lostinlondon said...
Fortunately, the physical characteristics of a kite rig and the space required to fly them in, pretty much precludes any sort of event like this being set up for kiters. Windsurfers can get away with a bank of fans at water level, we would need a 20+ metre high bank of the things, plus extra for any air time to make it feasible.
As to IKW777's post, there are plenty of jaw dropping videos of kite surfers in waves in nuking conditions in the Canary Islands. I am looking forward to the day when windsurfers can complete their aerials and not smash down into the water, but hit it at speed and go straight in to another trick.
There are a few jumps which will probably be landed planing on a regular basis in the future. Push loop and double forward loop have been landed planing.
They drop over 50' in some of the backloops and maybe even stalled forwards, but to get that high you have to be going pretty vertical. Seems more impressive to me to be able to control the board in 50 to 60 knots and spear the water at the correct angle from that height without wrecking your ankles.
