Kitesurfing: wanna fly?

Another success in propelling a surfboard without waves have been invented with a kite. Propelling moving object with a kite is not a new idea.
In China, during the 13^th century, kite was used to carry huge weights. In the 1800s, in England, George Pocock used with success big kite to propel cart on land (Charvolant) and ship on water. The goal was to replace the horsepower by wind power to avoid horse taxes. And in 1903, the American Samuel Cody used kites to cross the English channel in a small canvas boat.

Modern kitesurfing devices were invented in parallel during the 80s. Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux, two brothers from Brittany, France, developed an inflatable kite and used it to propel surfboard. During the same period, Cory Roesler developed the kite ski. The idea was to use waterski powered with a kite. He design his material with the help of his father, Bill Roesler, a Boeing aerodynamicist. He was using a rigid kite with a 2 line direction. He developed several techniques that to be able to recover from the fall of the kite in the water and to sail up-wind, one of the main difficulty of kitesurfing. He popularized this sport in Hawaii during several windsurfing competition. As he was seen along the coast, jumping to height never seen before, several surfers asked him to make them try his invention. A small community grew in Hawaii and developed through time. A meeting between one of its member with the Legaignoux permitted to popularized and diffused the inflatable kite. Kitesurfing was born.

Several pioneers helped to create better design for kitesurfs. The Legaignoux brothers created a small company in 1997 to create and sell kitesurfs under the name of Wipika. They patented the design of the device. Bruno Legaignoux, continued to improve the kite design and developed a bow shape kite, that is so popular nowadays. In 1998, Don Montague teamed with them to develop a software to permit to conceive great kites really quickly (in seconds compared to the days of design and calculus that was required before). That was one of the turning point.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, Robby Nash was the rising star of this sport. He was seen on many spots performing new maneuvers and creating new techniques allying big air jumps and technical rotations. He bought a license from the Legaignoux brothers and started a company to promote this sport. This marked the beginning of a new phase. The sells increased drastically. A federation was created and the first international championship took place in 2000.

Due to the impressive capacity to jump and rotate in this sport, it has received lot of attention from the young generation of free riders and there is around 30 000 kitesurfers in France now days. The sport makes lot of emulation, and several pioneer tried to take it on other surfaces (on the ground with mountain board and on snow with the kiteskiing). Kitesurfing has even been selected to replace windsurfing in the next Olympics in Rio in 2016. This show the explosive potential of this sport.

The appearance of windsurf

Surfing became popular in California in the 20s and spread all over the world. But this sport can only be practiced in places where the swell and the see floor meet certain conditions. Its popularity and wide diffusion permitted to several inventors to create new surfing devices based on surfboards. Some wanted create devices that would allowed them to surf other surfaces, like snow or roads. Some tried to change its propulsion means. The combination of wind propulsion and surfboard gave birth to windsurfing.

Popular science article

Windsurfing is a sport combining surfing and sailing. It emerged during the 60s. The first prototype that could be called a windsurf was made in Pennsylvania by a 20-year old man, Newman Darby in 1964. He created a sail board propelled by a hand operated square sail attached to the board by a rope. The board was being directed by the sailor with its entire body leaning the sail forward or backward. He published his design in Popular science magazine in august 1965. 

In 1964, during discussion between Drake, a californian aeronautical engineer, and his friend Payne about water sport, they came up with the idea of a wind propelled water ski that would permit Payne to cross the Potomac river. This idea was never actually developed but it stayed in Drake's mind and he discussed it several times with his friend Hoyles Schweitzer from 1965 to 1967. They had no solution to permit steering the board.

Drake remembered that during the 17^th century, the multi-mast ship used to move the upper sail forward and backward to steer the ship. He created a design to be able to do the same without moving on the board, by rotating the sail: the universal joint. He added a wishbone boom to handle the sail and this constituted the first windsurf as we know it today. Drake and Schweitzer filled in 1968 a patent application which was granted in 1970 by the USPTO (US Patent and Technology Organization). They came also came up with the name windsurfer to call the board and created a company to distribute their invention, windsurfing international.

Their invention became popular thanks to the work of Schweitzer and his wife. In 1973, Schweitzer bought Darby's shares of the patent to continue with his enterprise for 36, 000$. But he had a really hard time to keep control of his invention through the 70s. The patent he hold was not licensed in France were this sport became a huge success. Thus many windsurf board manufacturer appeared. Windsurfing international had to fight all of it in legal battle to claim their right to get paid for the license. The company also sued board distributor in the US to claim their royalties and in the end, all the sector of windsurfing distribution was against them. At the beginning, their royalty claims were supported by the patent but their first loss was in a trial against Tabur Marine. This manufacturer came up with the invention of Darby, claiming that their patent did not contain any major step compared to the previous invention. This precedent is still very important in the Patent laws as it sets the definition of major steps in legal terms.

After 3 years of legal battle, during which Schweitzer tried to save its patent right, a new element made it clear that the patent wasn't valid. In 1958, a 12 year old boy in england, Peter Chilvers, made a sailboard containing the last element claimed by the windsurfing international and its invention had been published in the local papers. With this final proof, the patent of windsurfing international was declare invalid and the construction of windsurf board became possible without licenses.

Windsurfing international continued to claim the windsurf trademark but has the name has become widely used, failed to continue pursuing the offenders. Windsurf is still now a very popular sports that can be practiced in more places than surfing. This development is principaly due to windsurfing international and their marketing strategy.

History of a tide...

Beginning. The ocean is flat, no movement, no perturbation, a mirror surface. We are in the middle of the ocean, at some point in the South Pacific. And here comes a depression, a hole in the atmosphere density. But nature doesn't like the holes and thus wants to fill it. In another place, there is a high density point, thus the particle start to move to equilibrate the density. As the air travels , a wind appears and creates ripples on the surface of the ocean.

