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Wave etiqutte

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Mjyates
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Wave etiqutte

Postby Mjyates » Fri Jun 21, 2013 5:29 pm

So i'm pretty new to big waves although i have quite a bit of kiting experience. My question is what is this. Im kiting strapless, heading out to sea. Im faced with a massive crest and jibe away, only to get an earful from a fellow kiter who was coming down the face. What am i supposed to do? Take the hit so he can enjoy his wave? He was obviously a competent wave rider, albeit rather sour.

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tautologies
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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby tautologies » Fri Jun 21, 2013 6:27 pm

Was it a breaking wave? With a kiter on it? I'm not sure if I understand...if you are facing a wave and turn yo get away then you should not be in his way?

Also...some people are just grumpy by nature...disregard those....but probably a good idea to not snake waves :)

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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby Starsky » Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:13 pm

Your not supposed to get into the situation. Need to have your head out of the boat enough to see when someone is coming in on a wave and avoid that wave all together. If your going to pinch it close enough to get anywhere near him you gotta know you can get up and over it. If conditions are big and needing to chicken jibe is even likely, do it early on the wave before. Your right of way goes out the window when it poses risk to the rider whose focus is on riding the wave itself.

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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby plummet » Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:43 pm

There is no place for idiots yelling abuse out on the water. Perhaps if you kept snaking the guy time and time again. But hurling abuse because you had to get out the way of a big wave? What a cock. His wave ride is not more important that your safety. What did he expect you to do? take the hit and get hammered by the wave so he could continue is run uninterrupted?

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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby tautologies » Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:20 pm

Plummet: There is no indication to what extent there was a lot of yelling (some is fine lol :-)

I agree with Starsky...still not entirely sure what the situation was, but remember if you make mistakes you can put other riders in danger too. Some riders can get pissed off if they feel you are putting them in danger. In big waves things happen fast, and getting in trouble due to other riders might not be the most fun part of kiting. :-)

At one of my local breaks we ride pretty close together, but we know each other pretty well, and whenever someone new comes in, and ride the same way it many times ends bad simply because they do not know the break as well, they do not know people as well..and all that...the only time I've gotten irritated was when a guy was completely out of his element was flailing around locking up the break for 40 mins..kept on crashing his kite and dragging for his board...we tried to help him, but I think he was panicking (it is a bit reefy).

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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby Peter_Frank » Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:26 pm

Starsky wrote:Your not supposed to get into the situation. Need to have your head out of the boat enough to see when someone is coming in on a wave and avoid that wave all together. If your going to pinch it close enough to get anywhere near him you gotta know you can get up and over it. If conditions are big and needing to chicken jibe is even likely, do it early on the wave before. Your right of way goes out the window when it poses risk to the rider whose focus is on riding the wave itself.
Agree with Starsky on this one.

You can see the other kitesurfer on the wave from far away (if not, you are not ready for this yet), so good "Wave etiquette" is that you bear away in huge distance from him - or even better - jibe or tack and ride away from him on one of the earlier waves so you dont ever get on the same wave 8)

THIS is good wave etiquette - but of course takes some time to adapt to and learn.

If he did not yell, then you would not have written this post, and not "learned" anything, right ?

So eventhough I dont like that - it somehow makes good sense in this situation.

:D Peter

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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby magic%20Ed » Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:16 am

First of all: wave etiquette is also: be polite if someone fucks up.

Second: yelling on the water has a purpose, it can be difficult to be heard.

Third: ride up to the guy and talk with him. Maybe he can explain what you did wrong (in his opinion) and how to avoid the situation next time.

Remember that everybody now and than reacts rather harsh (as stated before, due to fear of danger of just on an impulse), but most people respond friendly when you apologize and ask them what happened and how to avoid the situation in the future.

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Re: Wave etiqutte

Postby Mjyates » Sat Jun 22, 2013 2:44 pm

Thanks Starsky and Magic for the good advice. In my defence, there are 2 big breaks here, and one of them is called One Eye. Guess where. I got shouted at twice and both times was on the small reef break, nowhere near the pro rider stuff.


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