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I think there was a lot of luck involved...



Riders reported kites falling out of the sky passing behind the big ships...those big ships cannot stop...they need about 3km to stop!

And I am happy, I am not the only one anymore in front of a big ship...had that situation in 2000 in the bay of Palma (Mallorca, Spain). It was the first time I was standing on the board and riding...of course I didn't want to stop! Just made it in front of the big ship, the wind got less, had to sinus the kite...but made it. The captain gave me the idiot sign...but hey, I was riding
But could have been really bad if I dropped my kite right in front...luckily nothing happened!

So, be aware of the danger going in front or behind the ships...rather stay away!

I agree, it is amazing no riders were stalled by the turbulent wind field in the wake of that barge and tug in the front killing their kites and setting themselves up to be food processed in the props of that container ship. Stopping or effectively turning the container ship in time to do any good is unlikely. The ships can move a lot faster than they seem and be on you in little time heading right at you. Did the racers cross with other large shipping like this? With 300 riders traveling 20 km each way across a major shipping lane it might be hard to avoid.

The turbulence field can extend a half mile or more downwind of the ship. Sometimes the wind increases for a time in ship wakes and dies in others. Also, it can impact wind in front of the ship as well as you say Toby. It can be complicated in short and nothing to mess with, distance is your friend in this too. Even smaller vessels can seriously impact the quality of the wind. I think they were lucky as well to avoid problems particularly in lighter wind.

More about wind shadow with stationary objects at: viewtopic.php?t=2355749&p=737905 I wonder if I should add something about shipping, even pleasure craft can mess with the wind supporting your kite under certain conditions.



This is the mess of constantly whirling gusts and lulls your kite is trying to fly through in wind shadow.
viewtopic.php?t=2355749&p=737905




More images from the race at http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/sto ... st-2-coast


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Hello to all, great shot but obviously potentially deadly. When and where was it? I presume it is a course race.
Ciao..

WjM wrote:Hello to all, great shot but obviously potentially deadly. When and where was it? I presume it is a course race.
Ciao..

I think it was off the coast of Somalia. Annual "pirates open" tag team format.

WjM wrote:Hello to all, great shot but obviously potentially deadly. When and where was it? I presume it is a course race.
Ciao..

Redbull coast to coast, Germany to Sweden or Denmark.

Erlend M B wrote:

WjM wrote:Hello to all, great shot but obviously potentially deadly. When and where was it? I presume it is a course race.
Ciao..

Redbull coast to coast, Germany to Sweden or Denmark.

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Come on... Look at a map, if you do not know the area. Then tell me, whether you think it is realistic to have hundreds of riders travel from Germany to Sweden.

I thought it looked a bit dodgy when i saw the first pics put up... f**k going past infront of one of those things! Surely with all those kites heading towards there was potential for a major disaster allthough to be fair it does look like most aimed to go behind. So did the organisers forget about the shipping lane or were they just not worried about it?

Certainly was the Redbull coast to coast (to coast), from Fehmarn in Germany then to Denmark and back again to Fehmarn. I agree great pictures.......but luckily no one was injured.....
from what ive read on Oase the german kite site the race went well with perfect winds....but only 35 people out of 400 managed to make it to the turning point in Denmark.......(official) but many more just turned around on arrival in Denmark....

I entered the race but due to 700 people wanting to do the race was not accepted......a shame, but i certainly would have gone behind the container ship not in front of it....

I quess it was one of the winners on the hydrofoil boards - the quickest route at all cost......

Maybe next year if i get accepted.....

it was the coast2coast event: viewtopic.php?t=2381826

In the picture from Rick you see the kites stalling behind the ship...again, big luck, since there were two ships in a row...so if you stall behind the first, you are in front of the second...

I don't know if they were aware of the ships...for next time I will make sure they are aware of it, so at least for the start they will wait for a bigger gap between ships to start it.

Deadly? lol, not at all! Way fun!! Nobody forces you to go in front of a ship. If you agree to kite from one country to another, well you are the stupid one not to know about vessels passing throu. Anyway, no problem to stop and let the ships past and carry on afterwards

I nice video about it all:

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