Surf Today Kiteboarding

Unhooked riding is a fundamental skill for freestyle and wave kitesurfing. Learn how to ride a kite unhooked.

Whether you're riding waves or performing new school tricks, you need to master unhooking and hooking, as fast as you can.

As with everything in kiteboarding, training is the best way of achieving perfection. If you're starting with unhooked riding, use the lower wind range to exercise the technique in waist-deep waters and free space around you.

Nukak presents a new bag made of an innovative material: recycled kitesurfing sails.

Ralf is the new kite backpack that features a combination of daring colors and lightness and, thanks to its resistance and flexibility, it has multiple uses.

Ralf is versatile and very useful for both urban use and weekend getaways, for your day-to-day life or your kitesurfing adventures.

Are you getting into strapless kiteboarding? Are you unsure where to place your feet on the board? Find the ideal foot positions for a successful ride.

Strapless kitesurfing is one the most exciting dimensions in kiteboarding. Riding a surfboard without any attachments allows you to enjoy the experience with total freedom.

Nevertheless, the advantages of riding strapless come with a few downsides, obstacles and challenges that you should be able to overcome and master.

Learn simple preventive measure that will make your foil last longer. Slingshot shared some helpful tips on keeping your gear in top performance.

You've made your splurge, and it's your new favorite toy. Like anything that is worth something, your new foil needs some tender loving care.

Proper maintenance, both before and after using your foil, are essential steps in prolonging its life. This is especially important with salt water exposure.

Nico Parlier and Steph Bridge have been crowned the 2017 IKA KiteFoil world champions, in the Italian island of Sardinia.

The five-day event got underway at the Gulf of Angels, off Cagliari's Poetto Beach, and had great wind conditions for the world's fastest foilboard expert to showcase their riding skills.

On the second day, the gusty Mistral winds invaded the regatta field, hitting 40 knots and putting the fleet to the test.

What do you call the sport of riding a board on water while being pulled by a kite? Are you a kiteboarder or a kitesurfer? What is the official name for the action sport?

It is one of the youngest boardsports in the world, and it was born in the early 1980s in France and Hawaii. Generally speaking, kiteboarding and kitesurfing are different names for the same water sport.

The majority of people tend to use them both interchangeably in conversations, although purists say they do not represent the same thing. So, why do we have two titles for one single outdoor activity?

Florian Gruber and Jingle Chen claimed the inaugural 2017 TwinTip:Racing World Championship slalom-boardercross titles, in Pingtan, China.

The event was sanctioned by the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) and featured an innovative format with obstacles and four-minute downwind races that will be adopted at the 2017 Youth Olympic Games.

For the first edition of the TT:R worlds, there were 65 kiteboarders from 17 nations competing in three divisions: Men, Women/Girls, and Boys.

Discover the most common types of kiteboards. Find out which board to ride in your favorite kitesurfing style.

The sport of kiteboarding evolved dramatically in the 21st century. Today, a kite enthusiast has several disciplines to choose from: wave riding, freestyle, slalom/course racing, speed, big air, wake park riding, kite buggying, and kite landboarding.

As a result, kiteboarders have to adapt their riding gear to the conditions they're facing out in the water, and even on land. There are kites for specific needs and, obviously, boards for various situations.

The most extreme big-air kiteboarding contest on African soil is back in 2018. The Red Bull King of the Air will return for the sixth time in 2018 and entries are open now.

Kiteboarders who have what it takes to compete with the world's best aerialists in the most epic conditions Cape Town has to offer need to drop a one-minute edit of their biggest airs on the official website.  

Entries are open to riders from anywhere in the world, but there are only five spots available. The 2018 rider list will be made up of the top 9 from the 2017 event, four invited wildcards, and the top five from the ranking of the online video competition.

Kiteboarding, also known as kitesurfing, is a water sport that blends elements and characteristics of wakeboarding, surfing, windsurfing, snowboarding, paragliding, and skateboarding.

Harnessed to a large hand-controlled kite, and powered by the wind, the kiteboarder uses a board (similar to a snowboard, wakeboard or skateboard) to ride and glide across the water.

Kiteboarders are only able to fly their kites through an imaginary wind window. Unlike in windsurfing and other sailing disciplines, kiteboarders need minimum wind speed to get their wings up in the sky.

