witnessed real bad crash today

[longwhitecloud]

Had to deal with a severely injured kiter today after being flung off beach up bank 40ft (like kitelooping hard into solid ground style) through a fence into a field, horrific looking injuries head,mangled foot, back, not fun, in hospital. found them lying in grass kite, could not move in someones back garden.

Don't sell on old kites, tell people to get lessons and if u see someone about to mess up /suss, be nice and go help, done it plenty of times but was not able to do this unfortunately on this occasion. And watch the weather.

Kind of cut short my session, hope they ok, in Auckland hospital right now.

[tautologies]

sucks to hear. Good to hear you helped them out, and yes agreed. Shitty old kites should not be sold.

[frankm1960]

Old kite? The accident wouldn't have had anything to do with weather conditions by chance? and possibly an inexperienced kiter?

Old kites aren't the culprit IMO. Look at all the threads in here... pretty much all disasters are accompanied by nasty weather conditions and/or inexperienced pilots.

Blaming old kites is like blaming the dead guy with a bullet in his brain on the gun.

One thing with kiting is it's made to look real easy and harmless, can learn it all in week. Great for sales but not so sure it's great image for beginners to adapt.

[tony montana]

Old kites are dangerous,i always advise beginners to buy some decent modern kit,as for changing weather conditions,this is part of kitesurfing and the reason beginners need good kit,QR that works decent de power.will help when weather conditions change,and knowing how to use QR,i hope this kitesurfer makes a complete recovery,TONY

[Jbrook]

What is an old kite lets be more specific. Year, model? Generalization old kite has no meaning.

[Flyboy]

Agree with Frank. Unstable weather &/or inexperience or stupidity are generally the issues. The newest kites are certainly not "safer" in the wrong hands or in the wrong conditions.

[longwhitecloud]

I agree with everything said.

Remember 100% depower advert and how they got shit for this and stopped using that quote. Also another example of why an organization like IKA need to think about how they misrepresent the reality of kiteboarding safety in their olympic reports to ISAF concentrating on exciting viewing thus high viewing figures - thus advertising revenue.- Like you say $$$ vs reality.... same goes for some of the brands.. -

(16m c kite...).

[Jbrook]

Maybe old bars could be blamed like 2007 and older. It was really easy to get quick release jammed I remember with sand. Discussions like these are important if they can save anyone in the future. Maybe if your gonna use a 2007 kite and older get a bar with a newer safety system. Doesnt have to be 2013 just a chicken loop and release that work well. Happy riding!

[plummet]

Lets face it the culprit is ignorance. ignorant people have no clue what danger they are putting themselves in.

Then you have a commedy of errors. old kite, lack of skill, flying over powered.....

I think the greatest killer besides ignorance is overpowered kites and not understanding weather patterns which i gues harkes back to ignorance.

[KiteboardingTampaBay]

Sorry to hear that man. It sucks to have to scrape up a kiter off the ground, regardless of the circumstances.
I agree on the old gear topic- it is dangerous and much of the crap on Ebay/Craigs List is garbage and lot of times it is people in the business selling it!
A 2007 kite is actually a 2006, so that's 6 years of wear and tear, plus deterioration.

I get calls all the time with people who want to "learn on their own gear" and I am thinking "Oh shit, what did ya get suckered into this time?" I often see the same kites over and over again, just a different noob trying to fly it. They realize they got ripped off, and of course, sell it to the next guy. I think the gear trade in programs are great, as long as they are retiring the ones that should be retired.
I have never seen an ad that says "the lines are 8+ years old, everything is dry rotted, the bladders leak, and there's no safety system".

So what do you do with old, outdated kites?
Get creative...
www.kiteboardingtampabay.com