A pretty good sail, made the news here in L.A. too

Wonder how many times he dumped it?!?![}:)]


http://www.kptv.com/story/18592869/red-bull-athlete-kai-lenny-wind-surfs-across-lake-michigan

sick_em_rex said...

A great effort, BUT to be fair, what about guys like Kato, Dave Moorehead and Sheartip who do these kinds of distances every other day of the week. It just happens that they are doing it in the same static spot of water, but given the right location that sort of feat would be a walk in the park for them!

hehehe... Just another day for Mike, he would have got to the other side had a can of coke then riden back!

i think it probably was a fair effort but hardly an achievement, with the gear setup right he would have just been cruising the whole way on one tack
it says he averaged 25 knots which sounds pretty fast for 56 miles but with no turns sounds pretty cruisey for an elite athlete
just my opinion
but i definitely think that there are a fair few people around even locally that could have gone faster

I think the bigger achievement is he got to go windsurfing for 2 1/2 hrs on a Friday.

Windxtasy said...

It's a long swim home if something breaks...

And was it all on one tack? THAT would be a big effort

firiebob said...

Personally I think it's a good effort, watch the video the water's not exactly flat, good going on one tack I'd think

56 miles is not that far compared to some of the distances we see on the GPS Teams Challenge. However its a feat to cross a large body of water like this. The water would have been quite rough while he managed quite a fast speed. So good on him.

I've felt a sense of accomplishment crossing Botany Bay and Port Stephens

It looks very beautiful there too. Summers must be great if there is a bit of wind. Imagine windsurfing on a big fresh water lake. No need to wash your gear afterward. No corrosion of metal parts. No concern of big nasties around. Have a drink anytime you want.

Winter..... Perhaps go snow skiing?

I reckon the more interesting thing about this is, it looks like his using 2013 kit and it looks GREAT or am i wrong..

A little perspective from a worn out old fella.

I have sailed open ocean 160K's in 5 & 1/2hrs without stepping off my board but it was a nice cruisy day. For comparison I recently I did 12K's on one tack open ocean with the wind and chop up, I was bloody glad to get to where I was going, novelty was wearing off.

I know there are guys here who can do it, but if he did do 56 miles on one tack as I think he would have, I still think it's good going in those conditions. I don't think it's about the fact he might be the only one who could do it, but the fact he did do it, good on him

in 1983 a medical student, Gavin Lesueur, windsurfed from Melbourne to Sydney to raise money for cancer research.

Ian K said...

There's a little bit of "sense of exposure" in the middle of Botany Bay, nowhere near as much as Lake Michigan I suppose. It's fairly choppy in the middle, probably not as choppy as lake Michigan. 7km is a long time on one tack, but not as much as 90 km. I've been from Kurnell to Kyeemah and back in one afternoon. Phew! Has anyone done it 7 times in 2.5 hours?

There's your challenge for the next good noreaster,

i sailed kurnell to port botany and back about 3 maybe four times in that westerly recently was out for about 2.5h didn't think much of it apart from it being a bit stupid on my own.. some guy told me his record from K to K in a NE is 4 mins.. wow !!

Looks like a great effort to me. It is not comparable to the long distance sails you normally see on the GTC.
Sailing on the same tack for more than a few kms is hard work on my back leg. 25kts for 9kms and my back leg is burning and he did 2.5 hours at 25 kts presumably on the same tack all of the time.

Yeah I was checking it out on Google Earth and saw what appeared to be some sort of factory on the lake side with a carpark full of cars. Zeroing in on it brought up it is the Palisades Nuclear power plant

r2908 said...

. some guy told me his record from K to K in a NE is 4 mins.. wow !!

Some guy alright! But doesn't know how to use the ruler on google earth. It's 7km as the crow flies. That works out to 105 kph, 56.7 knots!

JonesySail said...

No one has mentioned that the 'great lakes' are toxic cess pits!
Dont be fooled by the lovely colour of the water!

Between meat processing plants,Nuclear power plants on the edge of the lake, and other Industrial waste, you get the drift. They have been trying to clean the lake and its waterways for the best part of last centuary, apprently its getitng better!

I was there a few years ago and enquired about sailing in the 'great lakes' they thought I was mad! Not to mention even in summer its bloody cold.

They tell me up at the Canadian end the waters alsmost clean enough to any fish that you can catch! So with that in mind, ballsy effort, great PR for windsurfing no matter what. Its one hell of a big lake though, amazing place.

The great lakes region is huge, as in as big as Queensland or NSW, one lake flows into the next finally dumping into the St. Laurence river then the Atlantic so as you go along yes it does get more polluted the biggest problem just being near large population centers, all the runoff from every sidewalk, gutter and road ends up in the lake.
Equally a problem is pollution from paper mills, coal plants and other factories in Canada that pollute like crazy.
Compared to years ago the lakes are quite clean and the fish are safe to eat. Smoked whitefish is a specialty.
Lake Superior is the deepest and largest, it contains more water than all the lakes together. Few people live up there and the water is cold and pristine if not foreboding.
I love Lake Superior it's a very special place.
The comments about nuclear power plants are ignorant, you can be guaranteed the effluent if free from any contaminants only just a bit warmer.

sausage said...

fjdoug said...

in 1983 a medical student, Gavin Lesueur, windsurfed from Melbourne to Sydney to raise money for cancer research.

When is he expected to sail through Sydney Heads

r2908 said...

yeah forgot about him.. what did he do ?? was it Alaska to Russia, Korea north to south, north america to cuba, then china to taiwan and never to be see again..... pretty awesome feat .. guy was a bit of a tool though

Sh1t if only I knew Jenna DeRosnay loved tools.......I would have rung her years ago

as you can tell i recently watched "trade winds" , . and yes i should probably read the entire thread b4 posting. . was she a hottie, eh