Don't laugh as this is being developed still and first was though up in 2015. We have water skiing and wave boarding where someone is towed behind a speed boat so why not someone being towed behind a plane.
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I get the concept and it does sound like a load of fun and what must be taking the time to develop is the safety aspects. The inventor of the sport wants people to be doing this at 2000ft which is fine, but obviously not for everyone. He obviously has never tried to parachute from that height before as the
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The rider is harnessed to the wing board in a standing position and attached to the plane by a rope or chord being towed at a constant speed of over 100mph. What is there not to like about this concept if you are an adrenaline junkie. This even peaked my interest as if it was safe it sound like great fun.
Considering most parachute jumps after skydiving from 12-1500 ft deploy their chutes at a safe 5000 ft. He has theoretically cut the time to hit the ground in half and you would need a specialist chute for this. A quick opening (instant) round chute that would still have you hitting the ground at a fair speed of 10 meters per second. 2500 ft is the minimum deployment for sport in sky diving for the main chute as it takes time to open which could chew up 1000ft leaving you with 1500ft left to safely slow down and land in.
The type of advanced skills required would most likely limit this sport to ex military personnel who were parabats or special forces. I have witnessed these types of jumps before from lesser heights when I was based at a special forces base in the army. Conditions have to be perfect and you have to know exactly what you are doing as 100-150m is not a long time before you hit the ground. All those jumps were completed by a stick chute that is already being pulled as you jump out the door. The 2000ft jump I have an issue with as you are having to detach yourself from the wing board and then get your parachute up so this leaves no time for error and will most likely end in death.
The inventor wants it to be a spectator sport which has to be out of the question as for this the wing boarder needs to be higher up for safety reasons. This would reduce the visibility of anyone viewing from the ground. Plus what happens if something goes wrong as now you have a wing board plus a rider falling to the ground at a rate of knots.
I believe the idea is great but it does need some refinement. Water skiing if something goes wrong you just let go where as this you could end up in serious difficulties. There must be a reason no one has tried this even with a winged suit. They actually have with limited success meaning a fatality or two. On one jump the tow rope got wrapped around the flying wing man which was my worry about the wing board. Any slack could happen as various shift in wind speeds could cause havoc. Another tow from a B24 bomber resulted in the tow rope and under carriage getting caught up removing parts of the plane.
The concept has been 5 years in the making and no doubt this could easily be a fantastic sport if made safer. Maybe over the next 5 years we will see something magically appear as it is something that could be fun. I seriously doubt it and he just wants to be a cartoon character as he never thought of this, Walt Disney and Tailspin did.
