Especially in Denmark the performance of these guys became markable. As the waves in this area come very often with onshore winds, they had a clear advantage. Getting out was not a real issue for them as the kite easily did that work and helped a lot with picking waves. If these waves were closing out, a little drag at the kitelines was enough to get up above the foam and get back out with no effort.
Surfers didnīt like those guys a lot though, partly because some of the kiteboarders had the bad habbit to drive through the lineup or even jump way to close to the surfers, partly because they were a bit jealous about the fact that these kiteboarders didnīt have to paddle.
So surfing and kiteboarding mostly stayed seperate wourlds.
This is very likely to change now.
As seen in Denmark this autumn, there now finally exist kiteboards that are designed for classic kiteboarding and surfing waves.
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