What is kiteboarding and brief history
Kitesurfing, means to use a power kite that pull the kite surfer through the water on a small surfboard. Kiteboarding is another name used for kitesurfing.
A board with foot-straps is required by the rider that is joined with the power of a big kite. The kite should be controllable so that the rider may propel himself and board across the water. This sport is still trying to make its place in the world of popular sports but the important thing is that is gaining tremendous popularity day by day. And last year there were almost 150,000 to 200,000 estimated kite boarders throughout the world.
In the beginning this sport was not considered to be risky but now due to advancement in technology safer kites are being made to make sure the protection of the rider and now people do not afraid choosing this sport.
History
They were Chinese who started to use kites for propulsion in the 13th century.
In 1800s George Pocock started to use large kites to propel carts on land. He also used to propel ships on the water. At that time kites could not fly for longer period of time. So there was a requirement of powerful kites that can sustain for longer period. In 1903, aviation pioneer Samuel Cody brought "man-lifting kites" .
But by the end of 1970s first Kevler and then Spectra flying lines were introduced and more controllable kites were launched. These kites were quite improved. In 1978, Ian Day's "FlexiFoil" kite-powered Tornado catamaran exceeded 40 km/h.
In 1980s it was tried occasionally to make a combination of kites with canoes, ice skates, snow skis, water skis and roller skates. And the attempts got succeeded.
Two brothers, Bruno Legaignoux and Dominique Legaignoux, from the Atlantic coast of France, have got the credit to make first inflatable kite design in November 1984. These designs are still used by different companies.
Kite buggying was introduced in 1990 bye Peter Lynn from Newzealand. It became very popular all over the world and over 14000 buggies had been sold till 1999.
In 1994, the Kite Ski system was introduced by Corey Roeseler. This system has water skis powered by a two line delta style kite. The kite is controlled through a bar mounted combined brake. So he in 1995 went to Peter Lynn to demonstrate speed, balance and upwind angle on his 'ski'.
In 1996 Laird Hamilton and Manu Bertin were quite successful in making this sport popular off the Hawaiian coast of Maui.
In 1997, it were the Legaignoux brothers who got success in developing the breakthrough "Wipika" kite design. They developed many kite designs. Especially Bruno Legaignoux , who did not stop his efforts and developed the bow kite design.
In the same year Raphael Salles and Laurent Ness brought special kite boards. By 1998 this sport was at the best and gained enormous popularity. Many kiteboarding school had been built to give classes on kitesurfing. Flash Austin was the one who got the first title of best kite surfer in September 1998. Maui was the place of that competition.
By 1999 surfing designs were successful in making their own place. And from 2001 onwards wakeboard style bi-directional boards were the most demanding in all.
Olaf Marting has got the record of 77.4 km/h(41.79 knots) over a 500 m course. And Sjoukje Bredenkamp has got the record of best female at 37.26 knots.
