The rules described below may be common knowledge to kitesurfers but may not be so to other water users. When in doubt, a kitesurfer should try to avoid other water users at all cost. As on land or in the air, there is a need for some basic right-of-way rules that all water-crafts must observe to avoid collision on the water. There is a need for some standard kitesurfing rules applicable to all kitesurfers and other water users. Similar to windsurfing, one can kitesurf on flat water or in wave. There should be 2 sets of rule for kitesurfing, one set for traditional sailing on flat water and another set for wave sailing (they could be contradicting each other).
As a general rule-of- thumb, all traditional sailing and wave sailing rules should be applicable for kitesurfing. Check http://www.sailing.org for an excellent description of racing rules of sailing.

All right-of-way rules require a water-craft to keep clear of another. The distance to keep clear is not quite exactly specified; however, the racing rules do specify some restrictions for the two sailing boats when they are approaching within two hull lengths of each other. Thus, as a rule of thumb, it's wise to keep a distance of twice the hull length from the water-craft to be cleared. This is fairly straight forward for all water-crafts except kitesurfing crafts. For a kitesurfing craft, the kite and the lines make this much more complicated. We will discuss this "keep clear" requirement in details after reviewing the common sense, traditional sailing and wave sailing rules.

Following are the general common sense rules on the water: