Surf Today Kiteboarding

Danny Barnette has just enjoyed a pure freeride experience in the Outer Banks.

The kiteboarder from Raleigh, North Carolina, completed a 20-mile downwind run that led him through some of the best slicks on the East Coast.

One thing's for sure: his jumping skills are now better than ever, and that's probably why he named his video edit "Puddle Jumping." By the end of the clip, you may feel a bit dizzy, but it will be worth.

What's the first thing you do when you get in a car?

You click in your seatbelt, hearing that click sound makes you feel secure that you are safely buckled up, and you know instinctively how to release it.

Ozone announced the launch of a new release system, the Click-In Loop is inspired by the same principle.

The World Sailing (WS) Council approved the introduction of kiteboarding in the Paris 2024 Olympic sailing program.

The sport of kiteboarding should make its Olympic debut in 2024, when the Summer Olympics hit Paris, the capital of France.

The World Sailing Council approved submission M22-18 that includes two windsurfing events, a mixed kiteboarding team event, a new mixed one person dinghy event, a mixed double-handed dinghy team event, and five events that have already been confirmed.

Deury Corniel and Nina Font Castells claimed the 2018 TwinTip:Racing (TT:R) Slalom Youth World Championship, in Hainan Island, China.

The final qualification event for the upcoming 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) defined the 24 athletes that, in October, will live the dream in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It will be the first that kiteboarders will compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals in an Olympic event. The historical moment will also mean random clashes and tangles during hard-fought water battles.

There has always been a dispute over the name of the sport. Is it kiteboarding or kitesurfing?

"Dreamland," a compilation of wave kiting footage featuring Keahi De Aboitiz and Moona Whyte, helps us figure out how to distinguish both terms.

In fact, kitesurfing is more about flying a kite and hitting the waves. Somehow like a surfer, but pulled by a large kite. Interestingly, purist kitesurfing enthusiasts tend to use strapless surfboards, only.

Nicolas Parlier and Alexia Fancelli were the fastest kiteboarders of the 2018 Défi Kite, held in Gruissan, France.

The 100-kilometer kitesurfing marathon attracted 320 riders. Four races were run, and the famous Tramontane wind didn't disappoint and blew in the 20-to-45-knot range.

The competition mixed, once again amateur and professional kiteboarders. A large majority of the riders flew 15-meter kites. Nico led his foil to victory with a flawless performance.

Aymeric Martin, Nicolas Gilomen, Manuela Jungo, and Isabel Von Zastrow claimed the four wildcards on offer for the upcoming 2018 Triple-S Invitational.

The event will take place between June 2-8 in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and showcases the world's best progressive wake-style kiteboarders putting their skills to the test on slider and kicker features.

The 12th Annual Wind Voyager Triple-S Invitational will feature 24 male riders and 10 female athletes from all corners of the planet.

Before Dominic Jalbert's 1950s development of "soft" kites, which use the stagnation pressure of airflow (Bernoulli's principle) as a structural element, large kites were size-limited by frame strength.

The largest Japanese Wan Wans could be more than 20-meter diameter (315 m2), but weighed an impractical two tonnes or more.

The Holland Kite Team, led by Gerard van der Loo, made the first successful very large soft kite - the CS550 (550 m2, <150 kgs), in 1982.

The president of International Federation of Kitesports Organizations (IFKO) attacked World Sailing's legitimacy to manage the sport of kiteboarding.

Diogo Paes Fernandes expressed his wish to "stop World Sailing's illegal abuse of dominant position which is causing great harm to the kite structures and their competitions at a national and international level."

"Like IFKO, World Sailing [WS] is recognized as a single-sport federation, therefore neither can provide nor govern activity outside their social object and goals they were founded for. Europe and the United States have laws to define, limit and protect the scope of action of private associations as well as companies, like WS," underlined Fernandes.

The so-called "walk of shame" is one of the oldest taboos in kiteboarding. However, it will always be an inevitable action for those who are learning the tricks of the trade.

So, what is the walk of shame? When first-timers start riding a kite, they learn the basic downwind technique, which means they can only sail with the wind behind their back.

But, because they still don't master the upwind riding skill, they need to stop sailing and walk back to where they started, normally along the beach.

The inaugural GKA Kiteboarding World Tour didn't start well. But sometimes, bad things lead to positive outcomes. And that's when tow-up kiteboarding becomes a spectacular experience.

