The speed kiters are pushing the limits with their quest to regain the 500m speed record. The latest attempt features a 6 foot wide ditch built 3 feet from a wooden fence at its closest. Needless to say if you lose it at speed bouncing over the sand or hitting the fence will hurt.



Unfortunately it has happened twice so far in the contest with yesterday's crash the worst. Basil at Speedkiting reports: "Some really sad news is that Jérôme Bila broke his back during a crash yesterday; he's in hospital and will be air lifted to Cape Town today. Another kiter apparently dropped their kite in front of him near the finish, the lines crossed and 2 kites then flung Jérôme into the air. He landed hard on dry sand and was in a lot of pain."

Earlier in the contest Henne Bradenkamp hit the fence and banged himself up pretty badly. The NAASP boys report: "When we saw the ditch for the first time, all of the speed kiters thought it would be next to impossible to make it down the course “In the ditch,” especially at lower tides, and not risk serious harm if you made a mistake and crashed. The Seb Cat ditch is 4 foot wide at the entrance and 6 foot wide at its widest point. The ditch is dug 3 feet downwind from a wooden chop killer for over half the course. The problem with the ditch and more importantly the wooden chop killer break wall, is that if you run out of wind, say as in a lull, while in the ditch, you can easily fall back and crash into the wooden chop killer at speed. This very scenario happened to Sjouki Bradenkamp’s (fastest woman in the world) father Henne, who smashed into the chop killer at over 40 knots, during a speed run. Henne broke off the nose of his board as it hit first, then crashed into the wooden wall with his front thigh, (luckily he is around 6’4” and 230 pounds) breaking off a 4 inch thick post of wood and seriously bruising his leg. Henne is lucky to be alive and has been limping around for the past week and will be off the water till his leg heals and he builds a new speed board. Also at the entrance of the course, kiters pushing the limit of the water depth, have hit the entry of the course only to blow their line by a few feet and run out of water, What follows then are some spectacular high speed crashes with riders seen kart wheeling over the dry sand bank just down wind. Amazingly enough no one has gone to the hospital yet!" Famous last words!