check this pic out, from the bulletin

The Bulletin | Sports | Hanging out on a kite

Hanging out on a kite
Kiteboarders continue soaring in the Gorge and business is booming for Bend man
By Mark Morical / The Bulletin
Published: August 25. 2006 5:00AM PST

ROOSEVELT, Wash. - Chris Thomson's colorful kite soared directly overhead as he floated up 30 feet into the air and hung upside down like something out of a Batman movie.

He slowly twisted back down, his board landing softly on the choppy water of the wind-whipped Columbia River.

Thomson's movement, while breathtaking and awe-inspiring, was utterly controlled, as if in slow motion.

Kiteboarding borrows some names of its tricks from wakeboarding, but its focus is the wind and the kite, and finding that delicate balance between the two that allows the boarder to both carve the water and float freely through the air.

"It combines wakeboarding and water skiing, but you get to drive the boat also," said Michael Giebelhaus of Bend as he watched Thomson from the grassy riverbank at Roosevelt Park last week. "You get to decide how fast you want to go. It's just you and the wind. And it changes the whole time you're out there."

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