KITE SURF AND THE FLIGHT OF THE MOSQUITO. A SUCCESS STORY. Alexandre Rolim, or just “Moskito”, is a man who lives to feel good. He is married to Vanessa Chastinet and is the father of the gorgeous Sophia. In 2006, the couple opened the largest Kitesurfing School in Latin America, Rancho do Kite. The school is open 12 months a year on Praia do Preá, a few kilometers far from <strong>Jericoacoara</strong>. In peak season, they hire more than two dozen instructors, and, on average, they have 350 kitesurfing boards to serve about 3,000 students a year. 108 Moskito started his pioneering work in 2004 as a school instructor on Praia do Preá. He used two-line kites, which were very hard and even dangerous to handle and give classes. He says, “it was a real pressure, because we did not have the “bar depower” (the device to decrease the power in the kite). They were followed later by four-line kites, safety systems, and other devices that increased considerably instructors and students’ safety. The concern with safety and the pleasure in practicing kitesurfing have always been part of their philosophy of work. That is perhaps the secret to his success and that of his company, which is always well positioned in the market. In the beginning, risk was a present reality, but as safety systems evolved and there was a real revolution in the sport. According to Alexandre, equipment has changed completely in the last 15 years. We can say that the name “kitesurf” is the same, but the sport is different; it is a much more dynamic and safer sport, with a huge range of models and equipment with sail area ranging from 02 to 19 square meters. “Nowadays, people can start kitesurfing at the age six, but sexagenarians and people of all ages can also do it, because of the methods we thoroughly developed in our school. Thank God, our accident rate has dropped | <strong>Jericoacoara</strong>. O paraíso é aqui to almost zero, and the amount of people returning to visit us grows every year, and that show our commitment to teaching and particularly our concern with the safety of our students”, says Moskito. KNOW MORE: HISTORY OF KITESURFING According to reports, the first attempts to use a kite to enjoy the strength of the winds was in the 1970s. At the time, some people were seen being pulled by these kites while riding on water skis. In 1977, Gijsbertus Panhuise received the first patent, using a kite associated to a windsurfing board. However, it was only in the early 1980s, that Bill Roeseller, a Boeing aerodynamicist, and his son Cory, using a kind of rigid carbon fiber structure kite to pull them on water skis, showed that this new form of enjoying the wind was possible. In 1984, the French brothers Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux developed an inflatable kite design, which lowered the weight and allowed them to raise the kite again when it fell into the water without the help of others. In 1985, French windsurfer Manu Bertin, based in the Maui, in Hawaii, brings the brothers Legaignoux’s inflatable kites, and it was such a revolution that he is even considered the inventor of kiteboard. The first boards specifically designed for the sport were also developed at this time. The sport developed, and in 2000, the first Kiteboard Pro World Tour was organized. The series of events took place in Cape Verde, the Dominican Republic, France, and ended up in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Christopher Tasti, from France, and Stephanie Gamble, from New Zealand, were the first world champions in the category. This was also the year the sport landed in Brazil.
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