Surfing is a surface water sport in which the person wishing to surf uses a surfboard to travel along the face of a breaking ocean wave. In the early 1900′s the Hawaiians organized the Hui Nalu (surf club) and competed in neighborly surf competitions with the Outrigger Canoe Club. This drew a great deal of attention to the Waikiki surf shore, bringing a revitalized interest in the sport, which had fallen out of favor in the late 1800s. Duke Kahanamoku, an Olympic star in swimming, popularized the sport further by traveling internationally and showing off his surfing style to thrilled audiences around the world.

In the 1930s, the sport of surfing was experiencing a Renaissance. Tom Blake, founder of the Pacific Coast Surf Championships that ended with the onset of war in 1941, was the first man to photograph surfing from the water. Another photographer and surfer named Doc Ball published California Surfriders 1946, which depicts the pristine coastal beaches and good-time, relaxed atmosphere of surf living. Surfing, although curtailed in the aftermath of WWII, revived as always by the 1950s. Bud Browne, an accomplished surfer and waterman, created the first ‘surf movie’ with his 1953 “Hawaiian Surfing Movie”. This inspired many photographers, filmmakers and surfers to continue documenting the sport, culminating with is arguably the best surf movie of all time, 1963′s “Endless Summer” by Bruce Brown. The film opened up the genre of the surf movie and the art of surfing to non-surfing people, accumulating fans and inspiring neophytes.

Although surfing was a male-dominated sport, adventurous women surfers can be seen all the way back to the times of the Polynesian Queens. Two notable ‘surfer girls’ were Eve Fletcher and Anona Napolean. Eve Fletcher was a California-born animator for Walt Disney and Anona Napolean was the daughter of a respected Hawaiian surfing family. The two pioneered the sport for modern women, winning surfing competitions up and down the California coast at the end of the 50s and into the 60s. Hollywood was quick to be on the scene and with the 1959 film “Gidget”, surfing was flung far out into the mainstream, never to return to its humble, ritualistic beginnings. “Gidget” inspired a slew of “Beach Blanket Bingo” movies that brought surfing to a new generation of teens and inspiring a new genre of ‘surf music’ that accompanied films and made The Beach Boys more famous than Elvis in the 60s.

Kitesurfing is a relatively new sport. It is derived from surfing and it uses the power of wind to pull the rider. Everybody knows about snowboarding, kite flying, and wakeboarding, but most individuals do not realize there is a sport out there that employs most of the methods from those other activities into one exciting, intense activity. It’s known as kitesurfing, and lots of people are slowly starting to experience the fun and technique for kitesurfing. Anyone can participate, but there is tonsof training that has to happen before someone kiteboards. It may be quite troublesome for an unaware kiteboarder.

The basic idea of kite boarding is simple–it is surfing while hanging on to a kite. The hardest aspect is in the actions themseves.The basic thing that a first time kiteboarder has to purchase is a training kite.This is a little smaller than the sport kites, making it simpler for an inexperienced boarder to work with. If the person is not experienced in surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, or other similar sports, then he should consider learning a few of the ground set sports before learning kitesurfing. The more experience with a board, the better he will do. That way he or she does not need to figure out how to board and work with the kite concurrently.

After a kiteboarder is familiar with a board, he can take a kitesurfing lesson or two to start getting experience with kitesurfing. It is advised to have at least one lesson before trying to kite board to prevent harm to an inexperienced boarder. Lacking a professional kiteboarder there to oversee, an amateur kiteboarder may well cause harm to herself or other individuals nearby. Upon completion of the kiteborading lesson, its just an issue of choosing the best equipment and going out on the water. Kitesurfing is an exhilerating sport that hasn’t been earning the right amount of exposure. Its challenging enough for professional sportsmen, but fun enough for the most unskilled people.