kitemare zone!! tell us your stupid mistakes!!

[plummet]

well this site is a bit slow and boring at the mo!

lets spice it iup with some stories of sillyness.

here's one of mine.

relatively new to kitesurfing i was out the back about 1km offshore but i new what i was doing as i'd been landboarding for years!!.. anyway jumped off a wave lip and rotated (my release out of the water was all stuffed up). In my rotating confusion i didn't re-direct the kite. i then promptly swung under it and when i landed the kite was way out of the wind window and hindenburged out of the sky tieing its self up in the lines as it went.

So no water relaunch for this white man. I had to do a self rescue 1km out at sea. Thanks Butch for teaching me the low down on self rescue!! rescue worked a treat but took me about 45mins to slowly drag back to the beach!!

It then proceeded to untangle my lines (another 45 mins) re-rigg and get back out there. 5 mins later one of steering lines pops off i'm only 500-600 meters this time. Self rescue number 2 for the day. !!!!

Lessons learnt

Don't do big jumps 1km out at sea

make sure your lines are connected properly, double check!! tripple check!!!

Amusingly I already knew those lessons but it took a couple of self rescues to cement them in my head!

[koma]

Worst kitemare i've had was in my first season with one of the original 11m Ozone Instincts.

Out the back of St Kilda playing in the swell in ~22-24kn, adequetely powered. Did something silly which resulted in me faceplanting into the water and crashing the kite relatively gently at the edge of the window. Almost instant clockwise death-loops saw me deploy the first safety immediately. Still attached to the kite by leash and being dragged through and skipping over the top of the water and being taken out towards the middle of the bay, not having fun at all. I managed to work out a way to control the kite by pulling in the slack on my leash and letting it go at the right moment to time the deathloops so that i could bring the kite across the other side of the window and have it pull me back in towards the shore. 10-15 minutes later i was getting in closer to the shore and thankfully someone who had been watching the entire ordeal had walked down the beach and was signalling they would catch the kite... if i could stop it death looping. I reeled in the leash and grabbed the bar and managed to get the kite to stay on the water by pulling in a foot or more of leader line for the rear left line which kept the kite on the water long enough that i could drift in the last 30m and have the kite caught. My board was picked up by another kiter who was near me when it all started, so no permanent damage or harm done.

Less of a kitemare and more of a funny incident...

I was out at St Kilda about a fortnight ago very enthusiastic to get out on the water after being deprived for a few weeks. Pump up, rig up, launch and get out there... maybe 5 minutes tops and just tacking upwind to get to the kiddy pool when SNAP, damn depower rope breaks. As soon as i realise what's happened, it's self-rescue time... which was the perfect time to have about 4-5 lessons going on. All of the instructors stop their lessons and get their students to watch me self rescuing. Very embarrasing.

Not to worry, i had the 15m in the car so decided to go out for a very powered up session.

[blackant]

Due to a variety of reasons all up last season I only got out on the water about 10 times before the winds stopped. The biggest break was about six weeks in between sessions, and needless to say when the opportunity arose I was excited and trying to get out there as fast as I could.

I have a Warrior II waist harness with one of those clip fastenings on it, so every time I chuck it on I listen for the clip and give it a good pull to make sure it's clicked home before I get going. On this day I gave it a pull, but obviously not hard enough cause when I launched my 11m sonic the harness came unclipped and I was suddenly standing on the beach hanging off my fully powered kite

The worse thing was I was so shocked I just stood there for a few seconds like a goose with no idea what had actually happened

Luckily one of the experienced locals, JK, had launched me and ran down straight away to pull in my depower strap and help me land it. Closer inspection showed that a bit of grit was floating around in my clicka connection making it not connect properly. All's well that ends well but it could have been nasty...'

