Flutterby™! : Kite moves

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Kite moves

2006-05-25 15:18:59.613195+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

This one's for Eric: Video of a guy getting lifted into the air by his kite. Scary. One of those harnessed kitesurfers, so it's a little mitigated by that, but almost 40 seconds swung at the end of a hundred plus feet of line looks bloody terrifying.

[ related topics: Aviation Video ]

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#Comment Re: made: 2006-05-25 20:33:56.121517+00 by: ebradway [edit history]

I'd seen that video before but without the interview with the guy at the end.

My largest kite, a Sutton Flowform, has 30 square feet of surface area. I use 250lb test line with it and I've broken it twice - both times just playing around in heavy winds and more due to allowing tension to snap in the line. That was in gusts about 20mph. I figure gusts over 25mph would put me in serious danger. The Flowform is available in sizes up to 450 square feet and has been built much larger. The worlds largest kite in over 11000 square feet and uses 25-ton line. My friend and I joked about a kite like than hauling off a dump truck and/or an elephant: "Hey man, I can't hold this kite it's pulling too strong... I'll tie it to this elephant standing here... Oh shit!"