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Kiteboarding or kitesurfing^[1] is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, snow, sand, or other surface. It combines the aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wakeboarding. Kiteboarding is among the less expensive and more convenient sailing sports.

After some concepts and designs that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s were successfully tested, the sport received a wider audience in the late 1990s and became mainstream at the turn of the century. It has freestyle, wave-riding, and racing competitions. The sport held the speed sailing record, reaching 55.65 kn (103.06 km/h) before being eclipsed by the 65.45 kn (121.21 km/h) Vestas Sailrocket. Worldwide, there are 1.5 million kitesurfers, while the industry sells around 100,000 to 150,000 kites per year.

Most power kites are leading-edge inflatable kites or foil kites attached by about 20 m (66 ft) of flying lines to a control bar and a harness. The kitesurfer rides on either a bidirectional board (a "twin-tip", similar to a wakeboard), a directional surfboard, or a foil board. They often wear a wetsuit in mild to cold waters. In the early days of the sport, there were significant injuries and some fatalities, but the safety record has improved with better equipment and instruction.

History

Late 20th century

In October 1977 Gijsbertus Adrianus Panhuise (Netherlands) received the first patent^[3] for KiteSurfing. The patent covers, specifically, a water sport using a floating board of a surfboard type where a pilot standing up on it is pulled by a wind-catching device of a parachute type tied to his harness on a trapeze-type belt. This patent did not result in any commercial interest.

Through the 1980s, there were occasionally successful attempts to combine kites with canoes, ice skates, snow skis,^[4] water skis and roller skates.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Dieter Strasilla from Germany developed parachute-skiing and later perfected a kite-skiing system using self-made paragliders and a ball-socket swivel allowing the pilot to sail upwind and uphill but also to take off into the air at will.^[5] Strasilla and his Swiss friend Andrea Kuhn also used this invention in combination with surfboards and snowboards, grasskies, and self-made buggies.^[6] One of his patents describes in 1979 the first use of an inflatable kite design for kitesurfing.^[7]

Two brothers, Bruno Legaignoux and Dominique Legaignoux, from the Atlantic coast of France, developed kites for kitesurfing in the late 1970s and early 1980s and patented an inflatable kite design in November 1984, a design that has been used by companies to develop their own products.

Bill Roeseler, a Boeing aerodynamicist, and his son Cory Roeseler patented the "KiteSki" system, which consisted of water skis powered by a two-line, delta style kite, controlled via a bar-mounted combined winch/brake. The KiteSki was commercially available in 1994. The kite had a rudimentary water launch capability and could go upwind. In 1995, Cory Roeseler visited Peter Lynn at New Zealand's Lake Clearwater in the Ashburton Alpine Lakes area, demonstrating the speed, balance, and upwind angle on his 'ski'. In the late 1990s, Cory's ski evolved into a single board similar to a surfboard.^[8][9]

The development of modern-day kitesurfing by the Roeselers in the United States and the Legaignoux in France was carried on in parallel with that of buggying.

In 1996, Laird Hamilton and Manu Bertin were instrumental in demonstrating and popularising kitesurfing off the coast of Maui, while, in Florida, Raphaël Baruch changed the name of the sport from flysurfing to kitesurfing by starting and promoting the first commercial brand of the industry: "Kitesurf".

In 1997, the Legaignoux brothers developed and sold the breakthrough "Wipika" kite design that had a structure of preformed inflatable tubes and a simple bridle system to the wingtips, both of which greatly assisted water re-launch. Bruno Legaignoux continued to improve kite designs, including developing the bow kite design, which has been licensed to many kite manufacturers.

In 1997, specialized kiteboards were developed by Raphaël Salles and Laurent Ness. By the end of 1998 kitesurfing had become an extreme sport, distributed and taught through shops and schools worldwide. The first competition was held on Maui in September 1998 and was won by Flash Austin..^[8]

Starting in 1999, kitesurfing became a mainstream sport with the entry of key windsurfing manufacturers, namely Robby Naish and Neil Pryde. Single direction boards derived from windsurfing and surfing designs became the dominant form of kiteboard.

21st century

In 2000, a new freestyle competition, sponsored by Red Bull was launched in Maui. The competition, named Red Bull King of the Air, judged riders on height, versatility, and style. The competition is still held annually in Cape Town, South Africa.^[10]

From 2001 onward, twin-tip bi-directional boards became more popular for most flat water riders, with directional boards still in use for surf conditions.

