BY ALEXANDER HARO
Hugo Wigglesworth likes to get high, and on December 6, he got higher than anyone else. Any other kitesurfer, at least. He broke the world record for the highest kitesurfing jump.
According to International Kite Surf magazine, just before 5 pm, Wigglesworth soared into the sky under his kite on a kitesurfing board with a foil at the aptly named Kite Beach in Cape Town, South Africa.
He went up. And up. And up some more, until he hit 40 meters in the air, shattering the previous record. You may wonder how, exactly, they were able to measure the height of his jump. It was captured by something called WOO, a sensor for measuring kiteboarding and wingfoiling jumps that attaches to the kitesurfer’s board.
Breaking the record wasn’t an accident. Wigglesworth set out to break it when he saw the forecast was calling for strong, gusty winds the following evening. He said he had a bit of a bone to pick after he wasn’t selected to compete in the 2025 Red Bull King of the Air event. He knew that he could show he is one of the best kite surfers in the world.
Wigglesworth waited until the wind was right, packed up, and headed down to the beach with his crew, his parents, and a whole pile of gear. With a new kite setup that used 17-meter lines instead of 23-meter ones, he took off for a warm-up attempt that the WOO sensor recorded as a little over 27 meters in the air.
Over the next hour, each jump was a little higher. Finally, he ramped up his speed, found a perfect kicker wave, and took flight for the record-breaking jump.
This story first appeared in The Inertia.
