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Kite Surfing Kite

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Kite Surfing Kite

Even though kitesurfing is a very new sport, the form it embodies today has only been around since 1984, the history of the kitesurfing kite can be traced back hundreds of years. In 12th century China kites were a common toy but large versions of these toys were used for transportation, propelling small boats and canoes across large stretches of water.

Unlike a sail which can only harness the wind closest to the surface a kite can be extended well into the air where it can harness the much more powerful winds found at higher altitudes. The higher the kite could go, the stronger the wind it could harness which allowed for a serious amount of power and led to some interesting and disastrous mishaps and accidents, but also served as an popular means of transportation of people and goods.

The quality of construction and materials used back then are nothing compared with the synthetic materials used today, and though a few people may have attempted standing up while riding, it was unrecorded at this point. People kept these kites secured to their boat for stability rather than their body as kite surfers do today. For hundreds of years after the Chinese put their large kites to use there was little written about man-lifting kites.

This all changed in the 1800s when new forms of transportation and discovery were being pioneered in many different fields. An avid detractor of the horse tax of the time, George Peacock was developing and testing kite powered carts and ships. His kites used the same four line control system that is commonly used on a modern kitesurfing kite, they could fly for an extended amount of time and allowed the cart or ship to travel into the wind. These aspects are taken for granted today, but were a wonder at the time.

By the 1900s people had crossed the English Channel on kite powered crafts. Not a lot of news about kites occurred until the 1970s after there had been significant developments in the synthetic fiber industry. Materials such as Kevlar and spectra allowed even safer, stronger connections and tougher kites. A kite powered boat reached 40km/hr in 1970, a fantastic speed for a engineless craft.

Kitesurfing became a feasible sport for the masses only with the invention of the inflatable kitesurfing kite by two Frenchmen in 1984. Their inflatable design has become the basis for nearly all kite designs used today because the inflatable kite not only floats on top of the water, making it easy to re-launch, but these inflated baffles increase the strength of the kite allowing it to harness enough force to propel riders across the water and into the air. Today’s designs are continually being refined and updated, but there has been little major change in the last 20 years. The biggest innovations being in the harness system, board styles, and especially in the way people ride these extravagant kites.