Kiteboarding
Kiteboarding or kitesurfing 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.
File:Kiteboarding - kanagaea - 2022 Nov 13.webm|thumb|thumbtime=1|A person kiteboarding in Kanagawa, Japan in 2022
File:Kitesurfing in Sweden.jpg|thumb|A person kiteboarding in Varberg, Sweden in 2022
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 before being eclipsed by the 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 of flying lines to a control bar and a harness. The kitesurfer rides on either a bidirectional board, 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 received the first patent 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.Through the 1980s, there were occasionally successful attempts to combine kites with canoes, ice skates, snow skis, 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. Strasilla and his Swiss friend Andrea Kuhn also used this invention in combination with surfboards and snowboards, grasskies, and self-made buggies. One of his patents describes in 1979 the first use of an inflatable kite design for kitesurfing.
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 1987, 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.
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.
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.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, 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. The ISAF mid-year meeting of May 2013 proposed seeking an eleventh medal to include kitesurfing in 2020 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 champion 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 Steph Bridge and the 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.
Mixed Kite - Formula Kite was chosen by World Sailing for inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
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. The previous record holder for the height of a single jump was Jamie Overbeek at 35.3m.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. The record has been broken several times since then, and WOO Sports maintains jump-related leaderboards in different categories 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.
Speed records
kitesurfer 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. On 4 October, 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, 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 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. Sébastien Cattelan became the record holder of France and Europe with 55.49 and was the first rider to reach 55 knots.
On 13 November 2017, French rider became the new world speed record holder in France reaching 57.97 knots or 107.36 km/h.
Largest kitesurfing wave
While Nuno "Stru" Figueiredo held the record at 62-foot from a 2018 ride at Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal, Patri McLaughlin set a new Guinness World Record on January 22, 2023.Long distance
| Date | length | description |
| 2006-05-13 | Kirsty Jones, crossing solo from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Tarfaya, Morocco, in about nine hours | |
| 2007-07-24 | Raphaël Salles, Marc Blanc and Sylvain Maurain between Saint-Tropez and Calvi, Haute-Corse in 5h30 at 20 knots, beating Manu Bertin's previous record of 6h 30m for the same journey. | |
| 2008-10-12 | Eric Gramond crossing from Fortaleza to Parnaíba in Brazil during 24 hours | |
| 2010-03-22 | Natalie Clarke crossing Bass Strait from Stanley, Tasmania to Venus Bay, Victoria in Australia in 9h30 | |
| 2010-05-10 | Phillip Midler from South Padre Island, Texas to Matagorda, Texas | |
| 2013-07-19 | Bruno Sroka between Aber Wrac'h, France and Crosshaven, Ireland | |
| 2013-09-18 | Francisco Lufinha from Porto to Lagos, Portugal | |
| 2015-07-07 | Francisco Lufinha from Lisbon to Madeira | |
| 2017-09-13 | Francisco Lufinha and Anke Brandt from Azores to Portugal Mainland |