I was talking to friend about how great kitesurfing is, and he said he never would because he swears he heard about a guy who got bitten while riding a kite.

He said the shark saw the Kite rider as a great big fishing lure, skipping on the water....came up out of the water and bit him.

That guy is soooooo full of it. Interesting food for thought though....wait, did I just say that?

The future will tell us if any kiter gets bitten by a shark. So far nothing happend.
If I would be a shark, I would prefer a surfer, since they look like a seal. I don't think kiters look like a fish.
We will see (hopefully not!!!).

i was reading some of the posts on the florida to cuba crossing, and it said one of the riders had been bitten by a shark in an earlyer, non related kite adventure. anybody seen this? it was on this site.
later,
rob

maybe Rick I. knows?

Depends on colour of the underneath of your board .Great white Sharks !!! DO take lures that are dragged ontop of the water .It is documented on video it is amazing seeing this 2 ton fish coming straght out of the water after a black Seal shaped thing.You should see the stat of the fake seals after it,But there as only been one place in the world where they do this .it has somthing to do with sea weed in this area the sharks, swim around in the sea weed looking up at the surface for seals swimming back and forth then shoots up and hits them from under .Look at the national geographical set from more info.

Paul Menta was bitten on the hand by a small shark while out kitesurfer. He ended up launching both himself and the shark out of the water. His hand is now back to normal.

For more checkout:

http://kitesurftheearth.com/redbulcubcro.html

I think that there was a incident within the last few months in South Africa. A shark knocked a guy off his board. The guy proceeded to pummel the shark with his board and got away without being bitten.

For more checkout:

http://www.kitesurf.co.za/index.cfm?pageid=13&art=34

I ran over one a couple of weeks ago and was able to see his reaction. Normally the water is too turbid to see this sort of thing when there is adequate wind to go out. I think that he was pretty startled as it whipped around and aimed right at my board near the bottom. I decided to head further offshore, quickly!

Finally, something not real serious about how to deal with sharks:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/message/43587


Rick Iossi

i heard about kitesurfers meeting sharks thad fled ....


thought about it - maybe the shadow of the kite (huge & very fast moving) scares them?

and what about boards in bright colors (red/orange/yellow)? that should help, too?

Karma. You might get hit by a falling satellite or just plain die in your sleep, but if you get bitten by a shark it was really your time to go. I'd say if you body drag through a group of feeding Great Whites after bouncing off the reef and leaving a blood trail for 50 or 60 miles and then the wind drops and you get tangled in your lines and you're flopping around like a dying seal then maybee you'll get bitten. Sharks don't care about the color or speed of the target, only that its like the things they usually eat. Don't fish for sharks, don't eat shark fin soup and if you've done something really bad to sharks in the past go appologize, otherwise don't even worry, you'll die doing something far more peculliar like planting daisies in your mums back yard.

A couple of years back (been kiting for 4)my board got hit by a baracuda while kiting outside the reef, in the northern area of the island. The beast slowed me down for a while until 5 of it's teeth broke off in my bottom deck. It wasn't a huge fish, but big enough to go for prey the size of my board, which was a 2m15 F.One that day.
Last year at Umhlanga rocks, just north of Durban South Africa, A guy's board also got nipped by a big mako shark during a contest organised by Quicksilver.
The livebait effect is not to be neglected when out kiting, just think of the exciter lures used for deep sea fishing. They work purely on movement on the waters surface , and are quite effective.
All the more reason to fall less often, kite faster and do big and long air as much as possible.
Regards to all.
Nico