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It's Fun To Make Useful Homemade Gizmos
It's fun and satisfying to design and then make simple items that serve some purpose. I find it very rewarding to conjure up designs out of my imagination and then build them using common tools and cheap or free materials. I've made all kinds of...

"Make Your Sports Viewing More Fun and Interesting!"
Many years ago when I started betting on sports, I never imagined that ten years on I would be betting and trading for a living. So how did it all start? Well, 'for fun' I would think is the most accurate answer! I placed bets for fun on sporting...

Sports and Camping Tents to Keep Warm and Dry
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The Unspoilt Wilderness in Paphos, Cyprus
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Treadmill Walking for Weight Loss
Only about 20 percent of the U.S. population engages in some type of physical activity on a regular basis, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturer Association International (SGMA). That leaves approximately 80 percent of the U.S....

 
History of kitesurfing


KiteSurfing is by far the latest craze in extreme sports. The idea of using a kite to enhance speed and gravity for the surfer seems like a new and exhilarating challenge, yet the art of KiteSurfing dates back to the 13th Century Chinese when it was used as a simple mode of transportation. KiteSailing, as it was known, was a medium that used the wind as an aid to harness its momentum and energy to mobilize their canoes across water. The earliest recorded history of KiteSailing dates back to the early 12th Century.
In the 1800’s George Pocock took the basic kite design to a whole new level by increasing the size of the overall kite and used them as a sail to glide carts on land and ships on the water. The designs of the kites were engineered with 4 lines, the same setup being deployed today. Both carts and boats were able to turn and sail upwind. The wind would generate enough lift underneath the kite to raise it off of the ground and powerful enough to sustain it for a period of time.
These kites have been able to propel a man-made vehicle across the ground, snow, ice and water. These kites are codependent on the wind and its necessary to get off of the ground or water to get


them to fly. However, once the kite is in the air it manufactures its own wind, which is proportionately faster and creates a higher rate of speed for the vehicle.
Yet one issue still remains most of the earlier kites were deployed from the land and off of the flat ground. Not on the water where KiteSurfing takes place. In the 1980’s Wipika, Kiteski, fOne, Concept Air, C-Quad, and Naish Kites marketed water launch kites. These kites could be sailed again after falling short of wind into the water.
In the late 1990’s off of the Hawaiian coast of Maui, Laird Hamilton and Manu displayed the extreme sport opportunities to radical surfers and wake boarders. Its popularity has since skyrocketed as one of the fastest growing water sports in the past two years.
Today there are organizations, competitions, videos and magazines worldwide dedicated to this increasingly popular sport and the thrills associated with it.

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.kitesurfingnow.com. Visit his kitesite for the latest on kitesurfing equipment, kiteboarding lessons, places to surf and much more!

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