Just a reminder to keep an eye out for Ebay/Gumtree noobs and, if in doubt, step in and have the chat with them. I was out walking my 1yr old on his trike today. Saw a kite out on the sand at low tide. Got closer I see lots of unsuccessful launch attempts, and it should be flying, there's a decent 8-10kts on the beach. Got closer and I see some stuff that makes me worried. Kite is obviously not pumped even close to firm. Laying flat on sand, no curl. Hot launches dead downwind. Big old C kite too. Launcher is walking on the kite. Up and down, the whole length of it. Repeatedly. Now at this point sun's going down, kid's restless, I've got shoes and long pants on, and these guys are way out. Would have been easy to walk on home, but my conscience got to me. Get out there "Did you buy an ebay kite today mate?"... "Yeah gumtree $100 how did you know?" says old mate wearing a weight lifting belt with a cable tie ring on the front. Apart from the weight belt/cable tie harness the rest of the list is pretty funny too: Bar is about 1m long and thick. No bar ends, lines tied to ends. (must have been about 2003 vintage?) Kite is an old North C, 18m 4 liner. Must be about the 1st gen 4 liner. Crispy new though, bright fluoro orange. Wrist leash. Not hooked up to anything. At all. Kinda tied to the centre of the bar, maybe instead of a chicken loop, because there wasn't one of those. 2 lines only on the bar. When I got there they were connected to front attachment points only - no steering at all. Kite not pumped. And these fellas were confused why it wouldn't fly. Hopefully they'll listen and not come back next week and break a bone. They seemed to take 'the talk' pretty well, decent friendly guys, just clueless. Here's a bonus pic of the little fella amusing himself in a stingray hole while I was giving them the talk.

Hope you are sending an e-mail to every online shop selling gear to who ever has a credit card

Beach is the only place it can work. You can't stop ebay/gumtree/etc and every online store as well, so waste your effort trying? You can stop unsafe behaviour that you see in front of you.

Does a deal like this come with the weights belt or is it extra? If it does come with the weights belt to be used as a harness, and no attached back lines, its pretty obvious that the seller is looking to sell it to a beginer who has no idea about the dangers of flying this kind of kite package. There should be regulations about selling gear that will cause injuries or death, and even close our kite beaches.

bet it was that "SIR ROWDY" bloke trying to be legit

My mate, has had 2 lessons both on 5-7m C-kites. Another m8 gave him a 2006 12m non bridled C-kite and now he has got it in his head that they are the safest and best kites to use an' he won't invest any more cash until he's 'found out if he likes kiting or not' (judged wholly on this ancient beast he plans to get started on). I just call it a ticket to hell but he's too tight to fork out $500 for a second hand bow, delta, hybrid, whatever... Any advice 'regulators' and good mates can come up with, some people can only learn from experience...

ten years on and it still looked new ;thats NORTH for ya. someone film it this weekend there will be a southerly coming ,i might come and watch

Love gumtree deals Dont know what he wants for them, but a tad scary thinking some young bloke with small budget could end up trying to learn on these. mind you quite a few of us did learn on kites like these and are still alive. http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/dunsborough/surfing/kitesurfing-kites-/360440721

Yeah I know, I took some vid of them from the beach, but it's way too shaky and blurry on full zoom, really not worth posting here. Held kid for a while as I talked with them, put him down when he got too wriggly and kept talking, then I look round and he's up to his waist in a stingray hole and it's cold. He was havin fun but it's a fair walk home into the wind. So I just snapped the pic (to get out of trouble with his mum) and scooped him up and practically ran home. Bar looked like this design - found you one. http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/north-11-buster-kitesurfing-kite-bar-and-more/108399496 edit - coulda been a 18m buster for all I know.