I had more than one bruised purple wrist due to the wrist leash. Snap Shackles were even more dangerous, the only fatality that occurred at my local launch was when one of our local riders could not release his shackle when a microburst passed by.
Rick, I don’t remember if I bought the 16.9 Wipika Airblast from you, but that thing was a beast. It was a jellyfish in gusty wind and had a 5 mph range, but it got me out there in the lightest wind.
Kiting got a lot easier (and safer) with the advent of the bow kite in 2006. My first one was from Best. Before that it was a quiver of C Kites with a 2m span between each size. I remember afternoons where I would pump 4 kites. I can ride the same conditions now with one kite and never feel over-powered. Tea bagging and getting ripped downwind in a gust seem to be a thing of the past. I had more “kitemares” in my first year of kiting than the 17 following years and only one or two in the past decade. The progression most newbies make in a couple weeks took several months in the early days. Staying upwind was a goal that took most riders a full summer to achieve in the early days.