Postby bnthere » Tue Oct 29, 2013 1:09 am
thats all you got? more than one person has died kiting in my local area alone.
there are many people that get badly hurt doing this. and many many more close calls, most of which do not need to happen. they are almost always the result of careless and irresponsible kite handling, either from bad judgement or lack or knowledge. over the last few years extremely rarely can an "incident" be blamed on gear failure. (i actually can't think of any)
look at the thread on bayareakite about the recent severe injuries and close calls at third ave, look on masskite about the recent nearly really bad accident in MA, it is a lot of close calls, because people go about things in bad ways in kiteboarding. there are many example around, regularly.
i blew a self launch today: drag style, as kite turned the bridle hooked on wingtip. kite started up and into loop mode, i ditched it onto the leash, no harm no foul that shit happens sometimes. if i hadnt, i would have been in a bad way, i was clear of my car and other obvious big problems, but i would have definitely been launched and slammed into the ground. i wasnt because i know that kind of line snag can and does happen, and i am ready for it. kite is disabled and down before its 10' off the ground, i dont have to move a single foot there is no force. the kite is reset and launched and im riding a minute later.
later that day, another guy pops a self launch, same way. hooked in, no hand near release not really even paying attention as kite struggles to roll a little, he is way high of the edge of the wind, its a 13, blowing 15-22. he pops it up really hot, bar all the way out running 20+ meters hard, straight at some shit you dont want to put your forehead through, but is fine just running it out as kite climbs and reaches edge of wind and he's good to go. but if he had a line snag, he wasnt ready for it.
another guy, also today. besides being ridiculously oversheeted with essentially 0 depower relief, he had an issue of some kind, at launch, kiteloops (5 or 6) nice long drag on his ass, fortunately he did release and disable (and didnt go airborne beforehand) and luckily had a little room to spare, but his kite is down a half a line length from my car. however, if things went down on the other side of his wind window, he had massive horrible things to run into, and would have had he covered the same ground in the other direction. he could have and should have let that things go a lot sooner. he was lucky he didnt go airborn. why didnt he ditch it sooner and avoid all of that, like i did? because he didnt know. now he does. lessons learned the hard way dont always work out in this sport. passing important info, and not just telling people to fly the kite around and feel it out or whatever, is the solution.
i see this everyday.
this is why i post the kinds of things i post on this forum. i dont need to talk about the backmobe i can finally stick about 50% (holding onto the bar a lot longer before making the pass was the key), or how i had a nice wave session this morning. none of that shit matters.
people getting hurt, or hurting or endangering others, closes beaches. i believe many of the instances can be reduced by better educating people about how things actually work in kiteboarding. that is why i teach lessons. (and for the chicks, obviously)