Before Kiteboarding: Kiteskiing 1995

Before kitesurfing or kiteboarding made it big in the U.S., kiteskiing was a thing. Not skiing like they do in Norway but like Cypress Gardens, FL. In 1995, kiteskiers were invited to ESPN's Extreme Games (now X-Games).

Kiting 1995

Bill Herderich summoned up this gem of an article from the bowels of his basement, the American Kiter Fall 1995 issue with an article about the event. Unfortunately, it isn't the inspiring story of the early days but, in a tale we all recognize, how not enough wind not only kept the event from running as planned and gave them virtually no airtime but gave ESPN the excuse to underpay the competitors.

Besides the drama, the article is worth reading to see what the state of the art was then: rigid kites, skis instead of boards and control bars that look like a tight rope walker's balance pole.

Bill scanned it for us and is available as a pdf: 1995-kite-espn-games.pdf

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