Old Boy Kite Surfers conquer Bass Strait

15 September 2009

Two Old Boys from the Class of 1993 have become the first people in the world to kite surf across Bass Strait.

Friends Ben Morrison-Jack and James Weight, both aged 33, completed the 260km journey when they landed at Apollo Bay in Victoria's southwest early on Wednesday 9 September 2009.

"The trip couldn't have gone better, apart from the wind dying down in the last kilometre," Ben Morrison-Jack said.

The men made the trip on their kite boards in just under 12 hours, after leaving Stanley in Tasmania's north at 7am (AEST).

He said the friends were driven by a lust for adventure and had been thinking of taking the journey for years.

Kiteboarders wear a harness attached to a kite above them that they steer to allow the wind to push them along the water while their feet are strapped to a board.