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Cape Town - Professional Danish kiteboarder, Nick Jacobsen, set a tow world height record of almost 1 000 feet in Cape Town on Thursday, with help from Volvo ocean yacht Team Brunel.
Jacobsen, who will be attending the Wavescape Film Festival premiere of his film The Jump at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town on Friday, set the record at 277 metres (908 feet) while attached to the 30.30 metre mast of Team Brunel's VO65 model vessel.
The previous record of 244m was set by Hawaiian Jesse Richman but this was achieved behind a speedboat, and has been standing for more than four years. The world record resulted from a confluence of careful planning, aerodynamic engineering and skill by Jacobsen himself, and the crew on board Team Brunel who took care of the lift.
Five hundred metres of line was dragged behind the boat to which Jacobsen connected himself. Flanked by the city and Table Mountain, he was towed until he gained enough power for liftoff as the yacht went hard into a stiff southeaster. Up to 800 metres of line had to be let out carefully via winch by Team Brunel crew member Kyle Langford, a fanatical kiter himself.
After reaching the maximum length, Nick safely paraglided down to the water in 66 seconds. Jacobsen, 30, is no stranger to doing amazing things with a kite. The first feature film of the Wavescape screenings at the Labia premieres The Jump, which chronicles how, in April this year, Jacobsen jumped off the third tallest building in the world, the Burj al-Arab with his kite.
FILM FESTIVAL
No fewer than 36 films are showing this year at the Wavescape Surf & Ocean Festival, which on Thursday moved to the Labia for four days of two showtimes daily. (Find our more here)
Book your tickets here.
Channel24 is a proud media partner of the 2017 Wavescape Surf & Ocean Festival.
