"It was THAT big" says the kiteboarder who's just landed a jump that must have been at least 20cm high...

It's a familiar phrase that we hear all to often on our beaches, but how many of you can really say that you jumped 23.6m high? The Seabreeze.com.au users are out to find the best method of measuring exactly how high your biggest jump of the session was. Here's a few of the suggestions...

The first, and most obvious idea that springs to mind is by using one of the new and fancy GPS watches. While they will measure height to a degree, when you're talking about a jump of maybe 10m high, the 5-20m accuracy specs on these watches isn't really going to cut it. What's more, is nobody's really tried it with much success. 

Another idea along the same lines is to use one of the purpose built devices. Used to track not only height and distance, but also speed and it's even capable of plotting the data onto a map. By combining pressure sensors, accelerometers, and GPS devices into one little box, this could be the best option by far. The catch? It's pricey, and it seems as though they've gone out of production! 

Taking it back a notch, another interesting suggestion is the combination of using pictures (which give you a semi accurate guage of height anyway). But then, taking it one step further and wearing a rashie with a certain sized grid drawn on it. By counting the amount of pixels in each grid, and then comparing that to the size of the grid in real life you get a grid/pixel ratio. Count the pixels from the board to the takeoff point and revel in your mathematical prowess, and your jump height! You could also use your own height, or the board length, or any known value to compare to pixels. But where's the fun in that? 

Also mentioned, was to find a mate, get him to hold a giant stick in the air while you jump over it. See where you hit it and measure the height. Then there was the stroke of genius from "Mark_Australia", a windsurfer from Perth. His suggestion might actually be one of the only ways to get an exact value, but unfortunately the consequenses are somewhat unappealing. The suggestion: 

"Completely separate from your kite at the apex of your jump, and freefall to the water.
Time it with a stopwatch... 9.8m/s/s"

Now we don't recommend trying that one for real, but have you ever worked out how to measure your jump heights? Have your say in the Kiteboarding forums here

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