No matter how long it's been these days I take thing's nice and slow and if I'm too revved up I sit down and take a deep breath checking my gear before doing ANYTHING

[Kamikuza]

When I was a 'beginner' last year ... wind picked up, I was overpowered on my Phantom 15 but I thought "Just one more ..." and then I proceeded to lob myself into the beach, breaking my wrist. Now have a titanium plate in there

[koma]

I have a Warrior II waist harness with one of those clip fastenings on it, so every time I chuck it on I listen for the clip and give it a good pull to make sure it's clicked home before I get going. On this day I gave it a pull, but obviously not hard enough cause when I launched my 11m sonic the harness came unclipped and I was suddenly standing on the beach hanging off my fully powered kite

The Warrior 1 had an awesome 'feature' where with the J-clasp pointing inwards it would sometimes come unhooked if you switched to toeside. I had many a moment like your one blackant, where i'd be riding along and switch to toeside only to find when i switch back my spreaderbar was now unclipped and swinging around in front of me.

FYI, for anyone with a Warrior 1 (probably none left out there new), swap the J-clip so that it points out and all problems solved.

[Trant]

Back in "the day"

I was flying my 20m Aero (!!!) at Long Reef, Sydney when I f**ked up and dropped the kite and lost my board. Standard relaunch procedure back then was to either

a) Swim towards the kite so it rolled on its back

Lazy people pulled the lines in a couple of meters then let go, the slack allowed the kite to roll onto its back

Naturally I'm lazy, so pulled in the lines a couple of meters. As I let go, the following things happened

1) One of the steering lines wrapped around my ankle

2) A wave hit the kite and somehow relaunched it

Now, 20m Aero kites don't turn very fast, so I'm being dragged ankle first by the slowest kitelooping kite you'll ever hear about.

Whilst heading towards the rocks downwind of me, the following things came into my head

1) My foot hurts

2) I wish I had a knife to cut that line

3) Those rocks look big

4) I hope my foot falls off before I hit those rocks

5) I wonder if it's possible to kitesurf with just one foot.

6) Some sort of prosthetic would be useful for one footed kitesurfers

Luckily, the kite finally hit the water before I hit the rocks, then I unwrapped the line from my ankle and headed in. Bit of achiles tendon damage, but nothing too serious

Lessons learnt - don't be lazy!

Over the years I've hit a beach hut, been dragged over rocks by a "released" kite with a snagged leash, snapped 4 lines at once (thankfully on a 5 line kite) and, on one memorable occasion, been rescued by a band of boy scouts when I was stuck on the rocks at Long Reef.

Oh, and I also learnt the hard way why it's a bad idea to wrap the 5th line around your hands as you're reeling in a released kite.

Just call me Mr Accident Prone (or something less polite)

[plummet]

ahh... good stories. keep em coming!

[SoutherlyBuster]

When I was starting out kting, I kited during light winds at a new spot. Wind dropped to the unkitable, kite droped on the water, was off shore perhaps 50 meters but in deep water and could not touch the bottom (perhaps 4 meters deep, don't really know). Wrapped leashed line in a couple of times around the bar, then proceeded to wrap the remaining three lines around the bar, well that is what I thought. Some of the lines did not wrap around, I just missed them and guess what they wrapped around as I was winding in ..... my leg .... dow. This was all in deep water. So I duck my head down and try and unwind the lines, bugger not working. I then decided (or would you call it panic?) to cut the lines as I did not feel comfortable with legs dissabled in deep water and a kite that may relaunch. Got my self and the kite back safely, but suffered the wrath of my wife when I had to purchase new lines.

Regards,

Norman.

[plummet]

well i had an amusing one the other day. forgot to insert my donkey dick. was doing a transition jump and out popped the check loop. so i'm instantly powerd. i'm not ready to be holding the power of my kite in my arms and must have fish polled the bar as i'm instantly ripped off my board and downwind with a looping kite directly in the powerzone. Then when the kites the most powered the bar gets ripped out of my hands and i splash into the water in a heap....

the kite falls out of the sky on the safety. i'm only in knee height water so i reconnect and relaunch and carry on.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Had a similar thing happen to me Plummet. Was a rather knarly day with high winds. Had the donkey dick on but it came loose, so here I was hanging on to the bar, kite above me, out on the water and trying to coax the darned thing back into the hook, all the while the wind was blowing the main loop all around the place. Then gave up and downed the kite. Now to add insult to injury, when I then had the kite all set up again on land, ready set go, the darned chicken loop didn't do it's job and the main loop came off the harness, so here I go chasing after the kite PL Synergy 8m^2). No damage done to kite, me or any one else. Now I every once in a while look down to see if the donkey is still where it should be.

