History · 2008–2017
Two schools: wakestyle and big
air
The sport split in two directions at once: unhooked riders took it low and technical, while big air took it as high as the wind allowed.
- 2008–2017
- 6 milestones
By 2008 the sport had split into two answers to the same question — what do you do with the pull? One school took it low and technical, off the hook, judged on precision. The other took it as high as the wind allowed.
This decade is also where kitesurfing first tried to become Olympic and failed. A federation vote put it into the 2016 programme and a later vote took it back out, inside the same year. Both dates are on this page, because the second one is usually left off.
The record
Two schools: wakestyle and big air
2008
Kiteboarding gets a class inside the sailing federation
Guillaume Fournier founded the International Kiteboarding Association, and kiteboarding entered the ISAF class system the same year. When the ISAF Equipment Committee met in Busan in November 2009 it worked from the position that kiteboards "were now an ISAF Class", while reviewing a submission headed "Kiteboarders – Obtaining designation as an International or Recognised Class".
Why it mattered: Class status puts a discipline in front of the committees that write the regulations. The 2009 minutes show what followed: ISAF had to write numeric criteria for kiteboard classes, and the committee voted unanimously to copy them from the windsurfing ones.
Sources disagree
What did "an ISAF class" actually mean for kiteboarding in 2008?
Kiteboarding was adopted as an ISAF international sailing class in 2008, with the IKA as its international class association.
Does not establish: Neither source names a date inside 2008, a submission number or a deciding body, so nothing here fixes the month.
IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)BKSA and IKA presentation to the ISAF Symposium, Dublin, March 2012 (hosted on sailing.org)
As late as November 2009 ISAF still had no regulation setting out how a kiteboard class obtains International or Recognised designation, and its Equipment Committee was recommending that those requirements be copied from windsurfing.
Does not establish: The same minutes say kiteboards were already an ISAF class, so this does not mean kiteboarding was outside the federation in 2008. It means the criteria were written after the fact.
ISAF Equipment Committee Minutes, 10 November 2009, Busan (MIN_EQ_2009)
What is not in doubt: All three records agree that kiteboarding was inside the ISAF class system from 2008 and that the IKA was its class association.
What would settle it: The Equipment Committee or Council minutes from the ISAF Annual Conference in Madrid in November 2008, naming the submission and the decision. ISAF's document server does not surface a 2008 minutes file and the Internet Archive returned no capture of one.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- places
- date precision: no ISAF document I could open dates the 2008 decision to a month, so this ships as year precision
IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)ISAF Equipment Committee Minutes, 10 November 2009, Busan (MIN_EQ_2009)BKSA and IKA presentation to the ISAF Symposium, Dublin, March 2012 (hosted on sailing.org)
2008
Mitu Monteiro takes the KPWT wave world title
F-ONE's rider record lists Monteiro, from Cape Verde, as "KPWT Wave Master World Champion (2008)", riding waves and strapless freestyle. IKSURFMAG's timeline dates his world title to the same year and credits him with pulling a generation of riders towards strapless.
Why it mattered: The sport was running two world tours at the time, the KPWT and the PKRA, so a strapless wave rider and a hooked-in freestyler could each hold a world title in the same season.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- places
- the KPWT event and date that decided the 2008 wave title — the tour's own results are no longer online
F-ONE — Mitu Monteiro rider recordLaureus World Sports Awards — Gisela Pulido, Action Sportsperson of the Year 2007 nominee
October 2008
Aaron Hadlow's fifth straight freestyle world title
Hadlow won the PKRA freestyle world championship for the fifth year running. Laureus, which put him on its 2009 action-sportsperson shortlist, recorded that he "was 20 the day before he won his fifth title in October". IKSURFMAG puts the 2008 field at 100 competitors and names Youri Zoon and Kevin Langeree as the riders pushing him.
Declared gaps in the record (3)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- why
- places
- the event and exact date that decided the 2008 title — no PKRA results document is still online
Laureus World Sports Awards — Aaron Hadlow, Action Sportsperson of the Year 2009 nomineeIKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)
5 May 2012
Kiteboarding is voted into the Rio 2016 Olympics
At its Mid-Year Meeting the ISAF Council voted kiteboarding in as the men's and women's board event for Rio 2016, in place of windsurfing. ISAF's own report is blunt about how far that went: the evaluation group had recommended kiteboarding for the World Cup and the World Championships, and "Council went one step further and selected Kiteboarding for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition as well".
Why it mattered: ISAF President Göran Petersson gave the federation's reason the same day: "Kiteboarding has proven to us that it is ready to be included into the list of prestigious ISAF Events and it is a fantastic addition to the sailing programme for the 2016 Olympic Games."
Declared gaps in the record (1)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- places: the host city of the May 2012 Mid-Year Meeting is not stated in the body of any source I could open
World Sailing — ISAF Selects Kiteboarding For Rio 2016 (5 May 2012)Yachting World — Windsurfing Back in Olympics (Matthew Sheahan, 12 November 2012)
10 November 2012
Six months later the membership votes it back out
The ISAF General Assembly met at the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire and amended Regulation 23.1.4 back to RS:X for both board events. The minutes record the count: "58 approve – 113 participated", against 46 rejecting and 9 abstaining. Council had reaffirmed its May decision the day before, but only 26 of 38 members voted to reopen the kiteboarding submissions and the regulations demanded 75 per cent, so the argument moved to the floor of the General Assembly.
Why it mattered: The two bodies vote on different thresholds. Council needed three quarters of its members to reopen the subject at all; the General Assembly needed one vote more than half. That gap let 113 national delegates undo what 38 council members had settled.
Declared gaps in the record (1)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- people: the minutes name the officers presiding but not a proposer for the winning amendment
ISAF General Assembly Minutes, 10 November 2012, Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire (GA201211)Yachting World — Windsurfing Back in Olympics (Matthew Sheahan, 12 November 2012)World Sailing — ISAF Selects Kiteboarding For Rio 2016 (5 May 2012)
3 February 2013
King of the Air comes back, at Big Bay
Red Bull ran King of the Air again at Big Bay near Cape Town after seven years off, in around 30 knots with two-metre waves. Riders were scored on "the height, creativity and style of the tricks", and a four-man heat lost one rider after ten minutes and another at the buzzer. Jesse Richman won. Nick Jacobsen was second, Sam Light third and Youri Zoon fourth.
Why it mattered: Judging on height put a score on the one thing big air riders were already chasing. Progression, filing from the beach the next day, wrote that "The King of the Air event is firm back on the kitesurfing map".
Declared gaps in the record (1)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- a primary organiser record: Red Bull's own results page for the 2013 edition, which blocks automated fetching
Naish — Jesse Richman Crowned 2013 Red Bull King of the Air (13 February 2013)IKSURFMAG — Red Bull King of the air Cape Town 2013 (4 February 2013)Progression Sports — Red Bull King of the Air 2013 (4 February 2013)
Questions
Common questions
Was kiteboarding nearly in the 2016 Olympics?+
Yes, and then it was not. The international sailing federation voted in May 2012 to put kiteboarding into the Rio 2016 programme in place of windsurfing, and its general assembly reversed that decision in November of the same year. Kiteboarding's Olympic debut came at Paris 2024 instead.
Sources for this page
Every dated claim above traces to the sources listed with it. These are the publications this page is built on.