The International Kiteboarding Association , is the only kiteboarding class inside the International Sailing Federation. The IKA class rules fall in the category of a development class.
History
The International Kiteboarding Association was founded in April 2008 by Guillaume Fournier, after the International Sailing Federation had included the principle of surfers being propelled by a kite in the 'ISAF Equipment Rules of Sailing'. Kiteboarding was adopted in November 2008 as an ISAF international sailing class. An Executive Committee is re-appointed by the class AGM. The duties of the Executive Committee are to take care of the day-to-day business of the association, and to coordinate submissions from the sub-committees. The Executive Committee is: – Chairman: Richard Gowers – Vice-chairman: Bruno De Wannemaeker – Executive Secretary: Markus Schwendtner – Board members: Mirco Babini, Olivier Mouragues, Adam Szymanski and John Gomes. Head of Communications and Public Affairs: Diego Massimiliano De Giorgi.
Around 30 national kite class associations are affiliated to the International Kiteboarding Association and active fleets exist in more than 65 countries.
Championships
Class Championships are run as 'one-off' competitions in the racing disciplines course racing, kite cross and speed, and as series of events for the expression disciplines freestyle and wave riding.
Tours
Professional Tour Operators exist that organize series of sanctioned events. These are:
PKRA: Series of events in freestyle, course racing and wave riding
KTE: European Freestyle Championship Series, also providing course racing events
KTA: Asian Freestyle Championship Series, also offering disciplines like Old School and Twin Tip Racing
French kiteboarder Sebastien Cattelan became the first sailor to break the 50 knots barrier by reaching 50.26 knots on 3 October 2008 at the Lüderitz Speed Challenge in Namibia. Earlier in the event, on 19 September, AmericanRob Douglas reached 49.84 knots, becoming the first kitesurfer to establish an outright world record in speed sailing. Previously the record was held only by sailboats or windsurfers. The outright sailing speed record has since been claimed by the French trimaran Hydroptère which, on 4 September 2009, reached a speed of 51.36 knots over 500 meters and 50.17 over a nautical mile in open ocean and only 25 to 30 knots of wind. In October 2010, Rob Douglas became the outright speed world record holder on water powered by the wind with 55.65 knots, exceeding the previous record by more than four knots.
Olympic ambitions
Kiteboarding is included in a provisional slate for the ten available Olympic sailing medals, which was confirmed at the ISAF 2011 mid year conference. The provisional slate is as follows:
