KITEBOARDING GIRL
La jeune femme, de dos, sur cette photographie est la kitesurfeuse Rita Arnaus.
Histoire
Le kitesurf a été imaginé par plusieurs inventeurs dès les années 1960. 16 novembre 1984 - À la suite d'un travail d'expérimentation pour améliorer la voile, les frères Quimperois Dominique et Bruno Legaignoux déposent le brevet de l'aile courbe à structure gonflable. En 1992, Laurent Ness (champion de France 1997 de char à cerf-volant) se fait tracter par un cerf-volant delta sur une planche de funboard à La Grande Motte. Bill et Cory Roeseler inventent le Kiteski, ski nautique tracté par cerf-volant, qu'ils commercialisent en 1994. Les Legaignoux créent la société Wipikat en 1993 pour commercialiser un petit bateau gonflable accompagné d'une aile de traction. Ils l'arrêtent en 1995 mais Emmanuel Bertin teste leurs voiles à Maui avec Laird Hamilton. En février 1997, il fait la une de Wind Magazine, magazine de planche à voile tiré à 70 000 exemplaires, sur les vagues de Hawaï. Raphaël Salles utilise des petites planche de funboard en 1998-1999 avec la mise au point de Laurent Ness, puis Franz Olry a fait progresser les twin-tip qui ont démocratisé l'usage du sport.
Les Legaignoux lancent Wipika en juin 1997 pour commercialiser des barres de traction et ailes produites par NeilPryde parapente en France, fabrication transférée en 1998 chez Lam Sails, fabricant de parapente en Chine. Une licence est accordée à Naish en 1999, NeilPryde en 2000 puis Slingshot, Ricci et Bic avec Takoon en 2003. Les ventes d'ailes sont passées de 100 exemplaires en 1997 à 500 en 1998, 2 000 en 1999, 6 000 en 2000, 15 000 en 2001, environ 100 000 en 2010. Il y a 30 pratiquants en 1996 mais le nombre d'élèves passe de 500 en 1998 à 4000 en 2001. Le premier championnat international a lieu en 2000 et le premier français, de freestyle, a lieu en 2001. Il y avait 12000 pratiquants en France en 2010, 13000 licenciés en 2011 et entre 25000 et 30000 kitesurfers en France.
En 1998, la Fédération française de vol libre créée la formation de moniteur : il y en a 258 en 2010 dont depuis 2003 155 ayant un BPJEPS, diplôme d’État. En 2002, la Fédération française de voile envisage l'intégration du kitesurf mais le ministère de la Jeunesse et des Sports délègue la gestion du sport à la FFVL le 3 janvier 2003. En novembre 2001, L’International Kiteboarding Organisation est issu du Wipika School Network établi en 1999. Lors du développement de 2000 à 2003, quelques accidents mortels incitent la FFVL à établir une norme pour les sécurités publiée par l'Afnor en 2005 : un largueur de barre qui neutralise l'aile puis un second largueur de voile en cas extrême. Les ailes continuent à s'améliorer de 2003 à 2009 : en 2005, l’aile de type bow permet une traction plus équilibrée. En 2008, Bruno Sroka a été le premier et le seul homme à avoir traversé le Cap Horn sur une distance de 100 miles nautiques (186 km). Il a navigué dans des conditions extrêmes de navigation pendant 9 h sans arrêter.
Des sports comparables utilisent des cerf-volants de traction avec d'autres véhicules : sur l'eau avec des embarcations plus importantes comme des canoës kayak ou des catamarans, sur neige avec le snowkite, sur terre avec un mountainboard, avec un petit char à cerf-volant où l'on est assis ou encore avec des patins à roulettes équipés de pneumatiques. Après avoir été annoncé en régate homme et femme en remplacement du windsurf pour les Jeux olympiques d'été de 2016 à Rio de Janeiro par la fédération internationale de voile le 5 mai 2012, le kitesurf a été abandonnée au profit de la planche à voile RS:X.
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Kitesurfing or kiteboarding is a surface water sport combining aspects of wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. A kitesurfer or kiteboarder harnesses the power of the wind with a large controllable power kite to be propelled across the water on a kiteboard similar to a wakeboard or a small surfboard, with or without foot-straps or bindings. The terms kiteboarding and kitesurfing are interchangeable, although kiteboarding may also refer to kite landboarding or kite snowboarding. There are different styles of kiteboarding, including freestyle, freeride, downwinders, speed, course racing, wakestyle, jumping and wave-riding. In 2012, the number of kitesurfers has been estimated by the ISAF and IKA at 1.5 million persons worldwide (pending review). The global market is worth US$250 million.
