NOMINATION FOR AKA’S 2024 STEVE EDEIKEN INSPIRATIONAL AWARD
It is our great pleasure to nominate Mike Mosman for the 2024 AKA Steve Edeiken Inspirational Award. Steve was truly an inspiration to all of us who knew him, and we cherish his memory and shining example. Mike exemplifies the key characteristics of Steve Edeiken, showing friendly, loving, fair, and even-handed concern for:
1. People in general, but kitefliers in particular,
2. Kiteflying in general, but especially for craftsmanship and technical developments, and
3. Communication in general, but particularly for leading and participating in kite events.
Mike excels as a kitemaker. His highly engineered (kites) are indeed works of art in their design, performance, and appeal. Using innovative designs and simple, colorful, and powerful graphics, his kites stand out in the sky and in close-up inspection on the ground. Mike’s initial kite designs focused on new and different ways to create 3-dimensional structures for kites. A “crazy kite” — Kichi Tako in Japanese — was the first of his experiments; it won awards, was manufactured in China, and started his adventures with new and unusual designs. This first kite in 2002 was judged AKA’s Most Innovative Kite of that year. Since then, Mike has won four more Most Innovative awards at AKA National Kitemakers Competitions, plus Best Kite awards in cellular, bowed and sport kite categories, and has become known for his elegant, unusual, and quirky structural designs. He was AKA’s Grand National Champion in the kitemakers’ competition in 2008. For many years, Mike has been the sponsor of the Most Innovative Award in the Kitemakers’ Competition at our conventions and taken the trophy home more often than anyone else.
Mike has been a very active club member of the Maryland Kite Society and Wings Over Washington for over twenty years. Also an avid sport kite flier, he has won several sport kite competitions, and enjoys team flying with fellow club members. He’s been a presenter and instructor at kite building workshops for MKS, Keystone Kiters, Fort Warden and WOW. He’s served as competition judge in many kite building and sport kite events and was AKA’s Head Judge in their kitemakers’ competitions for four years. He is quite proud of his unofficial title of “Total Kite Package.”
Part of being a great teacher is Mike’s appreciation of his exposure to other kite fliers and kite builders at festivals, in competitions and at workshops. He’s been giving back the joy that he found in the mutual help and admiration found in the kite world — and seldom found elsewhere. We spent a week with Mike on the beach in Delaware this summer. He spent days there teaching a young man how to fly stunt kites, both dual-line and quad line, continuing his long practice of helping first-time fliers successfully begin their lifelong journey to the joy of loving kites.
Mike says, “You’ve got to be willing to take your experiences and combine them with others; then you’ll achieve things that you never thought possible. Therein lies the magic and power of kiting.” (See Kiting, Summer, 2020, 42:2.)
Submitted by Jon Burkhardt, Karen Burkhardt, Glen Haynes, Tanna Haynes, and Adam Grow.
