Kite sports may be new to you; however, we have been kiting in Ottawa since the last millennium! Given the easy access to water and snow right in the city, Ottawa is the catalyst for the formation of kiting pioneers in various aspects of kite sports including kitesurfing, kiteskiing, kitesnowboarding and kiteboating. Ottawa is also the proud incubator of the world's famous kite sports information web site KitesurfingSchool.org since 1999.
Photo taken by Steve Slaby.
One of the earliest kiters in Ottawa is Eric Brackenbury. Eric kiteskied and buggied in Ottawa since the 80's / 90's. Hung Vu became the first kitesurfer in Ottawa when he started learning kitesurfing at Britannia Bay in October 1998 using Wipika Classic kites and FOne board he bought during a trip to Paris. Peter Williamson became the second kitesurfer in Ottawa when he came back to Ottawa from Vancouver in 2000. Claude became the third kitesurfer in Ottawa when he searched the whole city to buy his 7m kite a wakeboard after having seen Hung kitesurfing in summer 2000. This quartet and several other early supporters have, in one form or another, helped to grow the Ottawa Kiting community to its present day.
The original Ottawa Kiting website was created by Hung Vu and launched sometime in 2004 as per the records in the Way Back Machine timeline. Since then, over the years the website went thrugh a few iterrations as more information was added by Hung and the other Ottawa community members.
Photo taken by Jan Pina.
Jump! Britannia 2000
Photo by Bill Pratt
Archived E-Mail
From: an492@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Steven Slaby)
Date: 12 Oct 1999 15:31:12 GMT
Newsgroups: ott.rec.sailing
John W. Bienko (as312@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) writes:
>> The sailing was spectacular this weekend ... great winds and
>> warm temperatures. The anemometer showed wind speeds in the
>> 20-30 k range and the windsurf sailors were enjoying the best
>> of times. I spotted a strange moon shaped kite in the sky
>> that seemed to be moving over the water. I followed the
>> tether line and saw a human on a water ski on the other end.
>> He manoeuvred the ski expertly and surfed along the Ontario
>> shore, being dunked occasionally by a wave or wind change.
>> IT was quite a sight.
Its called a Kitesurfer; Hung is the first person here in Ottawa to take up the sport.
Its a relatively new sport which really lends itself to low-wind days which are difficult at best for windsurfing.
For some pictures, you can check out my Ottawa Windsurfing website
(www.magma.ca/~slaby/wind) or Hung's website
(www.netcom.ca/~hungvu/kitesurfing.htm)
Steve.
Eric, 60+ years old, kiteskis at Britannia
