Kites bring freedom to high flier_1103

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"It was just a bunch of people that were really happy and were happy to share information," he said.
The 51-year-old,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, now a kite maker and entrepreneur, says it was on a day trip to the festival 20 years ago that he made up his mind to make the transition from "a pinstripe suit to shorts".
Kites bring freedom to high flier
"Our business plan was 'bright, colourful and community minded'."
"I represented Australia in Japan, France, England and Malaysia in the World Cup of Sport Kite Flying," he said.
"I'm never going to be a rich man but I'm a happy man."
Mr Richards said his love affair with kites doesn't stop at work; it has taken him around the world.
"No matter what happens, it always brings a smile to my face," he said.
Mr Richards already knew that he wanted to leave his office job at Custom Credit to try something different.
"We had a four man team and we used to do precision flying and ballet flying."
Festival of the Winds is the largest annual kite festival in Australia and this year celebrates its 31st anniversary.
But it is the kite flying that families are guaranteed to love the best.
As thousands of people prepare for this year's Festival of the Winds at Bondi Beach on Sunday, Michael Richards can still remember the day he abandoned the life of a finance executive for another high-flying profession.
He is also a passionate kite historian and collector, and as part of this year's Festival of the Winds will be curating a display at the Bondi Pavilion Gallery featuring "Australia's best collection of Asian Kites".
That day the couple realised that kites would fit the bill.
The shop has closed but Mr Richards says the workshop business has expanded to offer other 'fun-based' activities like juggling and solar car building.
"Somebody once said to me,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, 'How can you be down when you're always looking up?".
The event involves coordinated kite manoeuvres, sometimes performed to a musical backing.
"Twenty years later it's still working and I'm still having fun," he said.
Within five months of the festival,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, Kite Magic had taken off, selling kite designs of all shapes and sizes from a shopfront in the eastern Sydney suburb of Coogee.
"Literally, I took my two young children to Bondi and stood among the people flying kites and said,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, 'Wow!'
It is running from 11am to 4pm on Sunday 13 September at Bondi Beach.
Over the next 10 years the business also began running kite-making and kite-flying workshops, an idea which proved popular with school students and teachers.
Mr Richards says the festival will also feature music and dance performances, workshops and entertainment for children.
"My wife and I wanted to start a business; we didn't know what that was,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login," he said.
"The spectacle of just being among the crowd of people flying kites is just a hoot," Mr Richards told AAP.