Most embarrassing thing? (helping self identify)

[Eduardo]

all these posts to identify kooks & pretentiousness - how about some humility? what's the most embarrassing thing you ever did at a kite beach?

For me, it was 2003 or so. I just spent 10 days learning at SPI. Shallow, waist deep flat water and I kited all daylight hours a day until I dropped. I could stay up wind. I could jump so high my fins were out of the water. I was amazing.

A month later I was in Athens and headed to Rhodes for a mini kite trip. I rented a kite and headed out to show off my new skills. About an hour into it after a bad wipeout, my board came off and was about 20 meters up wind of me. I tried to stand up in what I thought would be shallow water but it was over head! I couldn't get upwind to my board. I had no idea what to do and started trying to swim upwind. this is 2003 and kites had no depower. no way. after about 30 minutes of some flailing back stroke that got me no where I drifted way downwind to the beach. I walked on the beach up wind to the kite rental shop and explained that the water was too deep to get my board and that it's somewhere drifting in the Aegean. He screamed "why didn't you body drag to get it?" I had to admit, I didn't know even know what 'body drag' meant. I never learned it, never talked about it, never even saw anyone do it since I learned in shallow water. he started yelling and swearing in greek and then english and there was a crowd by this time and ... I've been to Rhodes 4 times since but always hope no one remembers me

who can top that !

[Bille]

I posted this a bunch of years ago ; but never actually said , why i chose to do the
trick that day . I was trying to impress a girl ; and it didn't go so well.


This is Funny !
The first shot is of my first attempt at a back-roll .

The second shot is of the diver that Found my leg and knee-brace, in 40ft of water.

YEA -- i hit the water SO Hard ; i Lost my Leg !

Bille

[Laughingman]

At the beach my wife is getting ready slowly. I'm waiting (impatiently)so I can give her a launch. Finally she is ready and I go to launch her but her lines are wrapped. I put her kite down (in disgust) and get her to launch me while she fixes her lines. This is when I realize I only connected two of my lines.....

[OBX Kiter]

Well there I was…kiting Lake Garda last summer. I've been kiting since 2004, and on Lago di Garda for the two previous years. Every session for two years before this day, I only kited the "Peler" morning thermal out of the north, usually 20-30+ knots of sheer adrenaline for 3+ hours on my 8 to 10m Switchblades. The afternoon wind is the "Ora" out of the south, on a good day it's around 12-18; I never bothered with this for several reasons. One, I was to tired for a second session; two, I didn't have a big enough kite; three, my light wind skills suck. That day a friend talked me into going out with one of her 13m kites (different brand) and my JL Surf KT (strapless). The wind was sketchy and it took a while to get going…should've been my warning. I finally got up and planning, going down wind to gain speed and was getting close to an instructor with a student body dragging just to my right. I edged hard and steered the kite to the left, but it didn't respond. I pulled harder to the left, but the kite continued to veer right crashing into the students kite ending up in a tangled mess. I've never been so embarrassed in my life. The Italian instructor let me have it for the entire 45 minutes it took to get untangled (deserved). All I could say was Mi dispiace "I sorry" and just embraced the suck not saying a word back. My friend showed up to help out and ensured him I was an experienced kiter, and it was just a freak accident, but I don't think he bought it. One of the worst days of my life, but I learned from it and moved on. After flipping me the bird every chance he got for the next hour after we got things sorted out, he chilled and we actually talked about it later in the day. "Shit happens, don't worry about it dude" was the last thing he said, but it didn't make me feel any better. Lessons learned: Don't kite when you're tired, don't kite in conditions or with equipment you're not comfortable with, and never ride Best kites.

[Do-it]

Having a great session, setting up for a jump in front of 5-6 kiters that are taking a break..... Sent the kite and Oh shit, forgot to look behind me. I end up wrapping the guy behind me. We were able to untangle the kites in the air, but still very embarrassing.

Tethered launch. Forgot my normal rope and carabiner. Rigged up a plasticky straplike thing. Set my kite up and start walking back BAM. I look back at the kite and it is tumbling down wind, luckily one of the many kiters that just witnessed what happened broke into stride and grabbed it as it went by.

[ptraykovski]

Back in 1998 or 99 I was just starting out and had been learning to fly a foil ok, but not fully dialed and went to maui to windsurf. Had delta flown stunt kites lots and smaller foils so thought I had it dialed....

Saw a guy on the beach at hookipa who I "thought" needed help launching his foil so proceeded to walk over to his kite, not hearing him telling me to leave it alone! and mess up his launch and get his kite all tangled up. woops!!!

Turned out it was Don Montague, who would later become the Naish designer for many years etc

[FabsPH]

"can I borrow your kite? ...of course I know whats up, duhhh...
(this was before we invented kook proof connections...)
got one guess what I did. Also was before megaloop and kitemare was named.

Good old times

[Kamikuza]

Last week...

Chicken loop snapped during a self-landing. Kite sailed downwind, over the trees, over the road and got stuck in the hedge - kite on one side of the road, lines strung out to the bar on the other. Stopped traffic to detach the lower pair, then had to get a ladder and rake to snag the top pair... cut the leaders just in time, before a truck with a high load came bowling through. Had to climb and chop down branches to untangle the kite...

[alamos_kiter]

Last week...

Chicken loop snapped during a self-landing. Kite sailed downwind, over the trees, over the road and got stuck in the hedge - kite on one side of the road, lines strung out to the bar on the other. Stopped traffic to detach the lower pair, then had to get a ladder and rake to snag the top pair... cut the leaders just in time, before a truck with a high load came bowling through. Had to climb and chop down branches to untangle the kite...

Brillant, had the same with self land to leash... leash broke... kite sailing downwind 700m onto a golf court and got wrapped around 3 golf carts parked in a huddle, a gang of 80+ yo golfers standing beside not knowing WTF had hit. They were searching for the dead parachutist when I arrived.

2 weeks later, new leash bought, different beach, same accident... kite wrapped around the roof and chimney of a 3 story building...

[justbob]

Pumping up my kite after a leading edge bladder repair, failed to make sure
the velcro closure at the end was absolutely completely closed, bladder pops and scares
the shit out of me..........TWICE!