylon and wooden dowels – quite heavy ones. We called the mechanical sewing machine we used the “trip trap”. It still exists, but I do not use it anymore . This chapter ended in about 1993 due to business, house and wife. 

In 2007, a freelancer in the meantime writing software, I found a picture of a kite “Domann canard” – The virus was back! Since that time I am building and flying kites and realized that kites unintentionally getting more and more in their bags. I attended several classes, I assisted teaching classes and I taught several classes in kite making. Normally I am on the lawn each Sunday with a few kite friends, or we meet with others just for fun of kite flying and once a year I go to Fano, DK to meet friends from all over the world. 

Folke  is an experienced instructor and kite builder.  Folke has presented many workshops in Europe, and has also presented classes a Oregon Kitemakers Retreat and Fort Worden Kitemakers Conference.