To the naked eye Joshua Butler’s high performance hummer kites are, well, let’s just say different from the colourful varieties you’d expect to find on sale this time of the year.But as the father of four is quick to point out, looking pretty is not the objective here but rather sound.“The colourfulness and all that doesn’t matter to me because I enjoy the sound which is music to my soul,” Mr Butler said.Mr Butler’s high performance kites, whose origins can be traced to the West End, are specifically designed to “scream” in extreme weather conditions.If you live in Somerset or Pembroke, chances are you’ve probably experienced first hand the incredible decibel levels these unique hummer kites can make with the right hummer, pull loop and angled shape which are all critical to obtaining the desired sound affect.While these unique kites often made from brown paper bags are a joy for some, for others they can be an irritant.“We get a lot of complaints and on a number of occasions the police have come in the height of the afternoon ordering upstanding citizens to pull down their kite,” Mr Butler said. “Some people are just very irrational and not tolerant when it comes to kites.”Occasionally, Mr Butler indulges in friendly rivalries with other kite enthusiasts to see whose kite can make the most noise.“We boast and toast about who can make the loudest kite,” he said. “Here lately since we’ve been flying and seeing who can get the loudest kite we have been travelling all over the Island and have found ourselves in Somerset and to our surprise there’s a whole entourage of gentlemen in Somerset that still fly kites today.“It’s just been a nice camaraderie among men who haven’t touched a line for years. As soon as they hear and see it they want a kite.”Mr Butler dispelled an ongoing myth linking the type of kites he makes and flies to illegal activity.It is claimed that drug dealers fly the high performance kites to alert their customers that they are open for business.But according to Mr Butler, who is in his mid -30s, nothing could be further from the truth.“There’s always been this myth with these kites, especially out of season, that it’s always got to be some illicit activity taking place when kites are flying,” he said. “But you can rest assured it’s just a group of men enjoying themselves flying kites.”Mr Butler started making box kites at a young age with childhood friend Delmare Trott.“He was the one who introduced me to kites and taught me all the fundamentals of making them,” he said. “And my love for kites has grown ever since.“We started out making box kites with fennel sticks when I was like five or six and when I reached ten to 11 that’s when we started making tissue paper kites.”The kite enthusiasts started making high performance kites several years ago after receiving some pointers from Mark Robinson who is regarded among the best in the business in Somerset.“Mark was very instrumental in showing me the modification of these kites,” Mr Butler said. “And that was when my interest shied away from making tissue paper kites to making a craft.“From what I’ve been made to understand these kites originated in Somerset and gratefully when Mark came to work in the city he was gracious enough to spread it on.“Nowadays you find these kites popping up all over the Island because there’s a lot of guys who know how to make kites and when they hear the sound and see the flight of these kites they want to start experimenting. So it’s only a matter of time before they get the right sound.”Mr Butler says his kites, which he prefers to make from plastic, are not difficult to construct.“Once you have the concept of how to make a kite it’s basically tying up the loose ends, meaning making sure everything is extra firm because you have to give it that extra tug or pull here or there,” he added. “You have to make them extra firm because the ideal conditions for these kites is anything above 20 knots of breeze, preferably 25 and gusts to 35.”