For the first time in 20 years, Leucate's Mondial du Vent suffered an utterly windless spell. As a result, the world's best big air kiteboarding specialists were not able to compete and get results.

With the Air Games stalled and postponed, organizers ran a series of tow-up training sessions in which height and hangtime provided a fantastic experience. At least, from a spectator's perspective.

Spanish kitesurfer Gisela Pulido had her first kitesurfing session at Peahi, on the North Shore of Maui, Hawaii.

The 24-year-old rider kicked off her new adventure - the Big Wave Challenge - in the iconic Hawaiian surf break. In 2018, Pulido aims to surf the world's biggest waves.

"What a day! I have no words to describe how I feel right now! Jaws is one of the most amazing waves on Earth. I was dreaming of this moment so much, and I can't believe it finally happened," expressed Pulido.

Land kiting, also known as kite landboarding or land kiteboarding, is one of the most underrated disciplines in kiteboarding.

Nevertheless, and despite the fact that it is performed on terra firma, riders can reach high speeds. Surprisingly, or maybe not, land kiteboarders are nearly as fast as their fellow water performers.

Recently, Thierry Collado set a new world speed land kiting record. The rider living in Ventura, California, drove his equipment at 61.9 miles per hour (99.62 kilometers per hour, or 53.78 knots) at La Franqui, in France.

The Kiteboarding Riders United (KRU) and the Global Kitesports Association (GKA) released a joint statement clarifying the current situation in professional freestyle kiteboarding.

According to the note issued by both organizations the World Kiteboarding League is no longer the "official" freestyle tour.

The new Freestyle World Tour will be called World Kiteboarding Championships (WKC) from now on until any further notice issued by KRU, the official rights holders.

The Global Kitesports Association (GKA) announced the launch of the Air Games, a new World Tour that combines all kiteboarding styles.

While the World Kiteboarding League (WKL) struggles to keep the freestyle discipline up and running, the GKA decided to develop a big air-inspired circuit focused on high jumps and maneuvers.

The GKA Kiteboarding Air Games World Tour will kick off in 2018 with three events held in Leucate, Tarifa, and Cabarete. The goal is to get the wow factor and spectators' enjoyment at the heart of all the action.

Launching a kite is one of the most important moments in kiteboarding. Here's how an assistant can help a rider get his kite up in the sky.

As a kiteboarder, you need to make sure your kite starts flying as it should and, simultaneously ensure you do it in a safe zone, away from objects, landmarks, and other people.

Kites not only become extremely heavy after inflated, but they can also reach high speeds on particularly windy days. And then, let's not forget the kite lines, an always dangerous weapon that will severely injure passersby.

I was a latecomer to using kites as sails and didn't make a start until 1987 when it seemed to me that enough ducks were in a line to make a major shift to kite traction achievable.

I had also temporarily run out of interesting single-line kite challenges.

By then, I'd been strongly influenced by Paul MacCready winning the Kremer Competition for the first man-powered aircraft to fly a one-mile Figure 8 course, in 1977.

The city of Miami Beach is working on legislation to ban kitesurfing.

According to the Miami Beach Kiteboarders Foundation (MBKF), local authorities in conjunction with ocean rescuers are trying to push all riders to 76th Street and 84th Street.

"They want to force all kiteboarders to ride in one small location, at the edge of the City, far away from our homes, which will, in fact, create a safety hazard," the organization explains.

Thirty Formula GPS kiteboarders battled it out on the mountains of the Alto Sangro, Italy, for the second leg of 2018 IKA Snowkite World Cup.

The first day of racing was scheduled to take place in the Fredda Valley, a rather flat area with less steep slopes where speed and distance were more rewarded than gaining height through the terrain. Some impressive performances were recorded early on, with two GPS tasks completed.

On day two, racing was moved to Toppe del Tesoro, the highest area of the Alto Sangro ski region. Winds were light, and despite some great individual performances in the early stages of the challenge, racing was finally abandoned as the wind completely died.

The Global Kitesports Association announced the full schedule for the 2018 GKA Kite-Surf World Tour.

The strapless freestyle and wave kitesurfing series will feature six stages held in five different countries. However, two extra dates in Ireland and Brazil may be added later in the season.

The world's best kite riders will compete for two officially sanctioned world titles, as determined by World Sailing.