Kiteboarders at Elouera

[khiemtran]

The wind and surf are both "up" at Elouera, and the kiteboarders have come out to play...

As you can see, the sport involves controlling a wing-shaped kite while riding a cut-down surf board. With a decent wind, they can reach amazing speeds...



But the real spectacle comes when there are decent waves as well.



Now, the game involves both surfing...



And flying!



With a good launch off a wave, they can hang in the air for several seconds, reaching some quite amazing heights.



Of course, with waves this big, it isn't always smooth sailing, whether through the air or over the water.



Not that these guys seem daunted for long...

Comments

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

J took some kite-surfing lessons on the Red Sea, and now he is gung-ho for me to learn how to do it as well. :P

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(you really have an awesome husband--but I think you know that ^_^)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It does look like a lot of fun. But also difficult. I can't really imagine getting my head around all the different things you need to manage at once, but I guess it's no different from flying a spinnaker while balancing a boat with your body.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That looks **incredibly** fun. But also like it takes a lot of skills. And muscles.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you'd need to be very fit. If you look closely, you can see that besides the two lines to the control bar, there's also a third line to a chest harness, which I presume carries most of the weight.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Whoo! Wild!

I have seen kite-surfers down at our local beach occasionally, when there's a storm blowing into the bay in winter - they travel at scary speeds! But we don't get the really big waves required for that sort of spectacular lift-off...

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

The cool thing is that once they're airborne, the kite turns into a sort of parachute and they can glide along over the water - although I'm not sure just how much control they have over where they come down...