According to Google Trends, kiteboarding is declining in popularity

[downunder]

The good news is that more people are calling it kitesurfing rather than kiteboarding

If u riding waves, u surfing. If not, u boarding.

Wakeboarding on waves? Dont think so

[mr_daruman]

The good news is that more people are calling it kitesurfing rather than kiteboarding

If u riding waves, u surfing. If not, u boarding.

Wakeboarding on waves? Dont think so

So...not surfing hence Windboarding? Windsurfing, Kitesurfing just sounds cooler.
Declining in popularity = GREAT! More space for everyone. Safer for everyone.

[fernmanus]

I don't know if kiteboarding/surfing is declining, but I can assure you that snowkiting is on the decline. Not that I mind. Kite sports require a lot of space and it gets dangerous when a launch spot gets crowded.

A lot of people take lessons, but give up on the sport. Plus, it is a sport that takes dedication, especially if you have to travel more than an hour to get to a launch spot. I have many friends that have given up on the sport over the years. My friend that got me hooked on kiting nearly 20 years ago is an avid mountain biker and gets out on the kite only a handful of times a year.

I have other friends that gave up the sport after an injury of kitemare. Kiting requires patience (sorting gear and waiting for wind). It also requires a high level of fitness if you want to have good sessions and avoid injury. Bottomline, kiting is not a sport for everyone.

[Sun]

Don't read too much into the data, after all judging by the number of golf courses being built around me I doubt "golfing" is on the decline:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ng,golfing

[RedSky]

I copied this explanation from another forum regarding land kiting as it shared my experience of the sport too.

Land kiting of all types here in the UK has dramatically decreased in popularity over the years. There used to be a school on every beach, brick and mortar kite stores in many places and giant gatherings of hundreds of kiters several times a year. Every weekend there was a bunch of people buggying and land boarding where everyone knew each other. We had two forums for land kiting, Racekites.com and Kitecrowd with at least 20 new posts a day.
Each region had an active club.

Now, there's a just a few people left and you are lucky to see someone else on the beach at all. The only schools left are for water and both web forums get maybe one post fortnightly. The used buggy market has crashed, with the price of a standard flexifoil bug going from 250 down to 100.

I blame Facebook. Some narcissistic people of the selfie generation influenced others to start using facebook and convinced others to use local facebook pages . Once people stopped using the national forums and started concentrating on their own little club facebook pages, everything became fragmented. Each of those little fragments then withered up and died without the activity level necessary to keep it interesting. Without organization, people just started to go out less and less. With less kiters out, no newbies got interested and there is no clear pathway to getting started.

[Jelle_vw]

I see the same happening in the Netherlands. Our fora used to be very lively but nowadays they are mostly used to post lost or found gear. All the questions are already asked and answered. Discussion and meet & greet takes place in whats app groups. But maybe that is not a bad thing. It certainly did not result in less kiters on the water.

[nikalaitzian]

We dont give a F@ck!!!!

[downunder]

Ummm

Lets face it, the new gear is waaaay to expensive.

I live in the Oz (yep it is really that good), and bless this country for a 2nd hand gear.

The EU can only dream of this prices. And that is a big obstacle.

[LiquidXtasy]

We dont give a F@ck!!!!

[RadDrDuke]

Don't read too much into the data, after all judging by the number of golf courses being built around me I doubt "golfing" is on the decline:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... ng,golfing

Your anecdote is hilarious because it's a fact that Golf is on an extreme decline and has been for ten years, just like kiting (although that has not been proven on this forum)