In everyday conversation, we use the term “walk on water” as a figure of speech, but Polish Kite Surfing pioneer Maciek Kozierski has accomplished it for real on the Sea of Galilee in Israel. Together with a team that included six-time Israeli wakeboard champion Lior Eliyahu and photographers Predrag Vuckovic from Serbia and Joerg Mitter from Austria he spent four days on their project aptly codenamed “Miracle“.
The team spent four full days on the water directly in front of the world-famous church at Capernaum, where Kozierski would use his kite to accelerate to maximum speed, then step off the board and release the kite — and then walk on water.
Kozierski encountered difficulties though when strong winds caused the waves to become too rough. The weather wouldn't co-operate when the water was calm either, as the wind wasn't strong enough to use the kite.
The stunt proved a painful one for 26-year-old athlete from Warsaw, who crashed hard into the water at high speed more than 50 times, having to repeat the whole stunt time and time again in the pursuit of perfection.
The released kite was once damaged after flying halfway across the sea while Kozierski missed the photographers in the water on other attempts. But on the last day, he finally accomplished the feat and the team captured the perfect “miracle” shot of Maciek Kozierski walking on water with the historic church in the background (below).
Kozierski proudly stated that “we did it without any tricks or smoke and mirrors”, and has also released a “Making of…” video to prove his point.