The modern history of kitesurfing starts more or less with some french guys in France who invented the first inflatable airframe kite in 1995.

Santa Cruz has a long rich history of Windsurfing on the north Coast. In 1999 the Schiebel Brothers, both professional windsurfers, came back from Maui with one of these rudimentary two line first fledgling kites. After dragging themselves down football fields, and eventually through the water, these brothers learned how to stay up wind. One of the brothers, a windsurfing sailmaker, began building kites in his garage and selling them to windsurfers who were willing to crossover. Eventually, the company was named Caution Kites and production shifted overseas. As more and more windsurfers took up kitesurfing, Santa Cruz became a world renown kitesurfing hot spot. Each spring kiters from all over the world would congregate on the North Coast for the Waddell Creek Kite Clash, one of the biggest kiting competitions at that time. Although the contest is no longer held, the growing Santa Cruz kitesurfing community continues to be a vibrant, tight-knit group of highly skilled wave riding kitesurfers.