Jose Sainz

Jose Sainz is the Horatio Alger of American kite making. Just three years after taking up the sport, he won the difficult "triple" at the American Kitefliers Association's annual festival-only the second person ever to have done so. The "triple" is first prize in class, the grand championship and the people's choice award. It was a doubly sweet victory. The man he matched, Randy Tom, is his mentor and one of the world's premier kite makers. For the first time, in 1990 at Seaside, California, Tom had pulled off the "triple" at an AKA convention with his "Seven Sisters." It was a great coup. "I wanted to do the same thing, follow in his footsteps," says Sainz.

As a boy Sainz had immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico; he earned a university degree in San Diego, where he now lives. His degree was in drafting, but his love has been the fine arts—sketching and photography. Working his way upward in the local utilities company, he took a training course in 1989 and discovered stunt kites from a colleague. After buying a hot stunt kite, he practiced and became so adept he was invited to join Randy Tom's Hyperkites Elite precision flying team. "Randy's background is Chinese, mine Mexican and the other two on the team—Eric Olaes and Jiggs Rodrigues—are Filipino and Hawaiian," says Sainz. "We had a good combination."

Jose Sainz serves on the Board of Directors of the Drachen Foundation.