Last month a brief entry was made in ?Tales from here and there about this and that?, regarding
Finian Maynard and friends, and their efforts to regain the world sailing speed record for the windsurfers.
The record stands at 46.52 knots (100 knots is approximately 115 miles per hour). They were out of luck and will try again at ?The Canal?, a 1 km man-made canal in Stes. Maries de la Mer in the South of France, later in the year.
On the 13th April 2004, two French kite surfers, Charlotte Consorti and Emmanuel Taub, set new kite surfing speed records. For men, Emmanuel achieved 39.79 knots and Charlotte laid down the marker for women with a speed of 33.24 knots.
An annual speed sailing event (any craft but sure to feature some windsurfers) is held near Weymouth on the UK's south coast and this year
Weymouth Speed Week will be held during 2nd - 8th October.
Now it was noted that the windsurfers would be moving at approximately 53 miles per hour (mph) and I wondered how this compared with some other speed records.
We can begin with the land speed record which is 1,227.985 km/h (763.055 mph); that?s impressive but in setting the record, Andy Green in Thrust SSC didn?t have to rely on the wind or gravity for propulsion. Also, although he must have experienced one hell of an adrenaline rush, I suspect that sitting in Thrust he felt rather more secure than Gary Hardwick did when he set a skateboard speed record (maintaining a standing position) of 100.66 km/h (62.55 mph)!
On a sandboard, American Erik Johnson clocked 82 km/h (51 mph). Sandboards utilise a laminated thermoplastic which is waxed to reduce friction.
guinnessworldrecords.com is the main arbiter of world records and they have an impressive list of
records for extreme sports which includes a number of skateboard records. They have just introduced a record for performing the greatest number of skateboard ollies in a continuous 60-minute period. Visit their site to check out the rules which include defining an ollie as raising all four wheels of the board off the ground and stipulate that the skater?s feet may not be fastened to the skateboard in any way.
Jose Marabotto from Peru cleared a height of over 125cm (50 inches) with an ollie, the secret of which
Bill Robertson puts down to timing. If you decide to go for the new max number of ollies record, I guess that height will not be the main issue because it is only necessary to get clear daylight between the wheels and the ground but it will be important to land cleanly and build up a rhythm.