In May 2012, the course racing style of kitesurfing was announced as a sport for the 2016 Rio Olympics,^[11] replacing windsurfing. However, after a vote by the General Assembly of the ISAF in November 2012, the RSX windsurfer was reinstated for both Men and Women, resulting in kitesurfing being left out.^[12] The ISAF mid-year meeting of May 2013 proposed seeking an eleventh medal to include kitesurfing in 2020^[13] without making any changes to existing events.

In 2014, course-racing kiteboarding was included in the ISAF World Sailing World Cup program. In November 2014, 20 athletes attended the final competition in Abu Dhabi. The first place among women was taken by Elena Kalinina, while the men's winner was Great Britain's Oliver Bridge.

In 2015, Elena Kalinina won again and received the title of the world champion, ahead of Great Britain's Stefania Bridge and Russian Anastasia Akopova. The world champion among men was Maxime Nocher from Monaco, making him the youngest world champion, ahead of Oliver Bridge and Polish native Blazek Ozog.

Kitesurfing was named an official event at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.^[14]

Mixed Kite - Formula Kite was chosen by World Sailing for inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[15][16]

Kitesurfing Records

Jump records (height, length, time)

On August 8, 2023 South African athlete Joshua Emanuel ascended 36.2 meters in the North Sea near Hanstholm, riding the CORE XR Pro 7m kite.^[17] The previous record holder for the height of a single jump was Jamie Overbeek at 35.3m.^[18] Nick Jacobsen achieved a previous world record for the highest kite jump, measured by WOO Sports on February 19, 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa, during a session with 40-knot winds. Jacobsen's jump reached 28.6 meters high, with an airtime of 8.5 seconds.^[19] The record has been broken several times since then, and WOO Sports maintains jump-related leaderboards in different categories (airtime, height, etc.) based on the data recorded and uploaded by its users.

Jesse Richman holds the record for hangtime at 22 seconds, set at Crissy Field in San Francisco, California. Airton Cozzolino holds the record for strapless hangtime at 19 seconds.^[20]

Speed records

French kitesurfer Sébastien Cattelan ^[fr] became the first sailor to break the 50 knots barrier by reaching 50.26 knots on 3 October 2008 at the Lüderitz Speed Challenge in Namibia.^[21] On 4 October, Alex Caizergues ^[fr] (also of France) broke this record with a 50.57 knots run. Similar speeds have been reached in the same location by windsurfers Anders Bringdal and Antoine Albeau, respectively 50.46 and 50.59 knots. These speeds are verified, but are still subject to ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council. Earlier in the event, on 19 September, American Rob Douglas reached 49.84 knots (92.30 km/h), becoming the first kitesurfer to establish an outright world record in speed sailing. Previously the record was held only by sailboats or windsurfers. Douglas also became the world's third over-50 knots sailor, when on 8 October he made a 50.54 knots (93.60 km/h) run.

On 14 November 2009, Alex Caizergues completed another run of 50.98 knots in Namibia.

October 2010, Rob Douglas became the outright record holder for the short distance 500 meters with 55.65 knots.^[22] Sébastien Cattelan became the record holder of France and Europe with 55.49 and was the first rider to reach 55 knots.^[23]

On 13 November 2017, French rider Alex Caizergues ^[fr] became the new world speed record holder in France (Salin-de-Giraud) reaching 57.97 knots or 107.36 km/h. ^[24]

Largest kitesurfing wave

While Nuno "Stru" Figueiredo held the record at 62-foot (19-meter) from a 2018 ride at Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal, Patri McLaughlin set a new Guinness World Record on January 22, 2023 (72 feet and four inches (22.04 meters)).^[25]

Long distance

Notable journeys

Louis Tapper completed the longest recorded solo kite journey, completing 2000 km between Salvador and Sao Luis, Brazil. The journey was completed between July/August 2010 and took over 24 days of kitesurfing. This trip is also the longest solo journey, completed without a support crew, using one kite and a 35-liter backpack .^[35]

The previous longest recorded kite journey was by Eric Gramond who completed a 13-day trip of 1450 km along the coast of Brazil.^[36]

Bering Strait crossing

Constantin Bisanz, a 41-year-old Austrian, crossed a 80 km (50 mi) stretch of the Bering Strait, embarking from Wales, Alaska, US on 12 August 2011 at 04:00, and arriving in easternmost Russia two hours later, after which he returned by boat to Alaska. It occurred after 2 previously failed attempts, the first of which was on 28 July 2011, in which an incident occurred where he found himself floating in 36 °F water with no board, kite, or GPS unit for 1 hour before being rescued. On his second attempt on 2 August he and two friends sailed half the distance before turning around due to poor wind conditions.^[37]