[Kamikuza]

Yeah done that too - forgot to put in the donkey dick, sheeted in hard just after launch and unhooked myself stood there with the kite at zenith and my arms at full stretch working up the minerals to grab the chicken loop ... couldn't get my head around it though and just piloted the kite to the edge of the window, bounced a tip on the ground and as the tension came off, hooked back in. Now I check the donkey dick religiously.

One other time, I had the CL come off the hook but somehow the DD was the only thing holding me in! Couldn't figure that one out ...

[Isa]

Hi everybody!

I'm new at everything, new at kiting and new on this forum aswell.

First kite we bought was only 1.6m². We bought it at our local sportshop because kiting looked interesting. We liked it very much and my brother started doing some research for a bigger, nicer, better kite. We came across the ozone flows. So now my brother is the proud owner of a Ozon Flow 4m².

The first time we went out the beach to try it, there was quite a bit of wind ( around 20knots). With that small one, that's very easy wind and exiting if it turns. So now my brother took out his big new kite. =D Now, you have to know that we didn't have any atributes yet, no bar, no harness, no helmet. Just the kite and its handles. So it was quite easy to get it in the air, but then to control it, was a little bit getting used to. He managed to make some turns with it, but it pulled very hard. And then.... =D The kite pulled really hard at one time and my brother didn't expect it and fell flat on his face (he didn't hurt himself). First I was shocked, cause he came down with a real smash. But he yelled he was ok. Now comes the funny part... Everytime he tried to get up, the kite pulled hard again, so he fell back down again. After a while he gave up trying to get back on his feet and was dragged around the beach for several meters on his stomach!! Luckily he didn't hurt himself, but it was soooo hilarious!! =D

Now we have a turbobar, a harness and a helmet. Especially in very hard wind it's good thing to have those because we aren't that experienced yet (only have the kite for like a month or something). We are prepared now for the hard winds!! =D

[JKS]

Hey Isa .... welcome to the forum

Sounds like your brother was quite lucky not to get badly hurt mate.

I don't mean to be a kill joy but I have to strongly urge you that a turbobar + a harness + helmet + a 4m kite + very hard wind minus experience will still = Kitmare.

The shop you bough the gear from should have made this LOUD AND CLEAR and I am surprised they didn't !!

You cannot prepare yourself for hard winds by simply buying more gear and a bit of padding. You NEED to fly that kite within its range relative to your skill ... 10 - 15 knots would be a good start depending on your weight and fitness. As you grow you will be amazed at the power and unpredictability of the wind and what a dangerous line you are balalancing on now.

.... lots and lots of practice

Take it slowly mate or it will bite ya

[SoutherlyBuster]

Just to hammer it home how important it is to wear helmets, have a read of this article:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/apr/21/cover/

[plummet]

well my kitemare today didn't involve and real danger.

was kiting in the rain so my kite was abit heavy and wet. i crashed it into the sea after a botched up transition and couldn't relaunch it before the waves rolled over it.... then it got hammered by a shore dump and bang. blew a massive hole in the lead edge and bladder....

downer dead kite.

about time for a new kite me thinks. yes i'll repair it but with a couple of repairs on the leading edge its worth less than a pair of used undies.

[cummish]

Years ago had a leash come undone - kite took off down the beach. Had to superman jump to grab the bar. but was being pulled down the beach and could not get onto my feet to stop myself.

Ended up letting the kite go - lucky no-one really about - was lucky enough to have someone grab it as went down the beach.

Ended ok - but could have been terrible

[cummish]

And another one - where my rear line broke and unded up with only front lines on an old kite back in the day - if you ever have a rear line break (well at least in the old kites) you will know how hard it is to hold and control the kite.

[cummish]

One that I have seen others do and this happens all the time.

Guy Kiting on St Kilda beach Melbourne. kite got out of control. guy would not realease the kite - got pulled into the wall leading to the road.

With how easy it is to relaunch a kite these days hopefully people are being more cautious than optimistic regarding control of their kite and the situation.