Gee I would hate to be supplying the beers for that untanglement.
I'd be curious to know who was the first to drop out the sky. From my experience ocean rodeo's construction is awesome but at a price, they are heavy in comparison to anything else I've flown.
They are good grunty kites, but not much fun in gusty/patchy conditions, but then again which kites are.
hey, where did u get these photos? one of my mates takes photos of kiters in San Fran, dunno if he was racing or not..... they all ride ocean rodeo over there. that is a treacherous peice of water they are kiting there, sooo many ships go in and out of there... I have ridden under the golden gate bridge gate in SF when i was travelling and stacked it out there bad and was ****ting myself, luck a fisherman came and picked me up becuase i was getting washed outta sea at 4 knts. anyway looks like a mad tangle haha unlucky for them ....
A reminder of an inherent difference between us and other sail-powered craft. The length of kite lines is always going to mean we'll have additional dimensions to safety and right-of-way issues. I suppose rules for competition right-of-way are evolving but having kiters skilled enough to observe these rules in the heat of the battle is surely just as big a hurdle.
Starting lines with 40 or so windsurfers can be crazy enough, but at least collisions rarely effect more than a few craft, and they can generally recover quickly.
I can imagine a tangle like this putting an end to racing for the day by the time it's all sorted out. The safety issues must multiply exponentially with each extra kite and set of lines in the mix; I shudder to think. I'm generally not a fan of pfd's but they might be a relief whilst getting that mess sorted.
Any news on how they recovered and what the toll was?
Oddly the local kiteshop owner was the 1st kite to get tangled.. apperently he has now retired on the proceeds after selling 30 new kites in one weekend.
Another theory was that all was fine until an P&O ocean cruiser went past and the potted tree on board leapt overboard and made straight for the Cabrinha. Cabrinhas and trees ey?
Bet this post gets a lotta laffs from the poledancing fraternity. Theyd be thinking christmas has come early this year.
I reckon a lot of the guys crashing there would have been done so on the power of suggestion. Its like when you are in a sailing race and you see one guy capsize, suddenly everyone has capsixing on the minds and 3 or 4 more pop over!
Well, at least with the number of homeless dudes in San Fran there would be no shortage of untanglers to choose from
