Kiteboarding becomes a sailing class

By 2008 kiteboarding had its own world tours and speed records, but no place in the international sailing federation.

In April 2008 the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) was founded. In November 2008, the month of its annual conference in Madrid, the international sailing federation ISAF gave kiteboarding international class status. Its Council approved three new classes that year: kiteboarding, the X-41 and the Melges 32.

Class status gave the sport a place in the federation that also runs the Olympic sailing events. In 2009 the PKRA world tour joined the IKA. The link mattered quickly: four years later ISAF would vote on whether kiteboarding should replace windsurfing at the Olympic Games.