All right, some are still dry when they dive into the water from dizzying heights in an acrobatic spiral motion, others zip across the water at breakneck speed, jump briefly and contort into artful tricks. What they all share is they jump into the water. And they are trendy.

What you feel when kite-surfing must be simply overwhelming. Pulled by the wind, you glide across the waves and leap up to 35 feet high or 70 feet far. Kite surfing has boomed in Germany, with the active kiter community consisting of some 10,000 people. Worldwide, that number is 200,000, incidentally. New and, what is more, lighter equipment makes it easier for inexperienced beginners to take up kite surfing. The kite surfing speed record, by the way, is 48.15 miles per hour.

They're a bit faster, the world's best cliff divers touring the world as part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series. They reach maximum speeds of up to 62 miles per hour before dipping into the water. You don't need any equipment to cliff-dive in addition to your bathing trunks. What is required, though, is years of technical training, experience, and perfect body control. Incidentally, after almost 300 dives, the 2009 contest series was won by ninefold world champion Orlanda Duque from Colombia.

For additional information on kite surfing, go to www.northkites.com, and find out more about cliff diving at www.redbullcliffdiving.com