1) The world is more or less in a recession
2) People/Youngsters in countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece are up to 50% unemployed - not stimulating to buy kite gear
3) Kite surfing is a quite expensive sport - not a expensive compared to wake boarding/waterskiing requiring a motor boat- but many times more expensive than the "chique" golf sport
4) Prices of equipment are rising faster than the income of most kitesurfers
5) No real progress or quantum leaps the last 4 years - so no eager to buy new stuff
6) No new markets: Asian people don't go kitesurfing yet (if ever) as they are spending money on house and car - kitesurfing is not their dream
7) Too many brands -some almost local
8] Wave kitesurf has been promoted since 4 years now and only catches on slowly but won't become a big market as waves and wind are required - and skills.
9) Due to increasing petrol prices and more or higher taxes on cars the cost of traveling to the sea/ocean or lake is going up: thus less sessions per year on average.
Conclusion:
The same number of people (or even less) who have less money to spend than 5 to 10 years ago - for ever more expensive equipment that has no big improvement over 3 or 4 year old equipment and higher transportation costs will put the kitesurfing industry also into a big recession.