Phil Bridges, 35, was dragged up the beach at Poole Harbour, through some bushes, over a car, and finally crash-landed in Shore Road.

He had failed to release or collapse the strings which attached a kite to him to power his surfboard, and only stopped after hitting a wall.

He was taken to hospital with suspected head and spinal injuries but was later released.

A spokeswoman for Poole Coastguard said: It looked to be quite bad - there was quite a lot of blood around.

Kite-surfing involves standing on a board while being pulled along by a large kite.