High-flying Michel Carnet led a group of friends on the first cross-Channel kite surf.

Mr Carnet, 44, and four pals completed the extreme 55-mile return trip in just four hours.

It was the groups second attempt at the crossing their first ended in a washout at the weekend when high winds tipped over one of accompanying safety boats.

Not to be defeated, the former British paragliding champion from Brighton and his friends went for it again on Tuesday.

Mr Carnet set off with friends Andrew John, from Essex, Chris Bull, from Hayling Island, and Rob Campbell, from Hampstead.

The four left Dungeness in Kent at 10am and with the help of brisk winds made it to Audreselles in an hour and 45 minutes.

After five minutes on French soil enough to record the moment for posterity they were heading back to England.

Mr Carnet, of Beechwood Avenue, said: We took a few photos and as soon as we left France we were relieved to see the wind was good and we could get the angle we needed to make it back to dry land in the UK.

But the father of four, who moved to Sussex from Normandy 25 years ago, thought the attempt might be thwarted for a second time.

Mr Carnet was in the middle of the busy Channel shipping lane when one of the lines on his kite broke.

He spent ten minutes swimming around and after a makeshift repair which left his kite unable to fly straight, the four set off again, making it back to the beach in Kent by 2pm. At four hours, the time for the round trip was two hours faster than the men were expecting.

Mr Carnet, a kitesurfer for five years who runs the paragliding centre Sky Systems in Woodbourne Avenue, Brighton, said: It was such a great feeling.

The men, who had been planning the trip for three years, hope to raise more than £40,000 towards a new wing at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and two MR4 units for high dependency rooms in the neurology ward.

Mr John lost his two-month-old son Oliver in July this year after he was born with a brain tumour.

Anyone interested in donating should log onto www.breadandbuttercreative.com/gosh/