This is a weight shift aircraft, and I have a license to fly these as well a Cessnas, except I’m limited to the land version. I no longer fly weight shift because I have four too many dead friends from this sport.
Weight shift aircraft aren’t the safest thing to begin with, but over water they are far more hazardous to the occupant. The kite makes them top-heavy, and if something goes wrong on the landing (or if you have a force water landing in a craft not made to land in water), it is likely to tip over forward. If that happens and the wing hits the water, it will act as a lever driving the control bar against your chest. The best scenario is that it simply traps you in your seat and you drown. If you have any speed at the time of hitting the water, the more likely scenario is that it crushes your chest or decapitates you.
I got this information in a weight shift safety class given by a high hour flight instructor (airline pilot in his day job), based on NTSB investigations of weight shift water crashes. His advice if you saw a bad water landing coming, was to “unfasten your safety belt and jump out before you hit the water”.
