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Old 02-10-2008, 05:35 PM
Skyway Scott
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Yeah. Good luck. ops: I don't think that is going to happen on water for several reasons, mainly drag. I think I know what is going here.
Look at it at 1:56 to 2:00 and picture clearly in your mind where the wind is coming from, where the kite goes, and where and what the buggy does.
I think the reason a buggy can do it is that the rider is using a razor sharp LE foil kite, the ultimate apparent wind machine with very little drag. Because he is on wheels, he can go pretty darn fast in only 10 knots (I'd be surprised if it were blowing more, probably less) and build speed and momentum.
He initiates a down loop to get a huge power stroke (more speed) and to throw the kite behind him and ultimately 360 around him. He bares the buggy off wind, with still enough speed to outrun the wind speed, keeping tension in the kite lines, and forces the kite to fly into the wind "beyond reason". It then makes it around to the other side of the window, just as he stalls out.
I wouldn't be surprised if the beach (or where ever) has a bit of a slope and he uses it to his advantage as well. He definitely wouldn't want to go even slightly uphill, he'd stall out for sure.

I don't think a kiter on water can ever do this because we simply can't build enough forward speed in 10 knots. Even if we did, we couldn't maintain it for but 10 feet when bearing off wind. The buggy easily maintains his speed for a distance downwind (and I bet he is going downhill 1 degree or so, too).
I bet a guy on snow going downhill in light wind will pull this off soon after seeing the video.
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