What is kitefoiling, the sport done by Singapore's Olympic medal hope Max Maeder – and just how hard is it?

SINGAPORE: I drifted a few metres from shore, waves slapping my face as I swallowed mouthfuls of seawater, neck aching beyond imagination as I was reminded - for the fiftieth time - to keep my eyes on the parachute-like contraption I was snugly harnessed to.

Then the "kite", as they call it, caught the wind at a precise angle and just like that, I was getting pulled along in the water.

“You control the kite, the kite does not control you!”

I had no idea what the instructor meant – just like I had never heard of the sport of kitefoiling, until the recent emergence of Singaporean Maximilian Maeder.

Last August, as a 16-year-old, he was crowned world champion in the men's kite event; and successfully defended his title in May this year. Not for no reason is Maeder being touted as Singapore's strongest medal hope at the coming Paris Olympics.

Videos of the teenager in action show him gliding along on a board that appears to float above the water, making the sport look almost as easy as riding a bicycle. 

But is it, really?

Kitefoiling is a style of kitesurfing or kiteboarding, which are essentially sports using wind power from a kite to pull a rider along.

Kitesurfing is believed to have been invented in the 1970s, but it was only in the 1990s that it gained popularity, with the first competition held in Hawaii in 1998. 

In 2008, the International Kiteboarding Association was founded. The sport then appeared at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

Three years later, it was announced that kiteboarding will make its Olympic Games debut in Paris 2024, in the Formula Kite class which features a hydrofoil board.

Compared to typical boards which keep contact with the water's surface, the wing-like hydrofoil can lift the rider up – reducing drag,