Transatlantic crossing

A team of six kitesurfers, Filippo van Hellenberg Hubar, Eric Pequeno, Max Blom, Camilla Ringvold, Ike Frans, and Dennis Gijsbers crossed the Atlantic Ocean, from the Canary Islands to the Turks and Caicos Islands a distance of about 5,600 km (3,500 mi), from 20 November 2013, to 17 December 2013.^[38] Each of the six spent four hours each day surfing, broken into two sessions of two hours each, one during the day, and the other during the night.^[38]

Environments

Kitesurfing on water includes freestyle and big air using a kiteboard similar to a wakeboard, kiting in waves using small surfboards with or without footstraps or bindings, foiling, and speed kiting.

Land kiting needs a short and light mountain board, feet steered buggies, rollerskates, or sand boards for sand kiteboarding, which is also referred to as "sand kiting".^[39] It is a great cross-training for kitesurfing as many of the mechanisms for kite control transfer to water use.^[40]

Skis or snowboards are used on snow for snowkiting.

Market

In 2012^[update], the number of kitesurfers was estimated by the ISAF and IKA at 1.5 million persons worldwide^[41] (pending review). The global market for kite gear sales was then worth US$250 million.^[42] The Global Kitesports Association (GKA) estimates 10% of the kitesurfers continue during winter. After substantial growth, activity was levelling by 2017 at around 85,000 kites sold yearly by GKA members, twintip boards sales decreased from 37,000 in 2013 to 28,000 in 2016 and directional boards from 8,000 to 7,000.^[43]

The largest manufacturers are Boards and More (previously under the North brand, now Duotone), then Cabrinha (Neil Pryde) with 25–35,000 kites a year each. They are followed by Naish, F-One, Core kiteboarding, Slingshot sports, Liquid Force, Airush, Ozone Kites, Flysurfer and others. The GKA recorded 100,000 kites sales in 2017 for its members, giving an estimated 140–150,000 total kites sales for 2017.^[44] Technavio predicted a global kiteboarding equipment market reaching US$2,120 million by 2021, growing at a CAGR of almost 9% from 2017.^[45]

Governance

International kiteboarding has several promoting organizations and has undergone many changes in the governance of the sport, including long-lasting disputes between several of those entities, trying to negate each other the right to promote sporting events.^[46] The significance of the associated economic activity could explain part of such turbulence, but the intense rate of innovation and of adoption made it difficult to conceive, regulate and formalize the new competitions, and offer opportunities for new players specializing in new variants of the sport.

Some of those international organizations are (or were):

• The Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA), and the Kiteboard Pro World Tour (KPWT), both of which promoted several international tour competitions since 2002, however not as Kiting governing bodies.
• The Global Kitesports Association (GKA) - Industry association that federates several industry stakeholders organizers of competition world tours.
• The International Federation of Kitesports Organizations (IFKO), established in 2016 as a not-for-profit kiters association, covering also land and snow kiting, claiming to be the only legal kiting governing body over WS.
• The World Kiteboarding League (WKL) promoted freestyle competitions in 2017.
• The Kiteboarding Riders United (KRU) is an informal union of the professional kiteboarders, since 2016.
• The Kite Park League (KPL) is dedicated to international competitions in kiteboarding parks.
• The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA), based in Gibraltar, a company, not an association, created by World Sailing to unite kite national associations. Organizer of several racing events tours.
• World Sailing (WS), formerly the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), a private company that has promoted sail and boating since 1907. Since 2008, the WS claims to affiliate the IKA as its kiteboard racing body.

Several world cup events are sanctioned by the WS on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, a private association.

KPWT exchanged endorsements with IKA in 2009. Both become opposing parties as the IKA also got an agreement with PKRA. IKA threatened and banned riders who take part in competitions without its endorsement.

In 2015, the PKRA was sold to a group of investors, becoming the Virgin Kitesurfing World Championship (VKWC).

