Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is an extreme sport which bears some similarity to surfing, windsurfing, and wakeboarding. It is an extremely difficult (and dangerous) action sport which requires tremendous strength and balance. Needless to say, it was virtually impossible to film or photograph a kiteboarder up close until the advent of camera drones. This collection shows you some of the best drone footage of kiteboarders around the globe.
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Rocannon created this amazing drone video recording a kitesurfing trip to the Black Sea in Russia's Crimean Peninsula. The video does a beautiful job of intermixing shots of the spectacular natural scenery of the Crimean coastline with some epic footage of multiple (and clearly very adept) kitesurfers skimming the water of this vast inland sea. It looks like the trip of a lifetime, and the video was picked as a Finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest in June, 2019.
The very talented Icarus Aerial Filming follows professional kiteboarder, Dim Softas, out on the waves off the South African coast. In this highly cinematic, action-packed aerial, Icarus uses a drone to show off Dim's crazy skills on the water, filmed from a perspective which would be impossible without a drone. The video features some great editing which intermixes ground and aerial footage of the South African beach world, one of the up-and-coming areas in the world of aquatic extreme sports.
Given that Australia is one of the great centers of surfing, it's probably not surprising that kite-surfing has taken hold in the land Down Under. Kite-surfers are an increasingly frequent sight on beaches all around the country. Contributor Aero Retina Optics captured this very skilled kite boarder gracefully working the wind and the waves on a beach in the state of Victoria, in the southeastern corner of the country. The cranes of the port of Melbourne are visible in the distance.
While kitesurfing did not originate in the United States, like all extreme sports it has found a loyal following there. Kitesurfers can be found in most suitable bodies of water in the United States, whether coastal or inland. In this video, contributor Windmill36 has put together some this highly cinematic drone reel of windsurfing in the USA, both off the shores of Lake Michigan and on Oregon's Pacific coast. Both areas have become hot-spots for this emerging extreme sport.
If you are looking for some epic close-up shots of kiteboarders that only a drone can deliver, this aerial video by Oliver Leyba is very hard to beat. It was shot with a DJI Phantom 4 drone at Bonaire, a small Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles. The island is a posession of the Netherlands and is the "B" in the sub-group group known as the "ABC" islands, the other two being Aruba and Curcao. In addition to being stunningly beautiful, the ABC's lie outside of Hurricane Alley.
Mue Ne is a coastal town in the Bình Thuận province of southern Vietnam. It is the center of a roughly 50 km (30 mi.) stretch of coastline that has become a popular spot for surfers and kiteboarders around the world. In this video, contributor Rufus Blackwell used a drone to film some of the kiteboarding action in this tropical paradise, recently named one of Asia's top 20 beaches by CNN Travel. He then did some post-production editing and the result is some astounding aerial video content.
Top contributor IsabelleFabre travels the world to find the best extreme sports locations, and creates amazing videos using both drone and ground camera footage. In this video, she heads to Dakhla, a city on the coast of North Africa which is in an area controlled by Morocco. The sport? Kiteboarding, an extreme sport which requires great skill simply to remain upright. Ride along as she tackles the strong Atlantic winds in what has to be one of the world's most epic kiteboarding spots.
Contributor Pascha used a drone to capture some epic kitesurfing action off the coast of Western Turkey. Ayvalik is a coastal town in the Balıkesir Province on the Aegean Sea, on the northern end of the Aegean Region. It's surrounded by a number of smaller islands. As you'll see in the video, the area has caught the attention of the world's kitesurfers. Prepare to be amazed not only by the kitesurfing but the incredible camera work capturing these fast-moving targets!
Pair the leading aerial videographer of kiteboarding with one of the world's top kiteboarders and put them together in their native Greece, aka ground zero for this growing sport. That's the magic behind this video by Icarus Aerial Filming, a Greek drone pilot. In this video he captures Dmitris Softas cruising off the shores of an unnamed spot in Greece. Prepare to be amazed by the stunning way in which drones (uniquely) can film this growing sport.
Contributor Ryanscotthoag created this amazing drone video of one of the world's top windsurfers on the largest lake in Central America. Lake Nicaragua is situated on the western side of the country of the same name. The lake is massive - over 8.2k square km (about 3.2k square mi.), making it one of the 20 largest lakes in the world. With its size and strong steady winds, it's become something of a mecca for kitesurfers around the world. Watch him tackle the waves and wind, captured from above!
The steady winds and relatively calm waters of the Rio de la Plata estuary make for some of the best kite surfing opportunities in South America. In this video, contributor Drone 5 flew his drone out over the water to capture the growing kite surfing scene on the Uruguay side of the great waterway, on the other side of which lies the Argentine capital city Buenos Aires. It was filmed in the Montevideo neighborhood of Malvin, which lies near the eastern end of the city's waterfront.
In this episode of Ryan's Ridiculous, Ryan heads to the Turks & Caicos for some epic kitesurfing. He teams up with internationally known kite surfer Jessica Winkler to learn the ropes of handling a kite in these Bermuda Triangle waters in the South Atlantic. Watch this former NFL player and "Bachelorette" contestant try this thrilling but very dangerous action sport for the first time, all the while being filmed by a drone!
Timmy Zach is one of the world's top kitesurfers. It's all the more remarkable because he is all of 16 years old. In this video by RWJ Video Editing, you'll get a drone's eye view of this teenage phenomenon tearing up the waves of the Caribbean Sea. The video was shot in Aruba, which is one of the so-called "ABC" islands of the southern Caribbean, along with Bonaire and Curacao. The water conditions here have turned these islands into a giant magnet for some of the world's best kitesurfing talent.
Turkey's Aegean Region has become one of the world's top spots for sailing and yachting, so it's perhaps not surprising that the area has also emerged as one of the world's hottest spots for kiteboarding (also known as kitesurfing). The steady winds and relatively calm waters have captured the attention of the growing worldwide kitesurfing community, and if you watch this droone video by contributor secoko you'll see why. It was shot off the coast of Alaçatı, on the north side of the Çeşme Peninsula.
While Brazil's long Atlantic coastline does not have many large island of note, portions of it are dotted with tropical mangroves and lagoons. These semi-protected waters are perfect for aquatic activities like kiteboarding. Witness this beautiful drone video by Nuculeus. It was shot in one of these lagoon area in the state of Piauí. Located in northern Brazil, Piauí is a large state with a very short coastline. It's one of the nine states which make up Brazil's official Northeast Region.
