History · 1996–2000
Maui, and the sport people could actually
buy
A kite that relaunched from the water turned a dangerous experiment into something a shop could sell and a school could teach.
- 1996–2000
- 5 milestones
This is where kitesurfing stopped being an experiment and became something you could buy, be taught, and see a photograph of. Most of it happened on one island, in about four years.
It is also the thinnest-documented era in this archive, and the page says where it is thin. Several dates below rest on one publisher's timeline rather than on a contemporaneous document, and each of those milestones names that gap rather than hiding it. Where a 1998 Maui newspaper could confirm something first-hand, it is cited in preference to anything written later.
The record
Maui, and the sport people could actually buy
1996
Maui takes up the kite
Manu Bertin took the Legaignoux kite to Maui and rode it there, and the windsurfing crowd on the island took it up. IKSURFMAG dates the shift to 1996, names Laird Hamilton and Manu Bertin in the water, and records that the sport stopped being called flysurfing that year.
Why it mattered: A Maui paper reported in July 1998 that a photograph of Laird Hamilton kite surfing had run in an international watersports magazine and drew interest from around the world.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- date: the 1996 dating rests on one publisher (IKSURFMAG, across two of its own pages); no contemporaneous 1996 document was found
- places: the sources say Maui without naming a beach
IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)IKSURFMAG — Who invented kitesurfing?MauiTime — Talking Story with Maui Kite Surfers (issue of 21 July 1998, by Dave Sweedler)
1997
The Wipika goes on sale
Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux put their inflatable kite on the market as the Wipika, flown on two lines. A year later a Maui paper called it the newest development in the sport and described it as an inflatable waterproof kite.
Why it mattered: The inflated tubes held the shape in the air and floated the kite when it went down, and the Maui paper credited the design with making the sport testable in the island's heavy conditions.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- equipment: no source we could open says the Wipika relaunched from the water. IKSURFMAG attaches water relaunch to the 1994 KiteSki and describes flotation as a property of the Legaignoux design, not of the Wipika product
- date: 1997 comes from IKSURFMAG's timeline; the July 1998 MauiTime issue only shows the kite already in use
IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)MauiTime — Talking Story with Maui Kite Surfers (issue of 21 July 1998, by Dave Sweedler)
1997
F-ONE puts a kiteboard in the shops
F-ONE released the red 215, a board built for a kite rather than carried over from windsurfing. The company's own history says it "became the only one to offer such a board on the market worldwide".
Why it mattered: The new sport now had a board a shop could stock. IKSURFMAG counts F-ONE among the brands that made kiteboards readily available to the young market.
Sources disagree
When did F-ONE start?
F-ONE's own history dates the company to 1994, working on windsurf boards, and puts the red 215 kiteboard three years later.
Does not establish: The page shows no registration record, and it does not say when kites rather than windsurf boards became the business.
IKSURFMAG's timeline dates the founding to 1997, the same year as the kiteboard.
Does not establish: The entry names no document behind the year, and it is written about the kiteboard rather than about the company's registration.
What is not in doubt: Both put an F-ONE kiteboard on the market in 1997.
What would settle it: The French company register entry for F-ONE, which carries an incorporation date.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- date: the founding year is contested between the company's own history (1994) and IKSURFMAG (1997); the French company register would settle it
- equipment: no source gives the red 215's dimensions or construction
F-ONE — History (the company's own founding account)IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)
September 1998
A world championship on Maui
MauiTime told its readers in July 1998 that "The world kite surfing championship will be held on Maui in September", scored in three categories: wave riding, downwind and slalom racing. IKSURFMAG records Flash Austin as the winner and Joe Keuhl as the organiser.
Why it mattered: The sport now had a title to hold. A Getty Images caption from a kite festival in Scheveningen in June 1999 introduces Austin as "The 1998 World Champion" and says he was running a kite surfing school at Ho'okipa.
Sources disagree
Who held a world title in kiteboarding in 1998?
Flash Austin won the Maui event and was introduced as the 1998 world champion at a European kite festival the following June.
Does not establish: Neither source says which of the three categories he won, how many riders entered, or who sanctioned the title.
IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)Getty Images — Marcus "Flash" Austin prepares to launch, International Kite Festival, Scheveningen, 5 June 1999 (photo: Michel Porro)
Two halls of fame credit Robby Naish with the 1998 kiteboarding slalom world title, and with the slalom and jumping titles in 1999.
Does not establish: Neither institution says where those titles were contested, so they cannot be read as a claim on the Maui event.
Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation — Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame: Robby NaishThe Sailing Museum & National Sailing Hall of Fame — Robert "Robby" Staunton Naish (citation by Gary Jobson)
What is not in doubt: An event billed as a world championship ran on Maui in 1998, with wave riding, downwind and slalom scored separately.
What would settle it: A results sheet or entry list from the September 1998 event, or the organiser's own record of it.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- date: September comes from MauiTime's pre-event announcement; no report or results document from the event itself was located
- people: the organiser's name is spelled Joe Koehl by MauiTime and Joe Keuhl by IKSURFMAG
MauiTime — Talking Story with Maui Kite Surfers (issue of 21 July 1998, by Dave Sweedler)IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)Getty Images — Marcus "Flash" Austin prepares to launch, International Kite Festival, Scheveningen, 5 June 1999 (photo: Michel Porro)Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation — Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame: Robby Naish
1999
Naish licenses the inflatable
Naish Sails Hawaii brought out an inflatable kite, the AR3.5, under a licensing deal with the Legaignoux brothers. Robby Naish had been developing his own line of kites through the late 1990s and was racing on them.
Why it mattered: A windsurf brand was now selling kites, and the rider whose name it carried won the kiteboarding slalom world title in 1998 and both the slalom and jumping titles in 1999.
Declared gaps in the record (2)
Research notes, kept in their original English.
- equipment: the AR3.5 and the licence rest on IKSURFMAG alone; no Naish document we could open names or dates the kite
- date: 1999 is IKSURFMAG's dating; the two halls of fame date only the competition titles
IKSURFMAG — 100 Moments: A Kitesurfing Timeline (Issue 100)Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation — Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame: Robby NaishThe Sailing Museum & National Sailing Hall of Fame — Robert "Robby" Staunton Naish (citation by Gary Jobson)
Questions
Common questions
When was the first kitesurfing competition?+
The first world championship event was held on Maui in September 1998. It is the earliest contest the sources agree on, and it is the point from which competitive kitesurfing can be dated continuously.
What made kitesurfing teachable?+
Equipment you could recover after a crash, and boards that would go upwind. A Maui paper writing in July 1998 put the change down to new techniques together with board and kite design, and described the inflatable kite then reaching the island as what made the sport testable in local conditions.
Sources for this page
Every dated claim above traces to the sources listed with it. These are the publications this page is built on.