Kite · Foil & Olympics
2025
The first 40-metre jump
Hugo Wigglesworth jumps 40 metres at Cape Town, measured by a sensor on his board, the first kitesurfer to reach that height.
40m
Hugo Wigglesworth, Kite Beach, Cape Town, 6 December 2025 (sensor-measured)
Big air is about height, and jump heights are measured with sensors, usually mounted on the board. Within three years the best measured jump rose by more than six metres.
On 8 August 2023 at Hanstholm in Denmark, Maarten Haeger jumped 35.7 metres, a new record, and the same day Joshua Emanuel went higher with 36.2 metres. In 2024 Hugo Wigglesworth beat that with 36.7 metres at Plimmerton Beach near Wellington in New Zealand.
On 6 December 2025 at 4:40 in the afternoon, at Kite Beach in Cape Town, Wigglesworth jumped 40 metres on a foilboard, measured by a sensor mounted on the board. He was described as the first kitesurfer to jump 40 metres.
The record did not last long. In April 2026 Jamie Overbeek jumped 42.3 metres at Le Barcarès in France, shortly after winning a big-air contest there.