If you can't beat them....

Wow! That's... cool

It was seriously half a metre in the air? So the bottom of your extension was up in the air, above the deck of the board? I wouldn't have thought the forces would let it.

Hmmmm....

Haven't tried to repeat the setup cos I wasn't actually "happily" planing.
Was desperately hoping to get within swimming distance of shore before the slipknots finished slipping or the increasing wind blew me flat.
Now I read from mr Hanson (Windwing)
" I think that perhaps someone should take a Formula board out, and take a kite on some short lines and see what they can do. Tom Magruder with his WindWeapon was an interesting idea, the Skimbat is an interesting idea, kitesurfing, these are all kind of heading down the same path."
A kitesail would either need very long lines or very short ones.
Anyone know interesting links?

Put that sucker on some 20m lines (like 4 of them) and get it under controll and it would be a good thing.
P.S. Replace the ally framework with inflateable bladers would prolly help aswell

Skis on ice? Is that a typo?

The bloke in the photo appears to be riding a directional kite board. That looks like it might be fun combining some of the attributes of windsurfing and kiting. Small fins? I guess the Skimbat rig would be much more responsive than a kite and still allow big boosts but you would't be doing dangly 360s. I'd like to see him gybe and I'd like to see how fast he goes. As I see it, the geometry of the Skimbat wouldn't allow it to be over about 5 sq m at a guess otherwise you'd be dragging a wing tip in the water. I wonder how they get that wing tip to stay down, wing warping?

If it snowed here I'd get one.

oh dear - dingle dangle for windsurfers

howdy wingnutter

if a bunch of folk zipping along next to each other and the guy upwind decides to bail the sail?. Would the sail clean everyone up down wind of him?

what happens when you dig the bottom of the sail into the water? do you kind of catapult onto it? lots of protruding bits to kebab yerself on

ta

btw - i'd reckon it'd give you a decent set of washboard abs

Wow! Kind of cool. "Kind of"... but what's it like having to hold the bloody thing up over your head all the time? One slip and it flies away...you could almost try it with a windsurf rig, perhaps if you show up at the beach and realise you've left your mastfoot at home... like, when you carry a rig on the beach in strong wind, perfectly balanced so the wind holds it up. Someone should try doing it on a big, stable board. Post videos here!!

The reflex strap is pretty neat.
I think that the inline skater (not hooked in, note ) in the "record" video was happy that it flew away when he blew it. It flew very efficiently on its own (and quite dangerously too). Flying away probably minimizes damage both to kitewing and pilot.
A deadly effect with towed hangliders is "lockout" where increasing sideforce makes it bank further increasing the sideforce etc. The wing-in-ground effect here would help a bit but when a glider goes you have got to go with it. No way to unhook in that situation.
A good agent might post some water crash videos (hint) just to show how it can be safely done with a leash.

Hey guys, just stumbled on this and thought i'd put my few bob in. Been riding kitewings for about 5 years now and they are top fun. I can only vouch for land riding, primarily dirtsurfers, mouontainboards and skateboards. I was put onto them by a windsurfer. As far as "holding it up" goes, once you have gained some apparent wind, it flies itslef quite easily and it becomes a cross of sailing and flying where you more or less fly the wing through turns and your body and board follow, main strength used is sheeting in (easily fixed by using a harness). Greenroom is right, they do have some grunt and once you get used to the feel of it, can be taken out in any wind over 15knots as you can just let go of your rear(sheeting) hand, and it will point into the wind and just glide there producing no power at all. You can get the odd flyaway, but this only really happens when you let go of your front hand before your back hand. This can be easily avoided by the use of a wrist leash that attaches to the front end of the boom which is where the neutral point is. They also have great upwind capabilty too, on land i can almost ride directly upwind say at about 10-15 degrees. They pack up into a bag which i would assume is just a little longer than your standard sail bag? (say about 5 feet long).
I have tried both kitesurfing and windsurfing and would say they are nothing like kitesurfing at all and very close to windsurfing. I suppose the only simularity between kitewing and a kite would be the lack of mast. They have a very intuative feel to them and very easy to learn. I've seen windsurfers pick them up and fang off straight away.

I've been keen to get one out on the water, but i'm a bit suss on the kitewing board they made for it, seems a bit small, but I have seen a clip of some fellas in maui using what seems to be a smaller windsurfing board with a standard 5.5 and they were fangin.

cheers,
dropping ya a pm wingnutter

Man, that's CRAZY!! They were really experimenting in those days, eh? That looks like the same thing, but with a mast. Homemade?

If you were handy, you could make a kind of V-shaped mastfoot thing which would join two windsurf rigs at the bottom, like a giant butterfly, with a spave to connect the boom...ah...seems a litle more complicated than that...um...anybody tried making one?

lol.
How did they invent the Kitewing ?

They got a Wind Weapon and then lost the 5ft mast.

C'mon guys you are getting closer.
Just swallow your pride and buy a kite.

you know you want to

I knew the red thumbs wouldn't be far away.....

If it hasn't got strings.....
it ain't a kite.
It's just a wing.
How could you ride waves with that thing....?
the wingtip would stick into the waveface.