Power Kite Forum

Video of World Record Kiteboard Flying at 790 ft

caitlinmckinney - 7-8-2013 at 06:49 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8M9BV6SQ8

Check out 2x kiteboarding world champion Jesse Richman perform a 790-foot tow-up over the Colombia River Gorge in Oregon. This stunt has never been accomplished by a kiteboarder before.
#jessetowup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8M9BV6SQ8

Sier_Pinski - 7-8-2013 at 09:07 PM

Wow. One false move and that guy could have easily been killed.
:eekdrull:

I have seen similar feats done before, but in the cases of both these videos below, the kite was held still at the top like a paraglider wing, and both pilots 'flew' as such.




lives2fly - 8-8-2013 at 02:48 AM

That was awesome!

I'm never going to worried about being 10 feet up ever again :)

abkayak - 8-8-2013 at 05:03 AM

ok....so we do kite loops on the way down..got it.

Bladerunner - 8-8-2013 at 06:51 AM

Jesse blew through Vancouver a few weeks ago and jumped over the spit at Squamish. :o

Just like with this move there are some folks who will think he is crazy and others who think he is calculating and Cool ! :cool:

Looks like he is adding a list of 1sts to his bag of them everyplace he goes this year ! :thumbup:

SFKITER - 8-8-2013 at 10:20 PM

dear god

lives2fly - 9-8-2013 at 02:16 AM

Certainly deserves his 2013 "King of the Air" title.

herc - 9-8-2013 at 06:09 AM

thats just paragliding. he used a paragliding harness, a paragliding reserve chute. and... a very low performance wing (tubekite) :D

only interesting aspect is flight characteristics of a tubekite. if he would have experimented with different bar positions, would have measured airspeed, would have tested stall behaviour, then this would have been something interesting. but what did he do? junst dangling around ...

i do no want to sound arrogant, but from a paraglider perspective his last sentence: "this is just a beginning" is ridiculous. towing has been around for ages.

herc - 9-8-2013 at 06:15 AM

short follow up: flying with a tubekite on SHORT lines might be highly interesting. this could allow maneuvres not possible with todays paragliders.
a modern high-depower tubekite might enable to vary airspeed in a huge range . paraglider can just change airspeed via brakes around 15 km/h, with additional feet-accelerator 25 km/h. what if a tubekite would allow to change speed interactively via brakes only in a range > 40 km/h ?
could you dive full speed, then pull brakes to generate massive lift, maybe flying a looping ? or all sorts of interesting dynamic figures...

experimenting this way would qualify for "stuntman". not what is shown in a above videos.

lives2fly - 9-8-2013 at 06:27 AM

Quote: Originally posted by herc  
thats just paragliding. he used a paragliding harness, a paragliding reserve chute. and... a very low performance wing (tubekite) :D

only interesting aspect is flight characteristics of a tubekite. if he would have experimented with different bar positions, would have measured airspeed, would have tested stall behaviour, then this would have been something interesting. but what did he do? junst dangling around ...

i do no want to sound arrogant, but from a paraglider perspective his last sentence: "this is just a beginning" is ridiculous. towing has been around for ages.


Lets see the footage of you letting go from higher up, kiting down safely and landing it then???

You don't sound arrogant you just sound like a typical armchair critic. If you want to put a downer on it go and do something bigger and better. then you don't need to speak.

herc - 9-8-2013 at 02:10 PM

you shouldnt have asked ;)
i am doing - for the external viewer - rather boring paragliding on big but safe gliders.
no speed flying and stuff - thats for the advanced pilots. and that is what would be interesting with a tubekite: a tubekite flown as a speedglider on short / no lines with rapid turns and high dynamics.

i do paragliding since 3 years now. here is a video just 1 week ago where i was hand tow launched in smooth but strong coastal winds (denmark):

http://youtu.be/6YsP3yGpgr0

i just started learning to get a feeling for those smaller speed gliders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo2fkoeT_pI
they are fast and twitchy - you really have to watch out not to make mistakes.

i really enjoy soaring stronger winds - maybe looks boring to the external viewer, but it is so much fun - its simply beautiful to soar along a coastline:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwlUluJtqJ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg2A3Ub53Ds


i once tried using my ozone zephyr 17 sqm tubekite for gliding down my local hill in smooth, safe conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3QTxf9uZjs

but ii failed. the hill's slope was not steep enough. i was just lifted for a split second. next time i am close to a coastline with smooth winds, i will try that again, but this time with a modified bridle, because the using the default bridle of the zephyr forced the tubekite into a too-much c-shape (because it was designed to be flown on 20 meter lines, at least). with a flatter shape , a steeper hill and a stronger breeze i am sure i can soar that thing.


