Kitesurfing is a fairly new sport and technology is still enhancing year by year.
It is now the fastest growing water sport on earth and there are still new styles and modalities being invented.
With the invention of the foiling wing, it is now possible to kitesurf with extreme low wind conditions which makes the sport much more accessabel in meteorological and geographical terms.
In other words, there are now many more places on this planet where you can practice the sport.

The first patents of a device that let you pull by the wind were made in the 1970s.
Two brothers, Bruno Legaignoux and Dominique Legaignoux, from the Atlantic coast of France, developed kites for kitesurfing in the late 1970s and early 1980s and patented an inflatable kite design in November 1984. Meanwhile there was a lot of testing with kiting buggy’s on land. In 1997 the Legaignoux brothers patented the wipica inflatable tube kite, which was gonna be the god father design for many other designs and brands. Windsurfing champion Robbie Naish in Maui Hawai soon came out with Naish kites. Tis is also where the first competition was held in September 1998, and was won by Flash Austin.

Back then you could call kitesurf an extreme sport, the equipment was unforgiving and dangerous but a fest for adrenalin junkies.
Over the years the aerodynamics, technology and the security systems got way better and nowadays anybody can learn to kitesurf.