Welcome to Camber Kitesurfing

Kitesurfing is one of Britain’s fastest growing watersports, an estimated 47,000 people participating in 2012 has risen to 1.5 million in 2024. A British Marine Watersports survey reported equal participation between men and women. It has been featured in several high-profile, multi-class regattas, and there will be formula kite (kite foiling racing)  included in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kiteboarding originated from daredevils using kites with skis, surfboards and wakeboards in the late 1990's and evolved in to a true sport once the inflatable kite was patented by the Legaignoux brothers. The original LEI (leading edge inflatable) was named the Wipika and most innovations since are a derivative of that design.

Basically, kitesurfing or kiteboarding involves standing on a small surfboard and being pulled along by what looks like a miniature parachute, which is controlled by a system of strings. Practitioners tend to specialise, either opting for racing or “freestyle”, which involves performing a complicated series of tricks.

Technically, kitesurfing is classified as an extreme sport. But according to Pete Shaw of the British Kitesports Association, it can be “as extreme as you like”.

“You can go out with a big kite in high winds and jump 40 feet in the air,” he says. “Or you can go out on a lighter wind day with a smaller kite, and essentially go sailing. Either way, it’s really good fun.”

This accessibility has been at the heart of the sport’s burgeoning popularity.

The equipment is easier to transport than other extreme sports. It can fit in the boot of a hatchback car, costs vary weather you go new or used, getting fully kitted out can be quite an outlay, but if you use the equipment regularly it is not as expensive as a ski holiday for example. You don’t need a slipway to launch, as you would with a sailing craft. And you don’t need as much wind as you do with sailing and windsurfing. You also don't have to travel abroad to practice kitesurfing, the UK is blessed with many suitable beaches.

So broad is the sport’s appeal that it has even gained a reputation as “the new golf”, with CEOs such as Richard Branson and the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, counted among its fans. (As the prominent venture capitalist Bill Tai remarked, “I’ve never seen so many who’s who of Silicon Valley on the water.”)