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Sixteen years ago, Carlo Perez, then an 11-year-old boy, got hooked on kites. Today, he has turned his passion into a booming business. And while more and more kids are turning to computer games for amusement, Carlo remains devoted to his kites. The day he lets go of the string, he says, is the day he lets go of his dreams.
By Jeffrey B. Javier
davaotoday.com
Photos by Barry Ohaylan
DAVAO CITY – Carlito “Carlo” Perez kicks up some dust as he brushes past the children toward the center of the oval field of the Davao City National High School (DCNHS).
“It is good,” he remarks as he looks up at the clear, blue, afternoon sky and feels the strong summer breeze. It is the first time Carlo’s Kite, the kite shop Carlo owns on V. Mapa Street, to hold a seminar workshop on kite-making. He is afraid that it will end with dark clouds hanging over us, literally. The weather has not been good for the past days. Even if the weather forecasts promised sunny days, the climate here in Davao has been unpredictable.
As Carlo fixes the contraption he carries, the children gather around him with wide eyes and eager curiosity. The workshop participants are children of Baranggay 10-A, the barangay (village) in which the shop is located. They have been waiting for Carlo to build his great kite. As Carlo finishes assembling the kite, he points out its different parts: the skeleton made of carbon fiber plastic, the leaf or the body made of taffeta, and the nylon string that, as if telling the kids, lets you hold on to your dreams.
Carlo, 27, considers every kite he makes a dream.
He started his life with kites in 1989, when he was 11, when the Coca-Cola company hosted a kite festival here in Davao City. He and his uncle, Loreto Perez, joined in the figure division and won first place.
Growing up in a family of sports enthusiasts — his father is a retired basketball coach of the DCNHS basketball varsity team – Carlo got hooked on kites and anything that involves kites: designing, constructing, selling, and, of course, flying.
His dreams, or rather his kites, took him around the country and across borders, competing mostly in international kite flying events in China, Indonesia and other countries.
Through the years, Carlo joined various kite and kite-flying organizations, among them the Kite Association of the Philippines. Recently, he has been recruiting members and volunteers to establish his own organization in Davao. One of the recruits is his high-school buddy Butch. Carlo admits that Butch is one of the reasons why he is so engrossed with kites. Butch dragged him to many contests, helped him make kites for the shop, and boost his morale during competitions. Butch was there when Carlo won most of his competitions.
Carlo’s Kite started to sell kites in the summer of 1993, when Bear Brand, the milk brand, established its popular summer event here. Better known as the Bear Brand Kite Festival, the frenzy about the contest made Davaoenos search for the best-looking and most-durable kite in town. They couldn’t just participate with newspaper-and-stick kites. Carlo’s Kite had the opportunity to provide for most of them.
While Carlo took care of the costumers, he couldn’t let these people have all the gorgeous kites in Davao for the festival. So he made his own kite, joined the competition, and won.
But for Carlo, there are downsides to winning. “The sad thing about kite festivals,” Butch says, “is that when you win any of the categories, the organizers will take your (winning) kite and destroy it. Something about property rights, they say.”
During the first few years of Carlo’s Kite, Uncle Loreto made most of the kites, exhibited them and sold them at reasonable prices. The shop hadn’t been named yet but when the local media took notice of this unique business down V. Mapa Street, and the prominence Carlo achieved from winning various contests, Uncle Loreto, who was too timid to be interviewed by journalists, let Carlo do the interviews. It was then that they named the shop “Carlo’s Kite.”
For years, the kites were sell-outs. Carlo made them during the night and by noon the next day, they were already sold out. The shop is open only during the summer but it accepts made-to-order kites any time of the year. Right now, prices range from 300 pesos to 2,700 pesos, depending on the size and the design the customer wants. Among the popular designs are the parrot and butterfly figures. “They are best-sellers,” Carlo says.
His most famous design is The Dragon, measuring an approximate four meters in length and a little less than a meter in diameter. Carlo flew it around on beaches, open fields, anywhere where there is ample space. The Dragon has already won in a competition. “It’s a good thing that when it won, someone had already bought it,” Butch says. “The festival never got the chance to slaughter The Dragon.”
Carlo topped the Bear Brand Kite Festival for 10 consecutive years, since the festival began in 1993 up to 2003. But when imports from China started flooding the local market not just with cheap goods but kites as well, Carlo lost the top spot for the first time.
“Chinese kites are just too impressive and cheap,” Carlo says. The Chinese influx also affected the sales of Carlo’s Kite. “There’s just too many competition. There are the Chinese in Uyanguren, the adventure shops in malls, plus the Internet.”
He also blames the youth’s massive indulgence in computer games for the decline in interest in kites. “I wish kids today would go back to kite flying,” Carlo says.
Carlo says he is doing his best to keep his shop and his passion for kites, not just for the sake of business but also for the sake of Filipino tradition. The First Carlo’s Kite Workshop and Seminar was the initial step, and it was a success. His next plan is to re-create kite designs that are uniquely Filipino.
When it comes to his passion, Carlo is as enthusiastic – and idealistic — as a kid flying his first kite for the first time. The day he lets go of the string, he says, is the day he lets go of his dreams.
“But it will never happen,” he guarantees. (Jeffrey B. Javier/davaotoday.com)
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