Got my gear in 2014 after driving past a marina with dozens of kites out there. Went past that same spot again a couple years later and it had something like 80 kites out there. Just the other week and now there's people with hydrofoils and wing kites in their hands, the innovation is still happening.
I have been a windsurfer until 98 and did the transition to kitesurfing and that documentary explains all. It was tougher learning the sport living in Africa, but we managed by following our previous windsurfers stars like Robbie Naish.
God.. I have a 12 NEO 2019 and can't go upwind .. And it's great to see these people who manage to go upwind with a stick with a pulley and a kite that flies miraculously.. really amazing!
@@garrylarose1506 oh he is. trust me, he is. he realized that going downwind produces too much speed anyway so he started going cross wind a lot more and after a while he noticed that if he can go crosswind, he can go upwind. all he had to do is lean back a bit more (with your shoulders, not your hips).
@@macpaz I was reviewing this documentary masterpiece and I noticed my comment, totally forgotten in time .. 🤯 I am so moved, because this video and your comments reminded me of my old fears. A few months after this comment I went from my small Italian lake directly to Fuerteventura, I could barely upwind, but confident that the experience would definitely unlock me. That experience changed me profoundly, I kited every day for a week (destroyed😂) and as you anticipated, I was able to go upwind and even land jumps thanks to all the material here on youtube. Now, 2 years since then, I am totally independent and so grateful to this sport because it has definitely improved my personal growth, I have quit smoking and have built tremendous self-confidence! ''I just love what I do, try to do it well, so far so good'' 😎🤙
@@garrylarose1506 Yes, and it was much easier than I thought, I just needed a little more wind than usual to understand the technique!! 😁 Now I'm all in the jumps and rotations, downloops, safe kiteloops, and about to step in the hydrofoil world 🤩
that was so good. I sailed for many years, then started to windsurf...only once i started to windsurf i started to notice the wind on the leaves, the wind on my face... Kiteboarding is next
thank you guys I started kiting on the coast of RI on the east coast back in 98 my mom helped me make a kite and made my own bladders with tpu film and was kind of funk but it worked . thank you all for your development in the industry I will kite until I die
Very comprehensive year by year compendium of kitesurfing. I also started and followed everything sonce very early in Tarifa circa 1999, when windsurfers would sail near you to have a close look at that new contraption. I even had a 9m Naish kite that previously belonged to Flash Austin. For the future of the sport my suggestion is to include kitefoiling if the video is to be updated.
Kitefoiling has become big, and so has foil windsurfing. Just from the beginning of this past summer you'd see Tony Logosz out prototyping and a few others learning/crashing, and now you see many foil windsurfers, including many kiter friends switching to it instead of foil kiting. I saw two kids on foil SUPs pumping and paddling their way past Wells Island the other day. Foils are here to stay.
It took me 10 years sailing year round 2-3-4 times per week, 3-4 hours per session to become an intermediate windsurfer. It takes practice and some knowledge.
I was a windsurfer before I saw kiteboarding. You can learn windsurfing faster, but after learning one, rider progression in kiteboarding is a lot faster than windsurfing, and kiting is a lot more versatile.
1984: one of the originals was Kevin from Honolulu. Kevin was "hydro kiting" (coined by AKA Kite Master Robert Leora) in 1984. Kevin worked for kite fantasy and was sponsored by Hyper Kites. He used a 12 stack of extreamly powerfull delta Hyperkites. The kites could be instantly water launched easily in shallow water only. He would go from Sylvester Stallones yard in Kohala to Diamond Head Crater.
In Aruba he was still starting to "Kite Ski". !! I was out on the water with him and one day he showdup with the monoski,,,,,, and he just saild away,,,,, so vast!! Windsurf had a new buddy
Holy shit I remember those days. I started kiting in 1998 in Revere, MA. Nobody knew what it was. I used a stack of Flexifoil stackers with strap on a knee board then a home made skim board from 3/8" plywood and skateboard grip tape for a deck. I used my kite buggy kite Sky Tiger Hi 60 with quad handles but crashed and swam a lot. At the time I was well into buggying and used to go to the kite buggy races on Ivanpah Dry lake in Nevada. I knew Jeff Howard, the team rider for Quadrafoil kites and they just produced their first kite surf board so I was talking to Jeff about if he knew of a kite surf specific board and he told me he has one he was selling. I went home to Mass and called him up and told him send it to me. I bought it and had the first kite board in Massachusetts. LOL I asked him how do I kite surf and I got my lesson over the phone. I already knew how to fly these kites but didn't know how to apply. He said just take your kite out 2 sizes bigger than you would buggy with to the point where it is almost lifting you. "Go into the water sit down point the board down wind and take the kite from 10 oclock and dive it to 3 o'clock and stand up and go". LOL I must have eaten shit so many times and drank gallons of sea water. I would get show up on the beach and wind surfers and other people would ask me "why are you surfing and flying a kite at the same time?" LOL or "where's the motor on the board or the kite? LOL. Of couse the two main questions I got "What do you call this and how much does it cost?"
And look at where the sport is now, 10+ decent Big Air events each year; whole podiums of teenagers leading the progression and kites going around the wind window three times. These guys couldn't have ever dreamed of this.
Yes! LEI Kite Patent is proof! 😁. I lived in St Gilles Croix deVie for one winter/summer. There I had a friend made a very good WING KITE and was riding on the big beach on 🛼 all the time… 35 YEARS AGO, wing kite! You have so many pioneers, great people, great food…. we all love France! Vive 🇫🇷 🙏🏼
sorry to dissappoint you but kiting has become an old man's sport already. There is various reasons for this, but needless to say it doesnt have the same coolness factor it had when it came out
Curious how Americans rewrite history in this report to appropriate the history of kitesurfing which in its current form (Wipika inflatable kites) was created by the Legaignoux brothers, Manu Bertin, Laurent Ness and others en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiteboarding
The first 5 minutes or so of this would have been a great intro for an actual documentary. Unfortunately no one told the video creator there is supposed to be commentary in a documentary.
I didn’t hear the quote but the “speed record” the water sport industry talks about is in relation to wind powered sports. Ages ago, it was always held by windsurfers. You can travel faster than the wind because your air foil creates what is termed “apparent wind speed”. I am not sure what sport currently holds the speed record - if it’s a competition between windsurfing and kiteboarding I am sure it’s a kite. If it includes any watercraft it is most likely something big on hydrofoils with the advancements in them in the last decade, and a big fixed fig… just guessing. Love the doc too.. the pioneers, the fun, and how far it’s come, and branched - the sky is the limit! Thanks to ALL. Awesome job!
A dude who lives in my town in Oregon is the first person to make a purpose built kiteboard. He was doing this shit with stunt kites, and before you were strapped to the kite! Nobody in this vid is the first of anything
Yes I believe so,..for Ram Air traction kites,..which were first used (and still are ) on water (but start swimming if you crash it). Leading Edge Inflatable kites changed the game =rigid wing & water relaunch.
The way I heard/saw it was the windsurfers were not digging the kite pioneers / fans taking up the parking and water (long kite lines and sketchy rider control) real estate in their nice spots. A feuding atmosphere briefly developed in the early days. I saw images of printed stickers on parking spots saying “Poleboarding Has Been Cancelled”. I was not there ~ you’d need to look at very early footage or talk to the locals. Today everybody ✊🏼 and gets along ~ the ocean has enough space for everybody to have fun.
i hate how oh so different guys say the same thing over and over again, for 5 min, with slight word variation, then switch to the next sentence and repeat...
