I got 'told off' by the marine rangers @ Rotto last summer because I was kiting in the wrong spot.

they also went on to say that there was an 8knot speed limit. My response was along the lines of "I have no idea how fast i'm going..."

They went on to say that any 'water craft' that creates a wake is generally going faster than 8knots...

The wind was between 15 & 20 Knots @ the time, so apparently I was speeding...

go figure.

au_rick said...

I see the poley's are hot on this topic with GPS's etc. but have any kiters measured their ground speed ??

A few weeks back I had my boat out videoing mates kiting and Lance was doing 30+ kmh upwind (and it wasn't even a windy day by kiting standards).

Anyone ever realised or actually clocked how fast they're going ??

au-rick,

I found this site a short time ago (I think it was a link from seabreeze????), anyway it gives an idea of what is happening with international kite speed racing.

http://www.luderitz-speed.com/default.aspx

regards
Fossil

Dawn Patrol said...

I think a kitesurfer now holds the speed record over windsurfing. (well he did not long ago, unless it was surpassed again.)

How recently?

As far as I know the kite record is 47.92 knots, and the poley one is ~49knots

50cm deep, off the top of my head.

I carried a GPS for this session with a kite, then dowloaded to a software program to rationalise the track data to these stats:

5 bests' average = 68.93km/h [37.22Knots]
Best Speed n?1 = 71.31km/h [38.51Knots] (39.6 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?2 = 69.36km/h [37.45Knots] (38.5 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?3 = 69.36km/h [37.45Knots] (38.5 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?4 = 67.78km/h [36.6Knots] (37.7 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?5 = 66.83km/h [36.09Knots] (37.1 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?6 = 66.83km/h [36.09Knots] (37.1 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?7 = 66.14km/h [35.71Knots] (36.7 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?8 = 66.14km/h [35.71Knots] (36.7 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?9 = 65.58km/h [35.41Knots] (36.4 meters in 2.0 sec.)
Best Speed n?10 = 65.54km/h [35.39Knots] (36.4 meters in 2.0 sec.)

5 best 100 meter (at least) average = 65.26km/h [35.24Knots]
100 meter run n?1 = 69.17km/h [37.35Knots] (115.3 m. in 6.0 s.)
100 meter run n?2 = 66.92km/h [36.13Knots] (111.5 m. in 6.0 s.)
100 meter run n?3 = 63.98km/h [34.54Knots] (106.6 m. in 6.0 s.)
100 meter run n?4 = 63.69km/h [34.39Knots] (106.2 m. in 6.0 s.)
100 meter run n?5 = 62.57km/h [33.78Knots] (104.3 m. in 6.0 s.)

5 best 200 meter (at least) average = 62.26km/h [33.62Knots]
200 meter run n?1 = 65.45km/h [35.34Knots] (218.2 m. in 12.0 s.)
200 meter run n?2 = 65.2km/h [35.21Knots] (217.3 m. in 12.0 s.)
200 meter run n?3 = 61.77km/h [33.35Knots] (205.9 m. in 12.0 s.)
200 meter run n?4 = 60.99km/h [32.93Knots] (203.3 m. in 12.0 s.)
200 meter run n?5 = 57.9km/h [31.26Knots] (225.2 m. in 14.0 s.)

5 best 5 second (at least) average = 65.26km/h [35.24Knots]
5 second run n?1 = 69.17km/h [37.35Knots] (115.3 m. in 6.0 s.)
5 second run n?2 = 66.92km/h [36.13Knots] (111.5 m. in 6.0 s.)
5 second run n?3 = 63.98km/h [34.54Knots] (106.6 m. in 6.0 s.)
5 second run n?4 = 63.69km/h [34.39Knots] (106.2 m. in 6.0 s.)
5 second run n?5 = 62.57km/h [33.78Knots] (104.3 m. in 6.0 s.)

5 best 10 second (at least) average = 63.29km/h [34.17Knots]
10 second run n?1 = 67.04km/h [36.2Knots] (186.2 m. in 10.0 s.)
10 second run n?2 = 66.03km/h [35.65Knots] (183.4 m. in 10.0 s.)
10 second run n?3 = 61.7km/h [33.32Knots] (171.4 m. in 10.0 s.)
10 second run n?4 = 61.53km/h [33.23Knots] (170.9 m. in 10.0 s.)
10 second run n?5 = 60.15km/h [32.48Knots] (167.1 m. in 10.0 s.)


I wasn't using a speed specific board though. The max speed readout on the GPS showed up as 41.7kts that day, but you can't really trust it so much. The inaccuracy in the small cheap GPS antennas occasionally puts your location off by several metres, and the inbuilt doppler correction function doesn't really help cancel out the spikes on the readout that much.

From another day:



and Olaf Marting going for it in the Speed Week in Namibia (same place where I recorded the above):

yeah yeah, I've seen all the stuff about racing and records, etc...
just wondering if the general kiteboarder at large realises how fast they're goin ?

cRAZY Canuk said...

Dawn Patrol said...

I think a kitesurfer now holds the speed record over windsurfing. (well he did not long ago, unless it was surpassed again.)

The most recent are the 2 held by the same windsurfer (he did the last one last year). Unoficially a kiter beat it with a gps but that's not recognized by the Speed Sailing Council. They've also brought in a rule about how deep the water has to be (can't remember what the depth is off the top of my head).

There's a bunch of sailing teams not to mention a dozen kiters and windsurfers in contention for the true record. I should fall in the next year or so.

That must have been what i meant. I seem to remember some technicality about how it was measured. But eh, shows they can still go pretty quick.

I think it was just a bog-standard 23-25 knot day. What I can tell you is it was the 26th of January this year, if I could just work out how to access the records that far back...

puppetonastring said...

Hey Pat
What was the wind speed at the time you recorded those figures.

Thats a very respectable set of numbers. Im impressed.
You will have to sign up for the course racing program this season.
(........ see the soon to be published WAKSA events calendar .........)

That was my next question, ie. how fast was your speed compared to the actual wind speed and how much faster than the wind can you go ?
Will have to take my handheld GPS out one day and have a play