Kiteboarding

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.

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.

[9] Starting in 1999, kitesurfing became a mainstream sport with the entry of key windsurfing manufacturers, namely Robby Naish and Neil Pryde.

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.

[13] The ISAF mid-year meeting of May 2013 proposed seeking an eleventh medal to include kitesurfing in 2020[14] without making any changes to existing events.

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.

[16][17] 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.

[19] 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.

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.

[24] 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.

[47] 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.

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

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.

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.

The wind window is the 180 degree arc of the sky downwind of the rider in which the kite can be flown - roughly one fourth of a sphere's surface, which radius is the length of the lines.

With the development of Internet markets for used goods, used but reliable kiteboarding equipment has become much less expensive, significantly reducing the barrier to the adoption of the sport.

LEIs are the most popular choice among kitesurfers thanks to their quicker and more direct response to the rider's inputs, easy relaunchability if crashed into the water and resilient nature.

If an LEI kite hits the water or ground too hard or is subjected to substantial wave activity, bladders can burst or it can be torn apart.

These features allow the kite's angle of attack to be altered more and thus adjust the amount of power being generated to a much greater degree than previous LEIs.

It is possible to be seriously injured after being lofted, dragged, carried off, blown downwind or dashed, resulting in a collision with hard objects including sand, buildings, terrain or power lines or even by hitting the water surface with sufficient speed or height ("kitemare", a portmanteau of kite and nightmare).

[44] Drowning has been a factor in severe accidents as well and may have been avoided in some cases through the use of an appropriate flotation aid or impact vest and development of acceptable swimming skills.

Some kite designs from late 2005 and onward have included immediate and almost full depower integrated with the control bar and improved quick release mechanisms, both of which are making the sport much safer.

It reduces the severity of eventual impacts, but also improves the user endurance in the long procedures of self-rescue in deep waters, which almost every freeriding kiter experiences sooner or later.

It is also important and overlooked as a complement to the harness, precluding it to climb along the chest during powerful kite loops, which otherwise would hurt the ribs.The other important pieces of a reasonable safety kit are the safety hook knife to cut tangled lines, the helmet in a high visibility colour, a wet suit of reasonable thickness, depending on the water temperature, and possibly neoprene boots if the beach has much shellfish or hard rocks.

[71] Advances in hybrid and bow kite designs leads to a better ability to control the power that they provide and effective safety release systems.

[76] Also surfing rules do apply, so for instance, the rider to catch a wave closer to the crest has the right of way even if not on a starboard tack, freeriders included.

Such trends are quite conspicuous, not so much in the trendy summer holiday locations, but in the low season in metropolitan areas around the globe, where kiteboarding is becoming a regular practice for people of middle income, living in apartments not so close to the waterfront, for a short evasion and substituting for the gym.

Recovery from falling is relatively easy (the kites, especially the newest models, stay normally aloft to pull the rider out of the water, with little effort) as is changing tacks, even in strong wind.