what say ye col?
come on ye massif we had better club together to purchase an outboard motor and make those windsurfers go that little bit faster; just
so they can keep up with the kites!
what say ye col?
Kites faster ? you sure ?
This has all the makings of a great race!
I'll thow the gauntlet down
I've never been overtaken on the water by a kite - as long as I can plane I'll win.
Come on race ya!
:bigsmile3d
I seem to remember the hobbie cat community thinking they were faster than windsurfers, well at least till they got spanked 
its working!!
you guys should have been there yesterday.
ask al ,i'm sure he wont tell a lie who won!
of course in huge winds you guys should be able to beat us for speed,just look as the length of your boards( YES THAT WAS BOARDS) our
new kite record stands at 52 knots if i recollect correctly using long narrow boards and on flat water;i'll look it up in the mags and
check.
give us flat water and wind speeds suitable for kites, ie when you gents are BOBBING around and there is no competition.
in nasty chop with excessive wind speeds, using our small 125cm long boards we have no chance of getting through the chop,but just give
us flat water!
[Edited on 23/12/04 by mNeil]
52knts you sure ?
I thought it was the 41.67 knots set in Nambia in october (windsurfing currently 46.82)
Weymouth speed week provided some interesting results:
quote:
windsurfers totally dominated the event with over 300 runs clocked at over 30 knots, Kite surfers managed some speeds in the low 30's and the sailing craft didn't break 26!
Yep, the kites were beating me yesterday, but I wasn't planing much of the time due to lack of wind for the size kit I was one.
Overall windsurfers are faster I'm sure... Even in lightish winds with the right windsurfing kit I'm sure it would be a close run
thing. If I'd had a slightly bigger board or sail yesterday I'm sure it would have been the other way around. 
As Paul says, the current world speed sailing record is held by a wndsurfer (they have only just regained it from the Yellow Pages
yatch though.)
Al.
here we are just got this off the net ;
new windsurfing record of 46.82 knts by finian maynard on 14th nov 2004. dave white broke the british record with 43 knotts
kitesurfing olaf marting set 41.67 knts in namibia on 21/10/2004
but they didnt say how high they jumped!!
Either way you look at it, over 40 knots whether on strings or with a pole is pretty scary stuff..... I'm sure over 30 knots is scary
enough!
Wonder if they'll ever hit 50 knots.
Al.
neil the baits been taken were gonna need a bigger boat
Take a look at www.boardseeker.com and register for their online magazine - when I last looked they had video clips of Finian Maynard's
record breaking run......silly name, even sillier speed!
46 to 50knots is some leap though - does anyone know if he broke 50knots at any point on his run - you'd think he'd be carrying a GPS -
most of which record the max speed reached.
I'm seriously tempted to swoop for one of the Garmin wristop GPS's soon - although just imagine how gutting it would be to find out
that absolutely maxed out mental run you just had didn't even break 20knots!
Has anyone done this already? It would be interesting to hear what speeds mere mortal FON members can reach on "normal" kit.
Seasons greetings to all!
Cheers
Nick
I'm getting one for Xmas.... Well, money towards one so won't get it til the New Year... I'll let you know what speeds I achieve,
however embarassing they are!!
Al.
and here's a clip of 35knots on a kiteboard
http://k48.com/speedweek.htm
It's easy, I'll just rope Neil up behind my Impreza, get some real shallow lagoons, no fins and wooosh.
50knts, pah - lets go for the ton!
"but they didnt say how high they jumped!! "
Come on, thats wussing it! Come and play down in Portland Harbour if you want a flat water race. I've spent many happy days chasing the
kites down. Damn good fun. It was a close run thing on my Techno and an 8.0, but I'm dropping almost everything on the new Stoke.
Actually, I'm not bothered about who is faster, Just love that feeling of speed......
Watching that speed record vidio clip, that blokes a nutter!
couldnt agree more wes; its the fun factor that counts!
nice to have a bit of good natured banter though!
it was the same with the hang gliders when i used to paraglide and the same with skiers and us snowboarders.
bring on the wind and lets have a good new year
happy christmas to all
Wow - Just seen Pauls earlier link of the kitesurfer who wiped out at 35 knots and the aftermaths of the incident. That'l put you
kiters of them maxed out speed runs.
http://k48.com/speedweek.htm
ouch
i was there when chris calthrop crashed i was doing my iko kitesurf course, it was 30knts most of the week the guy teaching us went and
got chris's kite....scary stuff.
back in the year i was in tarifa with lightish winds and it was excellent fun coming up behind the windsurfers and holding onto there
boom end (oh err), and haveing a laugh on the way in excellent stuff...flat out speed windsurfing.......biggest grin kitesurfing!!
Yep, with the right kit and conditions windsurfing should be faster, it also FEELS a lot faster, probably because theres a lot more kit
in your immediate vicinity and the board is longer, stiffer and skims across the top of the water feeling even the smallest piece of
chop, whereas a kitesurf board is much smaller, more flexible and cuts through the water absorbing the chop.
On the other hand, kite-surfing obviously leads to the biggest jumps, but it sort of feels right whilst you're up there and is no-where
near as much of an adrenalin rush as jumping whilst windsurfing... Mainly because with windsurf jumps, even those when you are in
control feel like brief moments right on the edge of control and you know the landing is likely to be pretty heavy whether or not you
get it right!! Kitesurfing jumps on the other hand (and from my experience I've probably jumped 2-3 times higher whilst kitesurfing
than I have whilst windsurfing), just feel right and the landings are generally pretty painless even when you get them wrong (as I
normally do!).
For my money, kitesurfing LOOKS better (as its fairly easy to be boosting big jumps etc. and you never really 'fall off') but
windsurfing FEELS better.
Of course those that LOOK best will get the bikini girls watching from the beach!! Best bet is to do what I do....kitesurf while the
bikini girls are about (or there's less than 20 knots), and windsurf when no one is looking!!!
Doing both means you end up with more toys too!!
Al.
Each to there own,
Been windsurfing for about 14 yrs, kiteing for about 3. I'd much rather kite now, the only reason that I windsurf is because I work at
a lake and get the chance to go a lot. I get more of a rush from boosting with a kite than doing forward loops on a windsurfer.
As long as your out there having fun , that's all that counts.
Must be an arse carrying those poles around though
you could always ge
the girls to dance round them on the beach
quote:
Originally posted by mNeil
t was the same with the hang gliders when i used to paraglide :
Its fine for those who can afford it
quote:
Originally posted by Nick
Has anyone done this already? It would be interesting to hear what speeds mere mortal FON members can reach on "normal" kit.
