A Brief History of Kitesurfing

Everything you wanted to know about how this sport originated.

Compiled from various WWW sources including Jakob Jelling and Peter Lynn.

Harnessing the power of kites for a practical purpose is probably about as old as the invention of the kite itself. Various historians suggest that kites were being flown in China as long ago as 1,000 BC. There is certainly documentary evidence of kites were being flown in China as long ago as 200 BC. While many kite enthusiasts believe that the kite was invented in China, Pacific islanders are known to have used a very large leaf that flies well as a single line kite. It required no stablising tail and little work except plucking it from the tree. Combine a leaf with a fishing line and you have a method that has been used in that area for more than 10,000 years.

It would not have taken long for any of the 'ancients" to try using a kite to pull them along on a log or primative craft however being pulled along by such a single line kite does not allow any course that deviates much from downwind. For other courses (reaching across the wind for instance) a combination of steearbility of both kite and craft is necessary.

In this respect, George Pocock - the father of kite traction - made the first recorded kite-powered upwind course. This was achieved with a carriage powered by his patented four line controllable kite system on the back roads of Bristol, more than 170 years ago. The ingenious innovators' intention was to establish kitepower as an alternative to horsepower, partly to avoid the hated "horse tax" that was levied at that time. Pocock's system proved the principles of kite traction but was not entirely practical.

One issue still remained - most of the earlier kites were only deployed from flat ground and not water.

 In the early 1970s a few people in the USA generated some curiosity by using standard round parachutes to pull themselves across water on on waterskis. In 1977 the Dutchman Gijsbertus Panhuise registered a patent whereby a pilot standing upright on a "board" is pulled by a parachute tied to his harness. It seems however that this received little publicity and that no commercialisation followed.

In the late 1970s the development of high-tech Kevlar sails and Spectra flying lines and controllable kites with reasonable efficiency (with a lift/drag ration exceeding 3.0) made Pocock's dream of practicable kite traction possible at last. By 1978, Ian Day's "FlexiFoil" kite powered Tornado catamaran had exceeded 40km/hr and through the 1980s there were sporadic and occasionally successful attempts to combine kites with canoes, ice skates, snow skis water ski's and roller skates.

The Swiss Andreas Kuhn sailed in the middle of the 1980's with wakeboard style boards pulled by a paraglider (around 25m). He is probably the first kiter to demonstrate jumping high ("getting air") in light winds.

On the Atlantic coast of France, brothers Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux both surfers, sailors, and windsurfers, also put their lives and souls into making kitesurfing practical, working at it full time from the early 1980s. They registered their patent for the first self-relaunching "marine wing" and to promote it, they participated in several International Speedsailing events in 1985 and 1986 with waterskis. Over the following ten years they improved their wing and tested many different designs. The first commercial wings sold in 1993.

Bill Roeseler, a Boeing Aerodynamicist, with his son Corey, also an engineer and world class water skier, worked away for many years experimenting with kite powered sailing boats and buggies. They struck success with their patented "KiteSki" system; water ski(s) powered by two line delta style kites controlled via a bar mounted winch/brake.Available commercially from 1994, the KiteSki has genuine water launch capability. This is accomplished by winding the lines in until the nose of the kite is within reach. Then the kite is hand launched on very short lines, with the lines let out under brake control until the kite is at full height. KiteSki kites generate a smooth, powerful pull in stronger winds and have excellent upwind performance, especially in gusty conditions.

In 1995, Corey visited Peter Lynn at New Zealand's Lake Clearwater (Lynn's infamous testing ground situated in the Ashburton Alpine Lakes area) where he impresssed the New Zealander with his speed, balance and upwind angle achieved on his 'ski'. Kites improved rapidly through the 1990s, driven largely by the significant and highly competitive market provided by kite buggying. However, the development which was to be penultimate to the success of modern day kitesurfing carried on almost independently of buggying. The Roeselers in the USA and the Legagnauxs in France became the Wright brothers of recent kitesurfing history.

There was still an electric feeling amongst those working in the traction field that passionately sought breakthroughs were imminent. The first significant success came with the development of practical kite buggying in 1990, at Argyle Park in Ashburton New Zealand. With the conception of the forerunner of modern parafoil kite technology - the "Peel" - coupled with the three wheeled buggy, Peter Lynn spawned a worldwide sport with spectacular success.

Ram-air parafoil design kites, a dominant power kite for buggying and all other traction action also gained widespread acceptance among kitesurfers especially after the development of leading edge vent valves for this style of kite. These vent flaps retain air giving a few minutes kite flotation and a reasonable chance of re-launching.

New Zealand's major contribution to kitesurfing technology was Peter Lynn's development of the 4 line "C-Quad". This quasi-framed kite hybridises aspects of delta and foil design. With its very fine leading edge and single skin the C Quad is very efficient in flight allowing good upwind sailing angles. C-Quads can only be re-launched from the water in very strong winds or when the flier's feet have purchase on the ocean or lake floor.

Peter Lynn first met the Legaignoux brothers and tried out their breakthrough "Wipika" kite design at a kitesailing regatta in Italy in 1995. The Wipika, described as a "spherical Gore", or sometimes more affectionately as "a big slice o' lemon" had a structure of preformed inflatable tubes. This design had a simple bridle system, mainly to the wingtips, which reduced the chance of bridle tangles and facilitated its extreme spanwise arch. This form's huge virtue is ease of water re-launch, almost always possible provided that the wind is above a minimum threshhold. Wipika kites largely defined modern kitesurfing especially on the Hawaiian isaland of Maui.