VIDEO That’s a lot of 119 miles (if you kitesurf them)

Dave Robertson is the first kitesurfer to have completed with his “kite” (in the “upgraded” version equipped with a foil) the course of the Coastal Classic, a 119-mile race that is run annually in New Zealand from Auckland Harbor to Russell in the Bay of Islands (on the east coast of the North Island). It took Dave 7 hours and 28 minutes to grind out the approximately 220 kilometers, at an average speed of about 20 knots, and with highs touching 27.

WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE FEAT

THE KITE THAT BEWITCHED MR. VIRGIN
Some time ago, it was the turn of 61-year-old Virgin tycoon Richard Branson to make headlines through a kitesurfer: in fact, he became the oldest kitesurfer to have crossed the English Channel Strait aboard his board. It took him 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete the approximately 26 miles between Dymchurch (in the English county of Kent) and Wimereux (north of France): slower only than his son Sam, who managed in only two and a half hours.

THE 240 MILES OF SROKA
But the record on distance traveled definitely belongs to world kitesurfing champion Bruno Sroka, who had already defied nature by passing the mythical Cape Horn and who was the first man in the world to make the crossing from Brittany (in northern France) to Ireland by kite, for a total of 240 miles ground in 17 hours