[ricki]

Windsurfers don't get lofted, kiters do. Windsurfers might get catapulted 20 or so feet across the water, not lofted hundreds of feet through the air at high speed. If you are good enough and not worried about lightening, go ahead and head out in storms on a windsurfer. It takes a great deal of skill, more than kiting to even get offshore on a windsurfer in such conditions. A rank newbie can launch a kite and be lofted in such conditions by contrast. Both new and experienced kiters have been killed in similar storms from the North Sea even more seriously injured.

If a skilled kiter wants to go out in such stuff and throw down massive long jumps, go far enough out to where there aren't any others to hit. He should also accept he stands a much greater chance of getting injured, disabled or even killed than a windsurfer in squalls passing over. If he gets killed it may well threaten our access too, this has happened in the past. The guy was boosting just beyond the breaker zone, afraid of being away from shore, the camera or ? We've hit windsurfers before and come close many more times doing far smaller and controlled jumps than this. If something were to connect between a kiter and windsurfer in a jump in conditions like this it could be real bad. The guy had a lousy buffer with the sailors considering the massive area covered but probably blows it off at least until one or more get clotheslined.