Hugo Wigglesworth’s 40-Meter Kite Jump: A New World Record
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Still watching this jump on repeat. The 40m barrier has been broken!
On December 6th, 2025, at 4:40 pm on Cape Town’s iconic Kite Beach, Hugo Wigglesworth launched himself into the sky and shattered a barrier that many believed wouldn’t fall for years: he became the first kitesurfer in history to jump 40 meters.
The moment was captured, measured, and verified by WOO, the world’s leading big-air measuring device — using a small sensor mounted to Hugo’s foilboard to track the jump.
The Night Before: A Braai, a Forecast, and a Feeling
It all began the previous evening, when the Flysurfer crew gathered for a South African braai — a relaxed barbecue that quickly turned into a heated debate.
The forecast was calling for violent evening gusts pushing toward 40 knots, the kind of wind that only true big-air riders dream about.
Someone asked the question everyone was thinking about: Could Hugo break the world record tomorrow? Some nodded confidently, others shrugged at the madness of the idea, and Hugo simply smiled and kept his thoughts to himself.
A Rider with Something to Prove
Before the chaos of the historic jump, Hugo spent the morning in training.
He had every reason to push harder than ever: he was one of the biggest upsets among the riders not selected for the 2025 Red Bull King of the Air — the most prestigious kitesurfing competition in the world.
Since the moment the rider list was published without his name on it, Hugo had been on the water every day.
After a focused hour of training, he came off the water, headed back to the Flysurfer house, made himself avocado on toast, and settled in front of the TV to watch Formula 1 qualifying.
Even as the cars sped around the circuit, his eyes kept drifting to his phone to check the live wind updates. And then suddenly, Hugo stood up and said, “Let’s break a WOO World Record today.”
Within seconds, the house erupted into purposeful chaos. Kite bags zipped, foil boards were loaded, wetsuits were thrown into cars, cameras and phones were plugged in for a last-minute charge. Hugo, his parents, and the Flysurfer team piled into their cars and headed straight for the beach.
In a twist of irony worthy of a sports documentary, Hugo parked directly at the event site of the very competition he had not been invited to — one of the most famous kite beaches on Earth.
A New Setup and a Sense of Destiny
When the team arrived, Hugo’s mother and father set up his foil gear while Jamie Overbeek (the current second-highest jump on the WOO leader board) was already throwing massive jumps on the 7m SONIC⁵ with a twin twin — a very clear signal that conditions were escalating fast.
Then came the small but crucial detail: Hugo had changed his setup. He’d replaced his 23-meter lines with a 17-meter configuraEon, a decision that was crucial for the course of the story.
Hugo launched the kite with calm focus, carved out to sea, and lit up his very first jump on the new setup. The WOO registered 28-plus meters — an outrageous height for a warm-up, enough to make spectators pause and wonder what exactly they were witnessing.
He kept jumping, each time going higher and cleaner, then tacked far outside and took off on a choppy kicker wave. Compared to his earlier take-offs, this one came in with nearly double the entry speed.
Hugo edged hard, sent the kite with full commitment, and the world seemed to freeze for a second. Then the beach erupted in disbelief.
In that moment, Hugo launched into what would soon be confirmed as the highest jump ever recorded in kitesurfing history.
Hugo’s mother watched her son disappear into the sky and whispered, almost to herself:
“This is the highest I’ve ever seen Hugo go in my life.”
Yet even as the beach gasped and cheered, Hugo showed no reaction. No raised fist.
No shout. No celebration. He simply rode back out, as if the impossible had just been another test run.
The Whisper That Shook the Beach
Ten minutes later, Hugo finally headed to shore. He landed his kite with the same calm focus he had launched with, walked toward his parents and the Flysurfer team, leaned in, and whispered:
“I just went 40 meters.”
No theatrics. No shouting. Just six words — delivered quietly.
Hugo packed his SONIC⁵, slung it under his arm, and started walking toward the parking lot like someone who had finished a normal training day, not someone who had redefined the limits of human flight.
But history has a way of spreading fast. Within minutes, the news erupted across the beach. Flysurfer riders, local media crews, podcasters, photographers, and even people who had already left came rushing back.
The new world record holder grabbed a 6m ERA and ran to the beach with a big smile:
“You can’t train double loops every day, can you?”
What followed looked like a rider beginning his day, not finishing it: massive double loops, huge S-loops, explosive rotaTons.
It was as if breaking a world record had simply opened the door to more possibilities, and Hugo wasn’t done exploring them.
