April 2016 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ON THE COVER: APRIL 2016 One of Colorado artist Melanie Walker’s beautiful kites. More on page 23. From the Editors 3 Correspondence 5 Contributors 6 Interview with LaRoy Rutledge 7 JOE HADZICKI Interview with Malcolm Goodman 10 SCOTT SKINNER Interview with Ben Ruhe 19 SCOTT SKINNER Interview with Melanie Walker 23 ALI FUJINO The Surubí: A Creative Context 32 MARIA ELENA GARCÍA AUTINO Tribute to Charlie Sotich 42 JOHN BRAZZALE Drachen Foundation does not own rights to any of the articles or photographs within, unless stated. Authors and photographers retain all rights to their work. We thank them for granting us permission to share it here. If you would like to request permission to reprint an article, please contact us at
[email protected], and we will get you in touch with the author. 2 FROM THE EDITORS EDITORS This is a very personal issue of Discourse. The Scott Skinner bulk of the issue is interviews of various Ali Fujino personalities from our diverse world of kites. I Katie Davis found that there were several statements that struck a chord with me, and perhaps that is the BOARD OF DIRECTORS best way for me to introduce this issue. Scott Skinner Martin Lester In Joe Hadzicki’s conversation with foil- Joe Hadzicki boarding pioneer LaRoy Rutledge, I love his Stuart Allen admonition, “Don’t take someone’s opinion as Dave Lang the answer. Explore the details and shape the Jose Sainz approach that works best for you.” In sport, art, Ali Fujino and life, I think this is a powerful attitude.