Rio Grande kitemaker wins national championship

Rio Grande kitemaker, Phil Broder, just added a new line to his resume: National Champion. At the 31st American Kitefliers Association Grand National Championships, one of Broder’s hand built kites was chosen as the best among Delta kites. The event was held Sept. 22-27, in Gettysburg, Pa.
Broder’s winning kite is an 11-foot wide, tri-colored Delta dubbed “Seaside Thai 3.0”, after the Delaware restaurant who’s logo he “borrowed.”
There were two earlier prototypes built to help him get the design right. The kite earned 30.60 out of a possible 40 points.
All kites were scored on four criteria–visual appeal, flight, craftsmanship, and structural design–by a panel of 10 expert judges.
Broder’s other entry, a 10-foot high diamond, featuring the Civil War flags of the North and South, finished fourth in a different category.
Seaside Thai 3.0 won the New Jersey Kitemaking Championship at Liberty State Park in July, and had been selected as the top American-made kite at March’s Smithsonian Kite Festival in Washington DC.
Broder next plans to take his kites a little further from home, to an entirely different cape. In mid-October he’ll be a guest at the Cape Town Kite Festival in South Africa, joining several of the world’s top kitebuilders from China, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia.
After that he plans to sit back down in front of his sewing machine, and begin working on some new ideas for 2009.