Kitewing is a wing-shaped sail that is powered from wind and used to combine together variety of different extreme sports. The difference between it and other sail sports is that it has no additional control system – it is hand held and the whole control is completely in the hands of the user.
When I first saw it my reaction was – WOOOOW – and doesn’t matter how many times I see it I am still amazed from the possibilities and freedom you have with this product. It can be adapted to any surface and the only thing you need and depend on is the wind. As long as it is windy there are no boundaries what you can do with the kitewing – even fly.
You can use it on snow with ski or snowboard, on ice with ice skates, on ground with roller skates, skateboard, kiteblade, dirtsurf and many others (if you can move on the ground with it you can use the kitewing with it). Even though there are adapted sails for windsurfing and wings for kitesurfing you can still use the kidewing instead.
The kitewing in its form as you see it now is quite new on the market and still not as popular as other sports, but its history goes way back. The predecessor of the kitewing is called the Wind Weapon and it was invented by Tom Macruder and Robert Crowell in 1983. After that in 1986 Dave Terry collaborated with the inventors in order to popularize the Weapon and keep developing and improving it. The difference between the Wind Weapon and the Kitewing is that the Weapon is actually attached to the board and it is been used only for windsurfing.
But this is not the whole history of the wing. Even though the kitewing is inspired from the desire of becoming one with nature and extending the boundaries of this sport, the idea of this product came long ago but for different purpose. In 1893 captain Baden-Powell designed kites, that were to be used in the Boer War in South Africa, to lift soldiers up in the air so they can observe the enemy.
Later in 1915, Samuel Perkins researched the idea of kites carrying people for observational uses by the U.S. Army during World War I, but his work never passed the trial stage.
Nowadays the materials are much more advanced and together with the developed aerodynamic engineering, we are able to make this happen. Now it doesn’t seem like a crazy idea to lift a person in the air – although the purpose is entertaining rather than observations for war.
The idea of men flying in the air with kite also appeared in another completely different area. In 1960 a comic character called Kite Man, first appeared in Batman vol.1. This character is a supervillain in publications from DC Comics and he is basically equipped with high-tech glider kite that allows him to commit crimes.
The evolution of the kitewing during the years is amazing. The ambition of people to create something new and improve it more and more, to take different ideas and adapt them to their needs – this is how we move forward and keep developing.
Dessislava Ivanova 