The Kitesurfing has long been practiced by « nuts people » It is now a sensational sport consumed by 8000 fans. Happy practitioners and happy destinations ! Indeed the sport attracts more and more people towards places.

Goods news for tourism ! 

 

What are the origins of kitesurfing ? Who invented it ?

End of questions, all the answers now 

  • 2000 years ago : zoom in Asia where the kite was invented. For military purposes, kites were used to frighten ennemies. Who would expect the beginning of a new sport ?

 

  • 70’s / 80’s : since the early 80s, late 70s, some people were already trying kite with water skiing, windsurfing or pirogue. During this time many patents were registered on sails kite. In the 80s the American Cory Roeseler made kite skiing famous.

 

  • 1985 : during the « base de vitesse de Brest » the brothers Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux both developed a wing for water sports called « Wipikat ». This wing has the ability to take off from water. A decisive step that begins the hard work on the kite’s wings. After failures, they set up a company « Wipika » in 1997 and finally aroused the interest of investors. By research and development, the brothers have built the kitesurfing and have made the sport accessible to all.

 

  • 1992 : Laurent Ness and Raphaël Salles took another step by using the attraction of a Delta kite with a windsurfing board. As Steve Jobs in his garage, Laurent Ness, a former Windsurfer, began his story on his own with an old patched float. Not knowing he was a visionary he always new a new sport was about to be born.

 

  • 1996 : in Hawaii, the Breton Manu Bertin and Laird Hamilton both decided to contribute to the story. They worked on Wipikat. Despite the laughter, they considerably helped kitesurfing to progress. Manu Bertin expressed his wish to take a fresh look at windsurfing, to create another way of practicing it.

Interesting fact : originally the official inventors of windsurfing (40 years old) wanted to develop a surfboard pulled by a kite : the idea of the kite surfing.

 

 

  • 1997 : release of the first kitesurfing board « F-one ». The kite gives way to the wing, 2 lines of tension and a board : the flysurfing asserts itself.

 

  • 1998 : the “Mondial du vent” in Leucate, France welcomed Laurent Ness and Raphaël Salles for a kite demonstration. Doubts are slowly disappearing. Since Kitesurfing has made this event very popular.

 

  • 2000 : the kitesurfing skyrockets ! Brands, schools, shops, riders are multiplying. At the same time, Christopher Tasti became the first kite surfing world champion.

 

  • 2005 : the kitesurfing is democratized towards the general public but in parallel fatal accidents are increasing.

 

  • 2019 : the progress is spectacular, the kitesurfing became more regulated, changed wings, increased sales (100 in 1997 to 100, 000 worldwide every year)

To conclude : there is no inventors of the kitesurfing. Kite owed everything to few visionaries. Today the kite is taking more and more people. Even Jose Garcia starts, why not you ? 

 

 

You can already go on Spotyride to learn or praticise kitesurfing wherever you want