It all starts chaotically, but as the wind goes on, the peaks and the troughs gain order and start their long travel through the seas. Actually, only the energy of this wave will really travel, the way the particles are only describing a vertical circle in the sea.   The characteristics of the swell are determined by the force and the stability of the wind. A long and powerful wind will create a big and steady swell. During its travel, winds, currents and reefs continue to shape this wave. At this point, it is important to notice that the wave is often spread over hundred of meters and doesn't measure more than a few centimeters in height. It's speed is huge at this point as the water is very deep.

While approaching the coast, as the water height gets lower , the wave start to slow down. And as it slows down, the wave regroups and become tighter and thus higher. Then, the wave takes it final shape, depending on the bathymetry of the ocean floor, aka the structure of the ground. As the wave gets to the coast, the water gets so low that the wave reaches a breaking point and gives birth to a tide and dies on the beach. The break point of the wave can be the same on all its length or can be gradual, from one side to the other. The configuration of the ground plays a large role in this aspect.

The gradual breaking point is a key point for surfers to get a nice run as they surf  almost exclusively at this point. Thus a long break is better as the run is longer. The implication of the ground floor on the breaking point of the waves explains a little why some places are called surf spot. Indeed, a nice beach with a rocky ground can have a more consistent breaking point for waves than a beach with an always changing sand floor.

Hello surfers!

Since I was a kid, I have always skiing. I'm fond of the sport that can be classified under the name of riding sport. This blog will try to make a tour of the different sports that permit a human to slide/surf on a surface. I will try to gi ve a n hint about t heir creat ion and their different practice around the world. I will begin s urfing , which is probably the oldest one.

Water is in a liquid state in normal weather conditions and thus, some physical rules apply. Liquid follows the first thermo- dynamics principle, linking the volume to the pressure and the temperature. This means that you can't make water fit in a smaller volume without increasing the pressure. Therefore, at low pressure (the one that we can apply) the water can be considered incompressible. When you put a solid in the water, the water level rises (it is the Archimedes principle). But if you try to enter a solid with high speed and big surface area, for instance if you dive and enter flatly in the water, you get the effect of a slap (this is the infamous “belly flop”). This is due to the fact that the water under this solid tries to compress the water that is trapped under it, and the water resists to this compression movement.

This principle is the one at the basis of surfing. When you gain some speed on the surface of the water, you exercise a compression movement, and thus if it is strong enough, the water resistance repulses you  and you get to slide over the water. This gives a planing effect that is the surfing action.

The surfing sport is based on this effect. The idea is to gain enough speed to slide on the slope of a wave. Then different tricks can be done, including air or flat maneuverer . This sport became popular in western countries in the 50s, starting in California with the Beach Boys but its origin is way older.

The explorers reported that local young men were playing in the tides of Kealakekua Bay on the Kona coast of the Big Island with wooden boards, lying or standing on them . Lt. King was impressed as the men mastered heavy tides standing on their board. He also reported that the men could be said to be almost amphibious due to their ability to evade the reef:

Sketch of the first surfers

"If the Swell drives him [The surfer] close to the rocks before he is overtaken by its break, he is much prais'd. On first seeing this very dangerous diversion I did not conceive it possible but that some of them must be dashed to mummy against the sharp rocks, but jus before they reach the shore, if they are very near, they quit their plank, & dive under till the Surf is broke, when the piece of plank is sent many yards by the force of the Surf from the beach. The greatest number are generally overtaken by the break of the swell, the force of which they avoid, diving and swimming under the water out of its impulse."
 

The anthropologist that studied the Polynesian civilization believe that surfing played an important part in the social and religious life of the Hawaiians . The society was divided between the royal family and the commoners and thus the beaches were also divided between those two castes . And people were remembered through songs by their deed or misdeed in Surf. Kings like Kamehameha I, were renowned for their surfing ability and praised by the following generation.

As the European set foot in Hawaii , the previous ruling system was overthrown and surfing lost its ritual place in the society. Missionaries even worsen the sport has it was view to a game and therefore wasn't suited for working men. Moreover, disease and the alcohol decimated the population decreasing from around 600,000 people to 40,000 native people in a century. Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, surfing was almost dead.

George Freeth

But in 1907, Jack London, already famous for White Fang, The Sea Wolf and The Call of the Wild, came to Hawaii . He met Alexender Hume Ford, and the surf legend George Freeth at the Waikiki Swimming Club who introduced him to the kings' sport, the Surf. London described it in a novel called A royal sport, surfing in Waikiki and from this started the ascension of surfing into the sport we know today.

The description of George Freeth interested the real estate baron and railroad constructor Henry Huntington who invited Freeth to surf in California to promote his new line between Redondo and Los Angeles. Then Freeth traveled along the California Coast to promote surfing.

Duke Kahanamoku

Back in Hawaii , two clubs emerged at the Waikiki beach as the real estate and the tourism grew, the Hui Nalu (surf club in Hawaiian) and the Waikiki swimming Club. Those two clubs started doing demonstrations and competitions and the number of participants raised from a hundred members in 1911 to over 1200 in 1915. Among them was the one that really got the surf international, Duke Kahanamoku. He was the fastest swimmer in Hawaii and proved to be the fastest in the world in the Stockholm and Antwerp Olympics. During his travels, he promoted surfing on the beaches of California and Australia. This contributed greatly to making this sport popular.

Finally, Hollywood movies and improvement of the photography in the water rendered possible the exportation of images of the sports and finish rooting this sport in the Oceans' coast life style. We will see in a later article that the 60s and 70s made the surf more than a sport and developed a real culture around it.