Competitive balloon twisting? Meet the talented Drew Ripley

When Kitchener's Drew Ripley tells people he twists balloons for a living, he gets some pretty odd looks.

"Most people don't even realize that's a thing," he said. "It's generally a look of, 'What? You can do this?' And the answer is yes, and it's very intense. It's like any profession; if you take it far enough, there's a competition, there's a convention, there [are]things going on."

He came by the hobby-turned-profession fairly early in life. At 10 years old, his family took a vacation to the Las Vegas area. The trip included shows with famous names such asDavid Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy. By the time the family landed back in Ontario, Ripleywas obsessed.

"A couple of weeks later, there's unicycle at my house, there's a magic kit and in the magic kit, there's a balloon kit," he said.

He started out with balloon animals and performing at birthday parties.

Now, his balloon art is commissioned by corporations.

"I will do just about anything from short pieces like this, which are only a couple of minutes, to pieces that take many people and days," Ripley said.

Team Canada wins bronze

Ripley said he recently became the director of business for Canada's Twisted Five, a national competitive balloon twisting team.

Yes, that's a thing.

As a member of the team, he was in New Orleans in March to take part in the World Balloon Convention, where competitors from 58 countries created balloon masterpieces.

For his team's entry, Ripley helped create a medium-sized display, which saw them build beavers, a Mountie, an igloo, abominable snowmanand a moose in 12 hours. The display won the team bronze.

That wasa feat, Ripley said, because there are teams from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan that train hard forcompetitions and this was the first time Canada's Twisted Fivehas taken part in the bi-annual competition.

Ripley said a lot of work goes into planning the design ahead of time because 12 hours is not a lot of time to create their piece. During the competition, the team is very focused on their work.

"We have blueprints when we do these major builds," he said.

The look on people's faces

One of the more memorable pieces Ripley has worked on is a Jack and the Beanstalk display he did for a 2014 convention in Rochester, N.Y., with Airigami, who isalso from Rochester.

"The main centrepiece was this beanstalk that shot up into the air about 45 feet [13.7 metres] and then there was this big, huge castle on the top," he said. "So you could go up the atrium and circle all the way to the top and see Jack at his various stages and the big giant up top that's trying to chase him away."

He said he enjoys when people can interact with his pieces and added when he sees the looks on people's faces as they take in what he has created, that's when he feels truly accomplished.

"It's the best feeling."