Man crosses Australia on kite-powered skateboard

Man crosses country on kite-powered skateboard

A German man has become the first person to traverse Australia from south to north using a kite-powered skateboard.

Dirk Gion left South Australia 17 days ago and arrived in Darwin this afternoon.

Mr Gion says the 3,000-kilometre trip was aimed at proving the kite-powered skateboard could be used to travel long distances.

He says he was inspired by a visit to Australia 20 years ago.

"Twenty years ago I did all around Australia on a dirt bike," he said.

"So I thought the Stuart Highway might be very good for doing this because [there's] no trees, nothing and you can go as long as you want.

"I thought that might be a good idea and nobody has done it before."

Mr Gion says the only real problem he faced was South Australian law enforcement.

He says he encountered two police officers as soon as he left Port Augusta in South Australia.

"They said, 'you can't do this here' so we really were careful and cleared the road when people came," he said.

"Then we had another cop stop us four kilometres before we hit Coober Pedy because two road-trains that passed us at night, I mean this is a strange thing you are in a road train and suddenly here is this thing coming past you, they called on the radio the police.

"And they stopped us again and they took my name and they said, 'you can't do this'. In the Northern Territory, no problem."

Mr Gion says he is now convinced he can use the technology to travel the world.

"I want to bring this all around the world, with this special board," he said.

"Actually now that I saw that you can really go far ways, you can make up to 300 kilometres a day if you have wind with a kite on a board like this, and I want to build a special boat for the water and do it all around the world."