Kiteboarding is such an exciting sport, it's awesome to watch and heaps of fun to do. Unfortunately my lack of hands means I can't take it up as a hobby, but there will be plenty of Australia's best down at Sail Melbourne next week.
Kiteboarding is a relatively young sport - in 1998 there were probably only a couple of dozen kiteboarders in the world. There was a World Cup back then in Hawaii but some of the winners had only started learning a few months beforehand! The population of kiteboarders has now grown immensely with competitions taking place all over the world.
In light of the sport's recent inclusion in the Olympic program for 2016 and beyond, Sail Melbourne will be introducing kiteboarding to its events at the ISAF Sailing World Cup.
The explosive kiteboarding events will take place at Hampton Beach on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, extending the program further along the bay where Australia's best will participate in course races as well as display their incredible skills with freestyle competitions.
Spectators can expect to see spectacular tricks pulled off by the world's best kiteboarders as they make HUGE "floaty" jumps on the bay, pull off 360º spins in the air and gracefully land back on the water.
Coming down to compete is Aussie youngster and 2011 Australian Freestyle Kiteboarding Champion, Keahi De Aboitiz. At just 18 years of age Keahi won his first Open title at the Wave Nationals taking place in Warrnambool, Victoria earlier this year.
Check out Keahi doing his thing here in one of his YouTube videos:
