6 kiteboarding coaches, from Ariane Imbert to Stevie Morrison and Casper Bouman, each with achievements, years active, athletes coached and nationality.
Every pick lists achievements, years active, teams coached and nationality, and the ranking is our judgement about their influence on kiteboarding rather than a medal tally. The questions at the end handle what usually comes next.
If you are working through the subject more broadly, we keep the same kind of list for kiteboarding books and kiteboarding films and documentaries.
Best Kiteboarding Coaches:
- Ariane Imbert
- Stevie Morrison
- Casper Bouman
- Shane Smith
- Aleksei Chibizov
- Xantos Villegas
#1 Ariane Imbert
- 🏆 Achievements: French national coach for Formula Kite, whose team took the first three places at the 2024 European Championship and three of the first four at the world championship.
- 📅 Years Active: About 2018 to 2024
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Lauriane Nolot, Axel Mazella, Poema Newland, Jessie Kampman
- 🌐 Nationality: France
Formula Kite became an Olympic class for Paris 2024, and France arrived at those Games with the deepest squad in the fleet. Imbert built it.
Coaching a foiling class means coaching equipment as much as technique, because the boards and wings change between events. That work sits with the national coach.
#2 Stevie Morrison
- 🏆 Achievements: Coached Britain’s only sailing gold medal at Paris 2024, in the women’s Formula Kite, after switching across from the 49er class.
- 📅 Years Active: May 2023 to August 2024 in the kite role
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Ellie Aldridge, earlier Connor Bainbridge
- 🌐 Nationality: United Kingdom
Morrison was a two time Olympic 49er sailor and took over the British kite programme barely a year before the Games.
Ellie Aldridge won the first Olympic kiteboarding title ever awarded to a British sailor, in a class the country had not previously contested.
#3 Casper Bouman
- 🏆 Achievements: National coach for the Dutch federation who built the TeamNL kitefoil squad and prepared it for the Olympic debut of the discipline.
- 📅 Years Active: About 2019 to at least 2020
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Annelous Lammerts, Sven van de Kamp, Stijn Mul, Kimberley van Rijsbergen
- 🌐 Nationality: Netherlands
The Netherlands treated kitefoiling as an Olympic project from the moment the class was confirmed, and Bouman was hired to assemble a squad that did not exist.
Annelous Lammerts went on to become one of the leading women in the class, which is the return on that early investment.
#4 Shane Smith
- 🏆 Achievements: Kite coach of the Australian Sailing Team, responsible for the country’s first Olympic kitefoil selection.
- 📅 Years Active: About 2022 to 2024
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Breiana Whitehead
- 🌐 Nationality: Australia
Breiana Whitehead was the first Australian sailor selected for Paris 2024 in any class, which for a brand new discipline is unusual.
Australian Sailing folded kite into its existing Olympic coaching structure rather than treating it as a separate sport, and Smith runs that part of it.
#5 Aleksei Chibizov
- 🏆 Achievements: National kite coach of the German Sailing Team, working with the German kitefoilers at world and European championships.
- 📅 Years Active: Documented in 2025
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Jannis Maus, Jan Voester, Jill Paland
- 🌐 Nationality: Russia
Germany came late to Olympic kitefoiling and is building its squad through the junior ranks rather than recruiting from other classes.
The German riders now appear regularly in world championship fleets, which is the first step before medal contention.
#6 Xantos Villegas
- 🏆 Achievements: Head coach of 4 Elements Kiteboarding and of the kitefoil academy in Rossland, described as the first year round training programme for competitive kitefoil athletes.
- 📅 Years Active: Coaching since about 2008, head coach of the academy since 2019
- 👕 Athletes Coached: Academy riders in Rossland and La Ventana, among them Tayne Steven
- 🌐 Nationality: Mexico
Almost all kite coaching happens inside national federations. A standing academy that trains competitive riders year round is a different structure, closer to how skiing or tennis organise their juniors.
The programme splits its year between Canada and Baja California to keep riders on the water in both seasons.
FAQ
Who is the greatest kiteboarding coach of all time?
The discipline is too young for a settled answer, but Ariane Imbert has the strongest record: her French Formula Kite squad took the first three places at the 2024 European Championship and three of the first four at the world championship.
Who was the most successful kiteboarding coach?
Measured by Olympic titles, Stevie Morrison and Ariane Imbert, whose riders won the medals in the first Olympic Formula Kite events at Paris 2024.
