Ben Franklin may have been the first to capture shocking results with a kite, but today's kiteboarders are electrifying adventure with gravity-defying airs, big surf, and dynamic tricks. On towering waves and placid inland waters, 20- to 60-foot-long kites harness the wind's energy and can send a kiteboarder shooting across the water at more than 30 knots. Attached to the kite with a harness, a kiteboarder steers with a control bar while skitting across the water with a board strapped to her feet. With these three pieces of equipment, an experienced kiteboarder can launch off waves, soar over 50 feet in the air—while performing flips, board grabs, and other tricks—then land smoothly back on the water.

Two sets of visionaries on different continents sparked this rapidly growing sport. In Hood River, Oregon, the father-son team of William and Cory Roeseler developed a kite in the late 1980s that could pull a skilled water-skier. A few years later, the Legaignoux brothers from France designed kites with inflatable bladders, which allowed kiteboarders who sent their kites into the drink to relaunch without heading back to shore. In recent years, wakeboard-style moves—like 360s and handle grabs—have snuck into the kiteboarding repertoire of tricks. Kites can also help adrenaline junkies catch huge airs, cruise open waters, and tow surf-ready kiters into monster waves.

These days, further refinement of kites and boards has made kiting both safer and easier to pick up. "The learning curve is really quick," says Tom James, founding editor of Kiteboarding magazine. While beginner skiers and snowboarders are stuck on the bunny slopes as experts hit the steeps, kiteboarders can share the same turf: "You control how radical you get," says James, "and you can be on the same playground as the best in the world."
Pioneer: Lou Wainman

The enigmatic Lou Wainman, 30, is widely considered the soul of kiteboarding, influencing everything from kite design to riding style since the sport's early days. "If there's ever a hall of fame for kiteboarding," says Kiteboarding founder James, "he'll be one of the first guys in it."

But you won't hear about it from Wainman, who simply calls himself lucky. "Me, I just like to ride," he says.

The native Floridian first hit the water for other board sports, ripping up the competitive wakeboarding scene as a youngster, then hopping over to Maui in 1997 to start a pro windsurfing career. But the kite took over when he spotted a friend cruising offshore with a kite and a surfboard. "From that moment on, it's been a crazy adventure," Wainman says.

Not usually a competitor, Wainman's spent the last few years cruising his adopted island's waters with his best friend (and wife) Helene and crew, as well as spreading the kiting gospel from Japan to Tahiti. He's been working on speed, surfing, and huge airs, as well as designing equipment like Naish's wakeboard-inspired Hazmat board.

While kiteboarders look to him and fellow Maui resident Elliot LeBoe as the first to bring lightning-fast wakeboarding-style moves to the kite, Wainman downplays his early days on the water. On his first good ride in '97, heading out from Maui's Ho'okipa Beach Park, Wainman says he "just felt like a tug of war with this flying thing as it flew me out to sea."

And in the early days of kiting, every crashed kite was a spectacle. "We were really learning in public," he says. When Wainman and his friends would lose control on their daily nine-mile downwind rides, they'd have to untangle their lines and split. "You would have to answer to the cops or people who had called the coastguard 'cause they swore they saw a parachutist hit the water," he says.

But that was a long time ago. Says James, who learned from Wainman on a trip to Maui, "He's like a god over there."