Via TreeHugger
I got all excited to learn that a German fellow named Dirk Gion has gathered up a mountain board and some kitesurfing gear and taken to windskating across Austraila. I’ve always thought that the wind was an underutilized source of power. I’ve raced sailboats since high school, and I’m aware of certain iceboats exceeding 75mph and more than 10X wind speed, but I have to admit to being surprised that Dirk has managed to exceed 30mph powered only by a kite.
Aparently he has been pulled over by the police a couple of times, but had no real problems with them. I’m sure this has just been out of curiosity for the most part. I mean, I would pull him over if I was a cop just to pick his brain. I can only imagine, however, that if he was doing this in the US, the oil lobby would have had their neo-conservative buddies pass some kind of law against it, and poor Dirk would be sitting in prison now.
Anti-authroity mentality aside, however, you just have to admire a guy who tackles a 3000 + kilometer journey with only a skateboard and a kite, and it’s not like this is his only ambitious journey. At 19 he crossed Germany and France on horseback, and he has managed some pretty impressive rock climbing accomplishments as well.
It becomes very apparent to me that I need this guy’s job and income stream. I can’t say that kite skating would be on my list of adventures, but it sure beats my daily existence…
[...] Lately I’ve been all excited about wind powered transportation, and yesterday I rediscovered the raging battle for fastest wind powered watercraft. [...]
German Kite Skates Across Australia
This blog post is pretty cool talking about Dirk Gion (whose picture appears …