| Before you even thought about taking a Kite Lesson | | | | discovered in the 1800's by George Pocock who |
| you probably asked yourself this question. Is an | | | | took the basic kite design and by increasing the size |
| obvious question but one that deserves a bit of | | | | was able to pull carts on land and ships on the water. |
| attention to answer. Kitesurfing at its most simple is | | | | The kite Pocock built were designed with 4 lines and |
| the art of attaching yourself to a high power kite | | | | the carts and boats they were pulling could travel |
| and using a combination of the wind in the kite and | | | | upwind and the kite itself could generate enough |
| the resistance generated by the board to ride across | | | | power to lift them off the ground and power them |
| the water. There are many different names for the | | | | for a period of time. |
| same sport and it can be referred to as kitesurfing, | | | | It wasn't until the 1980's when Wipika solved the |
| kiteboarding, fly surfing to name just a few. There | | | | problem suffered by all these earlier kite designs...how |
| are several different styles of kitesurfing mainly | | | | to launch it from the water. The Leading Edge |
| freestyle, wake style, wave surfing, and speed, | | | | Inflatable (LEI) kite was born. Then in the 1990's Laird |
| generally different styles require different types of | | | | Hamilton and Manu showed the possibilities of |
| kit and work your body in very different ways. | | | | Kitesurfing to a bunch of surfers and extreme sport |
| Kitesurfing is presently the fastest growing | | | | junkies off the coast of Maui, since then its popularity |
| water-sport in the world and because of this many | | | | has exploded leading to it becoming the fastest |
| of the safety aspects of the sport are becoming | | | | growing water sport in the world. Advances in kite |
| better and better, led by the change to | | | | technology have made it safer and quicker to learn, |
| de-powerable bow style kites. | | | | meaning over the last 5 years it has become even |
| The idea of using a simple kite as a means of | | | | more accessible, today taking a kite lesson or two |
| propulsion dates back to the 12th century when the | | | | you can expect to be up and riding in about a week, |
| Chinese used kites to pull their canoes across the | | | | soon after that follow jumps, backloops. |
| water. This kitesailing as it was known was then re | | | | |