Man wakeboards across flooded South Australian vineyards
A South Australian man tied a ski rope to a farm buggy and wakeboarded across a flooded vineyard in Langhorne Creek a day after violent storms lashed the state.
Luke Cooper, 22, towed his friend Ryland Willis, 21, alongside 500m of flooded vines at Lake Breeze Wines as another friend, Josh Cranwell, filmed the feat using a drone.
In the incredible video, Mr Willis gracefully wakeboarded along the right hand side of the vines and at one point came incredibly close to clipping the spiky fence.
Mr Cooper said he and his family had been stuck inside for days after storms and gale-force winds thrashed the state on Wednesday afternoon.
By Saturday, he had no power but the weather had cleared enough for him and his friends to make the most of the devastating aftermath.
Mr Cooper, whose family owns the winery, said the vines were so deep and the water so high that his board didn’t hit the bottom.
“We’re just hoping for some sunshine to dry out the winery before the Handpicked Festival in November," he told Adelaide Now.
Growers at the Langhorne Creek vineyards often rely on the floods to leach the salts out of the soil and help with the quality of the fruit, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile in the Barossa Valley, another group of friends took advantage of the devastation and took out knee boards and wakeboards for an afternoon splash on Friday.
Abi Mader, Opal Mader and Brenton Armstrong tied rope to a car and went boarding at a friend’s family private vineyard near Nurioopta on Friday.
Although the brutal South Australia weather has eased, the Bureau of Meteorology have issued another severe weather warning is in place, which is expected to hit Tuesday.
Damaging gusts of wind are expected to reach more than 100km/h overnight more, bringing in possible thunderstorms.
There are also warnings of hazardous road conditions for drivers with reduced visibility in heavy showers, slippery conditions and flooding over roads.
The warning comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull toured the flood-ravaged parts and declared that there needs to be more money spent on natural disaster mitigation.
"What we need to be doing is not just relieving the consequences of natural disasters by putting in the measures to ensure when they do come, it doesn't do the same damage as this one has," he said.
