No injury is possible from a 200 foot free-fall into water. No worries Raul.

Many people have attempted to kill themselves from jumping off of the Skyway, but most simply fail and our left drenched, with nothing but their egoes bruised. (The skyway at its center is about 180 feet up)

http://www.jumperpool.com/home.htm
(if you actually read the stats, few survivors jumped from the center span)

No worries, Raul.

I got a back pack for the cam thanks to technochick. Jay, just let me know when and we will strap it on.

-Chris

Jay, if the water is deep enough, I will offer up my boat to film from...

I got some KILLER still shots this weekend riding alongside/under Mr. P from another ski. I think shooting video like that will be swweeeeet!

Although towing up is the most exciting thing i've ever done with a kite, i think i'm gonna hold off on 200 feet until i build a new bar with alot of safety built in.
We are gonna make one with redundant front lines, back lines, chicken loop, harness line, pigtails, etc, etc.
Falling from 200' is not on my "to do" list.

btw... anyone got a parachute??? :wink:

Best advice for parasailing, use parasailing gear it is less likely to fail and break. Kite gear is too unreliable and prone to breakage under the major forces during towing. Towing creates peak loads in all the gear akin to that generated in the seconds of launching a jump. During towing these stresses last for the entire time of the tow.

Stalling the kite is fairly easy too. Say you suddenly come off tow, let go, have control input errors for a second, down you go. Pulling to near the zenith puts you particularly at risk, the forces and tendency to stall are maximized. If you let go or are let go in this position, it is probable that the kite will go into a stall that you may not recover from. This can happen with paragliders on tow too and paragliders are built to handle these sort of stresses. Still, if paragliders stall badly enough, down they go. Paragliders and hang gliders that tow up use winches with variable tension control, weak links, tow bridles, radio comm. with pilot, driver and winch operator. It is a different approach and built upon years of hard experience with alternate approaches. Ballistic parachutes are of no help in this as they need at least about 450 ft. of altitude to have time to deploy.

What can break? Lines, pigtails, harnesses, spreader bars, leader lines, bridles, chickenloops, kites, etc. have all failed many times under much lighter loads while kitesurfing. I have had at least 25 failures of this stuff in over seven years.

More about this at:
http://fksa.org/viewtopic.php?t=2087

It's all about choices. Good luck

Towed with 125 feet of rope, 45 degree angle:

sin(45) * 125 = 88 feet

Towed with 250 feet of rope, 45 degree angle:

sin(45) * 250 = 176 feet.

The skyway is 180 feet.

Would you hang from it by your chicken loop?

Regardless we will see your big brass balls from the ground...

If I don't find a job soon, I'm gonna lose it and jump from the skyway...maybe a 200 ft. tow-up and pulling the QR would be more effective??? :lol:

good math Tom! l should have stayed awake in calculus :D

But.... we are probably at 95 degrees straight above the ski. Billy actually was lifting the back of the ski one time.
When you max out at the top you are looking straight down at the ski and can even get in front of it. You have to be careful and go slow though or else you can overload the gear. We are holding onto a ski bar and not locked in. My bar and lines are rated for 600 pounds.(the next one will be rated for at least 1000lb) Unless I can hold 600 pounds with one hand i will hopefully let go of the ski b4 the lines break.

Jay,
I am sure with all of your dates with Pamela Handerson you can hold 600 pounds in one hand. :P