When the wind is high around Easter time, many people from Mt D’Or, near Champs Fleurs in east Trinidad, rush to Spring Valley road to the “Kite Man” Hillroy Enoe to get a handmade original mad bull kite to fly for sport and to show off to their friends.
Enoe and his wife Abby collaborate in the construction of these mad bulls, with Hillroy putting together the structure with the bamboo and his wife blending the different coloured plastic bags to create the floating beauties.
On a visit to his home, Enoe said he has been creating these kites since he was ten. He said while other kite makers use board or cocoyea, he uses bamboo for a sturdier and a longer-lasting kite.
“I use plastic to cover the bamboo, nothing fancy just normal plastic bag,” he said. “We could use garbage plastic bags but normally you don’t get garbage bags in pretty colours like yellows and reds. I ask people who I normally make kites for to collect plastics for me and I collect for myself as well,” he said.
As a woodworker Enoe has always been into the arts and crafts, so kite-making is not far from his usual work but of all the media he uses, bamboo is his specialty because it can be moulded into different shapes, sometimes with just the use of his hands.
He said when he has to cut the bamboo to make his kites, he relies on the moon.
“If you cut the bamboo before time, it make a thing like powder and this would cause your kite to rot, so I check the moon. When the bamboo dry it’s better and it would last longer,” he said.
After Hillroy puts together the bamboo structure, Abby chooses the colours to cover the gaps in the bamboo. She also cuts decorative patterns in the plastics, mixing the light and dark colours and creates streamers for around the edges.
“When the kite goes up in the air, the sun would shine through the plastics and the patterns would show, it would look pretty,” she said.
When Enoe was asked if kite-making is becoming a lost art, he said: “People not doing it as much as long time. It is easy to just buy a kite on the road. But you could enjoy yourself more by making your own kite and going through that process, getting the glue on your fingers and tying the thread then getting that satisfaction of seeing your kite fly.”
KRYSTLE JAMES