Car Racing Enthusiast Found Another High

Stephen R. Kent was an obsessive but not very successful formula race car driver who finally told himself to go fly a kite. So he did.

“It was my therapy. I had to do something to take my mind off of car racing,” he said. “I ran out of money, sponsors and I never won a race.”

He turned to working as a race car mechanic and later sponsored other drivers with the same unhappy results.

“I was hooked on racing since I was a teen-ager, when my grandfather taught me to drive at the Santa Anita Race Track parking lot. Before that I raced go-carts and minibikes,” he said.

After he quit car racing “it took me a year just to get it out of my system. It was an exhilarating and exciting sport.”

But kite flying, much like race driving, turned into an obsession and the Southwest Texas State University graduate, who majored in economics, opened a kite flying business in Newport Beach.

He also became a stunt kite competitor who is part of a four-man team that has its choice of an estimated 60 kite contests a year throughout the United States.

Unlike his also-ran days as a race car driver, Kent’s kite-flying efforts have already resulted in a couple of victories, one in Santa Monica and the other in Dallas.

“It feels good to be a winner,” said the American Kite Assn. and Kite Trade Assn. member.

Kent admits he is a natural showoff, especially with his kites.

“I like to do something that creates attention. I’m a big kid and I don’t mind expressing it,” he said. “I’m always looking for fun in life.”

One of those ways is to fly huge, colorful kites.

One is 35 feet long, 25 feet wide, has a 45-foot-long tail and has to be tethered to a palm tree or light pole while being flown, to keep it from breaking away.

“It takes eight people to bring it down,” said Kent, an avid surfer and water skier who plans to take up wind surfing. “Just like in car racing, I like to push the danger a little bit.”

The massive kite is not a big seller. Kent said he has sold two of them at $2,500 each.

Most of the sales at his Kite Etc. shop on Balboa Peninsula range from $12 to $400.

He also creates attention for himself by holding kite festivals such as the recent two-day Kites Etc. Challenge at Balboa Park, a timed, obstacle-course competition open to the public.

“I sell enjoyment,” said Kent, “and that makes my lifestyle very nice. Flying a kite is the closest thing to flying and keeping your feet on the ground.”

When he opened his store three years ago, Kent said, only 50 kite shops existed in the United States. “Now it has grown to 500 plus,” he said, and many of them are prospering, including his.

“We’re eating pretty good and paying the bills,” Kent said. “My wife quit her office manager job to be my partner and office manager. She gave up a $35,000-a-year job.”

And much the same as her husband, she is an avid kite flier.