Hi Peeps,

After having a discussion with a friend who happens to be an officer from the Water Police, he mentioned the amount of nuisance caused by rescuing kitesurfers along the coast between Woodies and Pinnaroo, and also the amount of rescues we (AKS) seem to be involved in when it gets windy, we have decided to run a FREE clinic this Sunday morning to teach kiters a few basic safety techniques to try and prevent the amount of people needing or even looking like needing rescuing.

If you are interested, we will be at Brighton near the Cafe at the southern end of the carpark at around 10am and will be happy to do a group demonstration and help individuals learn the methods of self rescue. We will also cover winding your lines safely in the water to facilitate a clean safe rescue.

There are three methods of self rescue and we will run through all of them, as well as be on hand for a while to answer any questions you may have regarding kiting.

We will also cover self rescueing on "bow" kites and improved leash systems.

This will be a free service. If you decide to make a donation we wont stop you, just to help cover costs.

The wind should be offshore anyways so why not come down and sharpen up some old skills or learn some new ones.

Jees, we might even be able to organise a BBQ with a cupla beers if the donations are there, or someone else might like to organise this side of it????


Good winds, let me know what you think.

Darren Marshall

Freakin great idea Darren!

Tell me where Brighton is and i'm there!

(I'm not joking)

ben: southern end of scarborough=brighton. it's at the end of brighton road.

Terrific idea,

I was kiting at Margaret River Main Break a week ago and my spectra line that connects to my front two lines unexpectantly snapped, leaving me out the back with a 23knot SW and 3mswell, needless to say a sticky situation. At about 6pm with sundown expected in about an hour.

Luckily, I had been taught the self rescue technique (never used it before) hauled in my lines, grabbed both wing tips and dragged my way into the Margaret River Mouth Beach safely, kite, board and lines in tact (lines very tangles thought)

Had I not have know this technique the situation would have been much worse with me and my kite being at sea for probably more than an hour with the sun fast dissappearing and then ending up on some reef near Kilcarnup.

Big ups for the self rescue!!

Big ups for buoyancy/impact vest, great for these situations.

Brilliant idea
thanks for giving up some of your time Kitehard.
will certianly try and make it to see,
self rescue is like CPR can never be told enough times.

look foreward to it

i couldn't wait so i did it yesterday and today and don't intend on doing it tomorrow

Re winding lines in in the water the other day I self rescued and wound in excess lines around my board, kept things nice and neat and stopped my board from drifting away. Was much easier to wrap around the big board than the skinny bar. I guess in surf it wouldn't be so good to have the board near the kite ready to rip it to shreds though. Anyone think of other downsides to this one?

For those like myself, stuck in some windless part of Australia outside the south west mecca and unable to attend, a written description (no matter how vaugely worded)would still be warmly received. Darren? Anyone?

why couldn't we have a parallel discussion here on the forum even while the lucky few attend the in person demo - the best bits could be cropped into a topic for the FAQ, along with peoples opinions on the demo day.

hearing people's opinions on the various ways to deal with particular situations (surf, broken lines, flatwater, offshore wind or light wind, etc) could be quite interesting.

Andy

Hey Greame,

Sounds great, any support would be well accepted. I think the Brighton BBQ's would be OK. It sounds like we should have a bit of a crew down there so we are getting really jazzed about it.

To all those that plan on coming, please bring your bar and lines with you. We will probably pair people up and work together at practicing the line rolling technique.

Really looking forward to it and hopefully making a difference.

Good winds to all, see you Sunday at Brighton.

If it works out well, we may do another one at Kitestock!

would it involve doing it out deap or is it just on the beach

Self-Rescue in 5 easy steps.

1. Flag the kite.
2. Wind-up leash line, grab kite.
3. Fold kite, hold wingtip, make a sail.
4. Sail the whole freakin' mess towards the shore. (Smile)
5. Collapse on the beach.


Handy Tip by slave

Thominator,

I guess someone has to be negative.

If you read what Darren is offering it is FREE. He is concerned about safety and unlike the rest of us is getting of his arse and doing something, when he could be taking bookings for kite lessons.

Not everyone has had the advantage of 5 or 6 hours of lessons which cover all safety aspects of kiting.

So let's get behind what Darren is trying to achieve, which is a safer sport for us all.

Cheers,

Ian.

quote:

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Originally posted by kitecrazzzy

i got the kite bit down but what do you attach the board to

---

You clamp the board between your teeth.

Would be great to have stuff like this in Kitestock.

Few instructors sharing handy free tips about safety, technique etc etc ...wonderful.
Sorry didn't make it today had a suprise amount of stuff to do...

Hey All,

Thanks to the crew that made the effort to come on down to Brighton today to learn some new self rescue methods and enjoy a beautiful day in the sun. Many thanks also go to Greame and Alex of WAKSA for supplying a few drinks as well as bangers and bread rolls for the bar-B.

Must also thank my instructors Ed and Paul for donating their time and efforts to help out. Final thanks to Ian Young for coming down and contributing to the day with some Flysurfer/foil self rescue techniques.

On the whole, I think it was a positive thing and would be happy to do the same again at Kitestock for those that couldn't make it today. Cheers everyone for making safety a priority in your kiting.

Respect

Look forward to doing version II at Kitestock.....brilliant!

Good nuking conditions for flying today