Bladerunner - 9-8-2013 at 04:53 PM

Just curious , how high does the average paragliding tow up take you ?
790ft is a record for kite board . For that and SOooo many other things Jesse gets my full respect. I am not certain but think he also holds the longest kite jump time record? King of the Air 2013 . Both in competition and the things he is pulling off on his tour.

I find it confusing that you knock him for saying " this is just the beginning " and then go on to explain how he could have done it different. He did it different in that he went higher than anybody before ? Learned a lot about looping etc. on his way down , no doubt ! I think he is thinking on the same lines as you ? He wasn't so much paragliding as repeat kite looping to lose vertical from my perspective ? He was rarely gliding ?

Alex Peterson ... He GLIDES !!!!
This is one of the coolest videos I have seen + I love the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzOCEDm73tM

Flyfish - 9-8-2013 at 05:33 PM

Sooo...
I was wondering when Alex Peterson might show up on this thread....
I'm responding in this thread not to bash, but to hopefully help any bashing from occuring.

Alex is a friend of mine. He used to live in my town, and we use to Paraglide together. As some might know, he started as a kite skier and helped start the whole gliding thing with kites back in Utah.
To my point:
When Alex did this at our local "little" paragliding site, it caused a bit of a stir. Many were afraid that it could jeperdize the site (myself included). I actually spoke to him about that. His reponse was that we're all pushing the limits to some degree, and if he hurts himself he's the one to take the consequences. After getting to know him quite well, I began to have a good deal of respect for him as a person and an athelete.
Fast forward a couple of years...
I was paragliding this very site and screwed up and had a fall of around 30-40 feet. (bit of history on me: been paragliding around 10 years - and kiteing the same amount). But needless to say, I stalled my wing, fell, and was pretty hurt.
Alex was at my side immediately and stayed there through. I'll never forget his face above mine.

Here's my thoughts:
Guy's like Alex and this other guy like to push things a bit harder than me.
Mostly they think the're stuff through pretty hard and are aware of the consequnces.
When normal people heard of my paragliding accident, many thought I was "crazy".
I kinda think that it's all just a matter of perspective.

BeamerBob - 9-8-2013 at 08:42 PM

Para gliders have layers and layers of redundancy. This guy was in a situation where failure of most any part of the flying system is total failure. I'm ok with that if he was wearing a parachute.

herc - 10-8-2013 at 01:26 AM

first - a big sorry for beeing a dickhead.

from a kiter's perspective this is indeed a huge achievement. it is the highest tow, and he was perfectly prepared with a safe harness and reserve chute.

please let me explain my "frustration" with the video from Jesse: i am waiting for soo long to see a tubekiter flying in a forward position on short(er) lines. with flying i mean real flying, similiar to that what is shown perfectly by sylvain on the dune de pyla:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSsKAzyKzhc

or what Alex Peterson showed , soaring that ridge with his tube. that is skill and perfection and gives respect seen through the eyes of a paraglider.


but instead jesse was more testing looping the kite to get down. thats fine, but not what i was hoping for. i am very much looking forward for new experiments done by him and others, testing the flying characteristics of tubekites.

again, sorry for my above posts, i was just hoping for a little more flying action and advancing of the experimental kite gliding sport.

its indeed a hot topic - armin harich from flysurfer is / was working on his skyvarver project - a paraglider that can be "depowered" / has an interactive speed system via the brakes. sadly the project seems to be on hold (?)
http://www.gleitschirmdrachenforum.de/showthread.php/26916-Skywalk-Skycarver-(proto)



p.s. maximum tow hight with a paraglider: well , the russians recently broke a new world record :o

3110 meters - that is 10203 feet !!



http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=ru&tl...

p.p.s average tow height for paragliders flying the flatlands is around 250 - 350 meters - so approx the same as in jesses video.

Bladerunner - 10-8-2013 at 09:16 AM

I was pretty sure you were just excited about the topic all along.

I only hoped to point out that you and Jesse are sort of on the same page. He is just coming at it from a much different angle than Alex or Armen and a paragliding background.

I respect these people who push the limits because they have done the background work. I remember when paragliding was dangerous and sex was safe !

Drewculous - 10-8-2013 at 03:56 PM

god... i'm getting old, but here goes...

Whats wrong with just flying the damn kite and doing tricks on the "ground" :dunno:

the tow line for kiting seems so stupid to me.... which goes without saying ***DO NOT DO THIS ON LAND*** (unless you are that guy :lol: )


cool vid, but i honestly was expecting len10 to be off his a$$ high in the air, not this guy on a tow line