Anyone ever tried this? My wife, being a beach bum at heart, has got it in her head that she wants to take this up. I’ve had a bit of a search for some info but just wondered if anyone here does it/has tried it?

http://www.theblsa.com/Whatis/Speedsailing/tabid/87/Default.aspx

I’ve got one and it’s great fun!
Originally I bought it to practice gybing and it really helps. You simply chuck on a windsurfing rig and off you go. I can duck gybe, lay-down 360 on my speed sail but I can’t get close to that on the sea…

Things to look out for…
1. Soft sand! It will stop you quicker than a set of Brembo carbon disks! The problem with stopping the board at 20 mph is that you are facing sideways and therefore are not able to land in any controlled manner. I recommend using walking boots to save your ankles from snapping during sideways exits. When you first get going, do some slower sighter laps of where you will be sailing to find the nice hard sand.

2. Use old windsurf kit. Your nicest sails and carbon boom will get trashed on the abrasive sand.

3. Use smaller kit than normal. I have even used a 3.5m sail on my speed sail. It would have to be the sort of wind that rips up trees for me to get planing with that on the sea!!!

Enjoy!!!

I’ve done blokarting not quite as fast as speed sails but easier to handle and setup

I used to do land-based kiteboarding and found that it hurts a lot more than water based. It also seems slower. It’s also hard to find beaches that are big enough to do it. But it’s fun.

Remember a nasty accident a few years ago on a beach where one of them sand yachts crashed into a woman and took her legs off !!

Had a go at that Blokarting a few years ago in Devon. Great fun. Once the wind gets behind the sail it really does go.

Yeah, well not quite. She drunkenly staggered through a cordoned off race repeatedly and wobbled in front of the competition and it severed her leg at her ankle. And she bled to death IIRC.

If you can’t keep outside a roped off race area I question whether you should be able to be allowed out alone.

Just bought a Flexifoil kite buggy, just need to get a kite

Good luck !!

Do it on a whike instead. Sail and bike combined. There was one for sale on Ebay recently.

yes, I bought a wooden mountain board and fitted a windsurf universal joint to the front. Worked brilliantly. I think it’s in a friends garage so would be for sale (complete with UJ and fitting to secure it to the deck) if you lived aanywhere near Bath or Leamington as it’d be a bugger to post!
If you do dort out your own kit, as above, use old kit and don’t use a cambered sail, use a nice small (4m) wave sail that will depower easily. I used an old 6.5m neil pryde v6 on a runway. no ability to depower once I was moving and yes the inevitable happened. That hurt lots!

Whikes look good fun too. http://www.whike.com/en/