I started kitesurfing in 2007 in Ireland and was hooked after I got over the first hurdle of getting up on the board and staying upwind. I then found myself cruising up and down the beach content with my achievements but wondering what I could do next. I looked around the beach and could see people boosting big, throwing flips and rotations but I had no idea where to start. Progression DVDs were a good help but when I got on the water I crashed and burned on most attempts to land new tricks.

I traveled to Australia in 2011 and met a kitesurfing group in Perth. There was a big difference between the gusty winds of Ireland to the constant seabreeze winds of Perth but the biggest difference was the support from being in a group of kitesurfers all trying to progress.

I tried to make it more fun and competitive between us, so I developed a progression league for learning new tricks and progressing our kitesurfing skills. We updated a spreadsheet once a week and the person who had progressed most at the end of the windy season won the league and the bragging rights for the next year!

Over the 5 years we ran this league, we found that it really encouraged everyone to attempt new tricks and drove us to keep on progressing! We realised that we were more likely to try new variations or attempt new tricks because we could score some points and overtake friends on the beach leaderboard.

I started the development of kitingsheep.com so that all kitesurfers can be part of a global network and compete against friends at their local beach. I have tried to add as many features as possible and to involve as many parties as possible from beach users to local shops and main sponsors. I hope you like kitingsheep.com.