The WS itself has split the governance of its own events between the GKA for the expression disciplines and the IKA for the racing disciplines. The GKA has then split the expression disciplines, choosing to run the Wave and Strapless Tour themselves, while ceding to the World Kiteboarding League to run the freestyle events and the Kite Park League to run the park events. The freestyle events were then handed to the Kiteboarding Riders United (KRU).^[47]

Styles

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Several different kitesurfing styles are evolving, some of which cross over.^[48]

Styles of kiteboarding, include freestyle, freeride, speed, course racing, wakestyle, big air, park, and surfing.^[48]

• 
  Unhooked freestyle
• 
  Board Off hooked-in freestyle
• 
  Foiling with a kite
• 
  Wave-riding
• 
  Course racing
• 
  The Lüderitz Speed Challenge had set records

Techniques

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Kiteboarding can pose hazards to surfers, beachgoers, bystanders and others on the water. Many problems and dangers that may be encountered while learning kiting can be avoided or minimized by taking professional instruction through lesson centers. Kitesurfing schools provide courses and lessons to teach entry-level skills and more advanced ones, including:

• Kite, lines and bar handling and maintenance
• True and relative wind concepts, including basic kite navigation in the wind window
• Landing and launching the kite
• Kite assisted swimming, known as 'body dragging'
• Water start
• Relaunch and self-rescue techniques
• Navigation rules and best practices regarding safety
• Up-wind and down-wind navigation
• Basic turning or jibing up to "heel turn jibe"
• Dealing with surf and waves
• Pop and controlled jumping and flying
• Board grabs, tricks performed while a rider is jumping or has gained air from popping by grabbing the board in a number of positions with either hand. Each grab has a different name dependent on which part of the board is grabbed and with which hand grabs it. The names generally originate from other board sports like skateboarding and snowboarding

• 
  Jumping
• 
  Big Air
• 
  Kiteboarder edging his board

The wind

Wind strength and kite sizes

Kitesurfers change kite size and/or line length depending on wind strength — stronger winds call for a smaller kite to prevent overpower situations. Kitesurfers determine the wind strength using either an anemometer or, more typically, visual clues as shown in the Beaufort scale. Modern kites dedicated to kitesurfing provide a "depower" option to reduce the power in the kite. By using depower, the kite's angle of attack to the wind is reduced, thereby catching less wind in the kite and reducing the pull.

Bow kites have a wider wind range than C-kites, so two kite sizes (such as 7 m² and 12 m²) could form an effective quiver for winds ranging from 10 to 30+ knots for a 75 kg (165 lb) rider.^[49]

Wind direction and speed

Cross-shore and cross-onshore winds are the best for unassisted kiteboarding. Direct onshore winds carry the risk of being thrown onto land or stuck in shallows. Direct offshore winds pose the danger of being blown away from the shore in the event of equipment failure or loss of control. However offshore winds can be quite suitable in confined waters, like in a lake or estuary, or when a safety boat is assisting.

The kiter must maintain a clear perception of the wind direction but also of the wind speed. The Beaufort scale^[50] is of great assistance in helping users assess the situation. A range of wind up to 33 knots covers the conditions for a safe practice for an experienced rider. A less experienced one should avoid riding with more than 15 knots. Most twintip boards and inflatable kites would be barely rideable below 11 knots, therefore for most cases a user should focus on the winds classified as moderate up to strong.

Apparent wind

Even if there is no wind blowing, a kiter can act on the kite lines and force it to move, and then, like with a row, it generates some force resulting from the incidence of the air into the kite's surface. In a gentle breeze, if the user action increases the air speed around the kite 10 times, the generated force increases 100 times, since the wind force acting on a kite is proportional to the square of the wind speed acting on it.^[51] Thus the relevant notion of apparent wind, which is the actual wind acting on the moving kite, sail or wing.

The apparent wind is measured taking the moving kite as the reference frame, therefore its other name as relative wind. By opposition, the wind measured relatively to the ground is called true wind.

While the other wind sports can generate considerable apparent wind, their wind forces are limited by the movement of the user platform, since it is attached more or less rigidly to the wing or sail. In this aspect, kiteboarding seems unique among other wind sports, since it allows the user to generate apparent wind independently of the movement of the user platform, the board. For instance, in the initiating kiteboard technic called waterstart, while the user prepares to start in the water, the kite is sent aggressively, generating a propulsive impulse. Then the resulting movement of the board increases tension on the kite lines, which the user controls to manage the riding speed and to navigate at will. The composition of the movements of both the kite and the board, offer the user a great deal of navigation flexibility and creativity, including the possibility to jump significantly, making this a true 3-dimensional sport. Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Kite_boarding
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