Whats your stupid story?

[s1buell_wl]

Band new kite 15-17kns (good Wind). I had the kite blown up and everything all laid out. As the wind was blowing good and the spot had very little room to self-launch I was a little nervous to self-launch. This place is small with threes everywhere and is right in front of a restaurant. It was the place where everything could go wrong. So I decided not to self-launch. The second I made that decision a very confident guy walked up and said “hey man you need a launch?” I was like hell yea.

First second I was just walking over to the bar when I noticed the lines behind me starting to move. I thought no issue he has the kite in his hands getting ready

1.05 sec
later I see the bar moving

1.06 sec
I reached out to grab it as it was now flying by me.

1.07sec
I was like what the F is going on….. As I grab the bar and get ripped around to my surprise my helper had walked over to the kite grabbed it and thrown it in the air.
Now I have this kite by the bar making it go full power into a loop. I made a desperate attempt to grab the chicken loop but missed it. .

1.08sec
I was ready to let go of the kite and did thinking what a waste of a kite and cash.

1.09 sec
Palm tree hooked one of the rear lines and caused the kite to perfectly loop around the trunk of the tree

1.10sec
Wow cool kite might be ok??? It just kept looping around the tree until it was out of line.

2 sec later
Attempted to stand up thinking where the hell is that guy.....


What did I learn? Sometimes the help of a non-kilter can be deadly!

[Hawaiis]

I must have put my kite up on a tree about 5 times, some things I never learn.

[styleito]

I ended up coming in at kitty hawk.

Where did you launch from?

North end of Rodanthe

Wow! That must be more than 30 miles plus you had to go under at least one low bridge.

[Laughingman]

Wow! That must be more than 30 miles plus you had to go under at least one low bridge.

No, it was maybe 3-4 miles. We launched just past the sbends and I came in at kitty hawk kites flagship store.

[Rufusz]

Had a few lessons earlier, about to practice waterstart, but wind disappeared for weeks, so I decided to buy a used kite (some old 17m c kite) of course without being able to test it or seeing it flying...
Drove to a windy spot 900kms away to finally became a kitesurfer.

When getting the kit ready at the beach a guy tells me the kite is waay to big for the conditions. Of course I said: I know what I`m doing.

My mate helps me with the launch everything seems fine apart from being well overpowered... no probs at least waterstart will be easier... so board on feet, steer kite quickly into power zone... board stayed place and jump was about 5m high and who knows how long... kite crashes, loops multiple times and I have no chance to recover it dragging me downwind like crazy...
Ok hit the QR now... wait.... i forgot to clip my leash in... as triing to do so the kite hits a boat full of tourists and finally it stops pulling... Ok safe... I see the captain swearing, walking to my kite and throwing it to the power zone... tourists scream as I fly pass the boat.
Some loops, crashes and a few minutes later the kite crashes into a yacht. Ok I managed to clip my leash in so finally hit the QR. The captain of the yacht seems unhappy about me using his vessel as a landing spot and swears at me. Luckily we dont speak the same language.
A rescue boat approches us and collects the kite and me. Turns out its the same guy who said the kite was too big. He jumped into the rescue boat when I hit the tourist boat and he was local kite instructor btw

The reason not being able to recover the kite was that one of the steering lines was 20cm short... the seller must be an honest guy.

Of course there is no explanation for fotgetting the leash and ignoring local advice.
Lesson learned.

[JGTR]

Trying to learn kite loops on a 16m Crossbow in light wind is probably the stupidest thing I've done. I've had some bad luck but those weren't my own fault...

Why? I learnt to KL on an 18m Vegas in light winds

[seaplus]

Cold water (low 50s) with neither wet or dry suit...

Met some friends at the lake but hadn't planned to kite. They were riding big kites (+15m) and I only had an 11m in my car. While I'm twiddling my thumbs on the beach, the side-off breeze picked up to a steady 18kts. I couldn't take it any longer and rigged up my 11m. Figuring the winds wouldn't last long I chose to not "waste time" (bad idea) putting on my semi-dry. Just putting my bare feet in the water was painful but I took off. After about 20 minutes, I was approx 1/4 mile offshore and I noticed the guys were back on the beach wrapping up their gear. At that exact moment, the wind dropped to 5kts, my kite fell out of the sky. Even though there was not enough wind to relaunch, there was enough to slightlly pull me further from shore. I tried to get my friends' attention but was too far away. I didn't want to release my kite just yet and while still hooked in, swam towards shore using every bit of strength I had. After about 15 minutes, I could feel my body shutting down. About 5 minutes later, one of my friends swam out, grabbed my kite, and drug me in.

[SupaEZ]

Year 2000 launched a 2.2 ram air nearly downwind in 30-40kn river west wind
Was unhooked at launch and got lofted real quick
So i let go and kite drifts 300 ft downwind into power lines and blows the transformer
I rushed to the kite to remove the evidence
To this day no one knows who took the power out (except close friends....and now you all )

[plummet]

Well its good to see we all have silly stories!.... keep em rolling in.

Some really close calls and some not. I expect the not so close call guys are holding back on their real stupid story. Come on! cut loose and tell the world.

Toby where is your stupid story?

[dyyylan]

saying "hey this looks like a good time to do a downwinder" and then 5 minutes later having to self rescue and swim in 200 meters when the wind started blowing dead offshore at about 5 knots gusting 20