Alex Neto mastered the strong winds blowing across the striking blue lagoons and immense sand dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park to win the second edition of kitesurfing's Red Bull Rally dos Ventos.

The Brazilian star excelled on home soil to defend his title and upset world champion Carlos Mario Bebê in a thrilling finish at the end of a tough competition.

Forty-five competitors battled their way through 65 kilometers of picturesque blue lagoons and huge sand dunes in one of South America's most breathtaking settings.

What better way to crown a wave kitesurfing champion than in the iconic reef break of One Eye, in Mauritius.

The 2017 GKA Kitesurf World Tour is over, and we have a new champion. The race for the championship title had two contenders - Matchu Lopes and Airton Cozzolino - and they put everything on each wave to raise the coveted trophy.

Both riders progressed through the early heats until the competition turned into a do-or-die showdown.

Joshua Emanuel has taken out the 2017 Red Bull Megaloop Challenge, in the Netherlands.

What an epic day in an insane event. The world's best big air kiteboarders survived gale force winds in the 50-knot range and took to the skies of Zandvoort, a coastal community west of Amsterdam.

The organization got the natural kickers needed for the riders to go out and throw their tricks up in the air. And you couldn't've asked for a better showdown, in front of five thousand fans.

Francisco Lufinha and Anke Brandt have successfully completed the kite cross between the Azores and mainland Portugal.

The Portuguese and German kitesurfers rode their kites and foil boards in the Atlantic Ocean for around 888 nautical miles (1,646 kilometers). That's a new world record.

The journey kicked off in Ponta Delgada, Azores, on the island of São Miguel, on September 4, and ended in Oeiras, Portugal, on September 13.

Strapless kitesurfing is an incredible experience. But you need to master the art of surfboard riding to enjoy it to the fullest.

Whether the ocean is flat or pumping perfect waves, a strapless board is always a challenging kitesurfing option.

Pro kiteboarder Alberto Rondina compiled a list of fundamental tricks and maneuvers that will help you become a better strapless kitesurfer. As with always in the sport, practice makes perfect.

Countries, empires, and civilizations with cost diseases eventually choke on their own inefficiencies.

Cost diseases did it for Rome and the Ottomans. And India during the Mogul era (allowing easy conquest by England). And they are to blame for the "century of shame" when China became so dysfunctional that foreigners bullied them unmercifully (which China is now determined to exact revenge for).

There are various theories as to what causes cost diseases to take hold of stable countries and empires.

What are five kiteboarders doing on the rugged west coast of Vancouver, in the middle of wolves and killer whales?

Camille Delannoy, David Tonijuan, Etienne Lhôte, Paul Serin and Pauline Valesa settled camp for seven days in Spring Island, Canada. They were doing it for the adventure.

Equipped with twin-tips, foil systems, strapless boards and thick wetsuits, the kite crew lost themselves in this wild and windy paradise.

The fasted foil kiteboarders of the Old Continent raced for titles in Istanbul, Turkey. Despite the challenging wind and weather conditions, the organization was able to run five qualifying races and nine series races.

The event kicked off with the Bosphorus Race, a 41-kilometer race that starts in Tirmata Beach and finished in the heart of Istanbul, in front of the Ortaköy Mosque. The winner was Axel Mazella; Parlier concluded runner-up.

The duo continued the tight battles in the Black Sea under sunny and stormy skies. There were big waves and turbulent seas throughout the whole competition, but the race committee was able to get the most out of the rare contestable opportunities.

The 2017 GKA World Tour will be decided in Mauritius after Matchu Lopes won the penultimate event of the season in Fehmarn, Germany.

The Kitesurf World Cup final kicked with a bang. Airton Cozzolino put the pressure on Lopes with a flat-3 and a shifty-3, but Lopes answered with a stunning board-off back loop kite loop and a big rodeo.

Despite the sudden increase in wind speed, Airton tried to land an handle pass, but Matchu nailed a huge tic-tac kite loop and then a big superman backroll that proved critical and awarded him the first event win of the season.

The World Kiteboarding League (WKL) announced a partnership with the World Class Kiteboard Academy.

The official freestyle kiteboarding world tour aims to offer its athletes the chance to combine the busy agenda of a pro kiteboarder with their academic duties.

The World Class Kiteboard Academy is a private high-school with headquarters in White Salmon, Washington that combines studies, travel, and the challenges of professional kiteboarding.