Saw a guy yesterday trying to fly a very old Slingshot kite, approx. 10m, without inflating the leading edge. He was launching it like a foil and was not wearing a harness, just hanging onto the bar.
The kite kept folding up and, as you'd expect, was unflyable.

I got there just before he gave up and wondered off so I couldn't quiz him on what he was trying to do.

Ha Ha
Wonder if it was my mate.
Regardless of knowing a number of people who have been playing with kites for years my friend decided he knows more than any of us and goes and buys a "top brand" kite for $250.
No harness
No lessons
No clue!
I told him it would be a pice of sh!t and either fall to bits or kill him as soon as he tries to launch it.
He knows better tho and I am just scared he will be better than me
Ahhh bless
Come on Darwin, do your thing.
And before i get told I should be helping him, I am no teacher and what I do know I have tried to impart with no success. I actually think if I do teach him anything he then may know enough to become dangerous to others and himself!

1. Newbie on the beach in his robocop outfit. Got the kite all set up and is trying to show his 5 year old how to launch him. The kid is upwind. Dad is straight downwind.

I step in and take the kite from the kid ... and wait while dad is giving me thumbs up to go. I hang onto the kite and smile at him.

Eventually I suggest he might like to walk himself upwind. I also give him a lecture on children and kites and kite lines and stuff.

2. Ethnic bloke 1 holding onto the harness of ethnic bloke 2. Crash the fully powered kite in the middle of a group of women and toddlers. I suggest they might want to move up the beach. Why? I point to the people they almost clobbered. "Is ok. Is my family." "That makes it ok to crash your kites onto them and kill them?"

3. Kiter sets up and asks for a launch. The bar looks a little odd but there wer eno tangles so ... I let go of the kite and it flies whoomp into a tree (Naish kite, not Cabrinha). We get kite out and he sets up again. I am about to launch him and notice he is holding his bar backwards ... again. I tell him and he gives the bar a full 360 rotation. I put the kite down and go and explain the problem to him ...

4. Lend a trainer kite to a guy at work who wants to take up kiting. He has it for a couple of days and says he's learned all there is to know and is going to buy a full kit, have one lesson, and go kiting. Says he was watching the guys down the beach and it looks really easy. Guy is fat, middled aged, ... Contradicts me when I give him advice based on 10+ years kiting.

I watched a guy crash his kite on the beach. He flagged it to the safety, and it came to rest directly down wind from him on the sand. He then detached himself from the bar, and before I could shout "nooooo" he ran straight towards his kite, IN BETWEEN the lines.

To be fair, he was nearly at the kite by the time it happened, but, surely enough, the kite powered up, and lifted of the ground. It blew quickly down wind, dragging the bar behind it, which hit the hapless kiter square behind the knees, flipping him over in a full backward summersault. Classic!

I seen a dude launch a powered 8m kite using a leather belt as a harness. It didn't end well when the old leaking kite deflated enough to let the kite invert. Kite then crashed into the deck causing a LE blowout!

I was kiting in Saudi in half moon bay near Al Khobar. Came out of the water to get a drink of water (45 degree temps will do that to you). While on land, a local friendly Saudi came over and started chatting to me asking about how it works. Then he decided to pull on one side of the bar to see what happened. Me + kite loop + face plant into sand with old school no depower 12m c kite in 20 knots = very unhappy little vegemite. If it wasn't for the death penalty in Saudi I would have considered beating him to death with my kiteboard.

... there was a bloke who used his jeans belt as a harness! We nicknamed him Ace!

Ace would launch his 2003 Airush Flow dead downwind,,, hot launching !

Not only that, Ace would launch just in front of a bunch of people having a pick nick which was just in front of a cliff and rocks !

Don't think Ace will be around for long!!

cheers,

Robbie

A guy was trying to self launch his hold C kite on the beach. but it wasn't launching. i went over to help. He'd filled the entire LE with sand on the inside skin... hehehe the kite weighed 50kg.

SpawnofFossl said...

LOL. These people remind me of what I do all day. Technical support for internet. You would be suprised how stupid human beings can be.

Had one customer who was asked to close down all the windows on the screen.

The customer runs around the house and closes all of their windows and then gets back on the phone and asks "so how will that help the internet?"

did you ask them if they still had the box ?

GreenPat said...

Saffer said...

I was kiting in Saudi in half moon bay near Al Khobar. Came out of the water to get a drink of water (45 degree temps will do that to you). While on land, a local friendly Saudi came over and started chatting to me asking about how it works. Then he decided to pull on one side of the bar to see what happened. Me + kite loop + face plant into sand with old school no depower 12m c kite in 20 knots = very unhappy little vegemite. If it wasn't for the death penalty in Saudi I would have considered beating him to death with my kiteboard.

So you were prepared to sentence someone to death, but not accept a death sentence yourself. Not very 'eye-for-an-eye' of you...

I kind of considered the kiteloop on an old Caution kite as the eye for an eye part.

Ha Ha, I haven't even tried kiting yet and I can see no logic to those. No wonder some people give it a bad rap.