History
In the 1800s, George Pocock used kites of increased size to propel carts on land and ships on the water, using a four-line control system - the same system in common use today. Both carts and boats were able to turn and sail upwind. The kites could be flown for sustained periods. The intention was to establish kitepower as an alternative to horsepower, partly to avoid the hated "horse tax" that was levied at that time. In 1903, aviation pioneer Samuel Cody developed "man-lifting kites" and succeeded in crossing the English Channel in a small collapsible canvas boat powered by a kite. In the late 1970s, the development of Kevlar then Spectra flying lines and more controllable kites with improved efficiency contributed to practical kite traction. In 1978, Ian Day's "FlexiFoil" kite-powered Tornado catamaran exceeded 40 km/h.
In October 1977 Gijsbertus Adrianus Panhuise (Netherlands) received the first patent for KiteSurfing. The patent covers, specifically, a water sport using a floating board of a surf board type where a pilot standing up on it is pulled by a wind catching device of a parachute type tied to his harness on a trapeze type belt. Although this patent did not result in any commercial interest, Gijsbertus Adrianus Panhuise could be considered as the originator of KiteSurfing.
Through the 1980s, there were occasionally successful attempts to combine kites with canoes, ice skates, snow skis, water skis and roller skates. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Dieter Strasilla from Germany developed parachute-skiing and later perfected a kiteskiing system using self made paragliders and a ball-socket swivel allowing the pilot to kitesail upwind and uphill but also to take off into the air at will. Strasilla and his friend Andrea Kuhn/Switzerland used this invention also in combination with surfboards and Skurfs, grasskies and selfmade buggies. One of his patents describes in 1979 the first use of an inflatable kite design for kitesurfing.
Two brothers, Bruno Legaignoux and Dominique Legaignoux, from the Atlantic coast of France, developed kites for kitesurfing in the late 1970s and early 1980s and patented an inflatable kite design in November 1984, a design that has been used by companies to develop their own products. In 1990, practical kite buggying was pioneered by Peter Lynn at Argyle Park in Ashburton, New Zealand. Lynn coupled a three-wheeled buggy with a forerunner of the modern parafoil kite. Kite buggying proved to be very popular worldwide, with over 14,000 buggies sold up to 1999.
The development of modern day kitesurfing by the Roeselers in the USA and the Legaignoux in France carried on in parallel to buggying. Bill Roeseler, a Boeing aerodynamicist, and his son Cory Roeseler patented the "KiteSki" system which consisted of water skis powered by a two line delta style kite controlled via a bar mounted combined winch/brake. The KiteSki was commercially available in 1994. The kite had a rudimentary water launch capability and could go upwind. In 1995, Cory Roeseler visited Peter Lynn at New Zealand's Lake Clearwater in the Ashburton Alpine Lakes area, demonstrating speed, balance and upwind angle on his 'ski'. In the late 1990s, Cory's ski evolved to a single board similar to a surfboard.
In 1996, Laird Hamilton and Manu Bertin were instrumental in demonstrating and popularising kitesurfing off the Hawaiian coast of Maui while in Florida Raphaël Baruch experimented riding windsurfing boards with various foil kites and changing the name of the sport from flysurfing to kitesurfing.
In 1997, the Legaignoux brothers developed and sold the breakthrough "Wipika" kite design which had a structure of preformed inflatable tubes and a simple bridle system to the wingtips, both of which greatly assisted water re-launch. Bruno Legaignoux has continued to improve kite designs, including developing the bow kite design, which has been licensed to many kite manufacturers.
In 1997, specialized kite boards were developed by Raphaël Salles and Laurent Ness. By the end of 1998 kitesurfing had become an extreme sport, distributed and taught through a handful group of shops and schools worldwide. The first competition was held on Maui in September 1998 and won by Flash Austin.
Starting in 1999, kitesurfing became a mainstream sport with the entry of key windsurfing manufacturers namely Naish and Neil Pryde. Single direction boards derived from windsurfing and surfing designs became the dominant form of kiteboard. From 2001 onwards, twin-tip bi-directional boards became more popular for most flat water riders, with directional boards still in use for surf conditions.
In May 2012, the course racing style of kitesurfing was announced as a sport for the 2016 Rio Olympics, replacing windsurfing. However after a vote by the General Assembly of ISAF in November 2012 (in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland) the RSX windsurfer was reinstated for both Men and Women this was an unprecedented decision when the constituent members of ISAF overthrew a decision made by the ISAF Council Kitesurfing remains therefore a non-Olympic sport until 2020 at the earliest. The ISAF mid-year meeting of May 2013 proposed seeking an eleventh medal to include kitesurfing in 2020 at the same time there was a commitment made to retain the existing other 10 classes as they are for 2020 and even 2024 including the RSX windsurfer for men and women.
The unprecedented Facebook campaign to retain windsurfing was therefore even more successful than the initial aims to retain it for 2016 in the first instance. It is not clear how an eleventh medal for kitesurfing would work in practice would it be gender neutral, just for males or a team event? Perhaps a more realistic objective is inclusion in the 'vintage' Olympic class competition due to be held in Weymouth 2016, whilst the kiteboard was an Olympic class (briefly) it was never sailed so would it be allowed to take part? Perhaps it will end up as a novelty question on BBC's Question of Sport. 'What Olympic event was never competed for?