hi guys/gals
was hoping i could start this topic for the beginners like myself.
could you please list your worst wipeout/accidents how they happened , what happened and how you could have avoided your nasty experience (if possible) perhaps they just couldnt be avoided ?
thanks in advance

Hehe great stories guys keep um coming ! educational too !(most of them that is !)

Yeah good one Macca. He appologised about his caps lock being stuffed and you still roused on him. Your sooooo negative. hahahaha.

My biggest mistake was flying the kite at 12 in a massive squall. Fly it lower at about 30 degrees in high wind. its at the edge of the power window so doesnt have much kick, and if things go wrong you can just drop it. Unlike at 12 when the gust comes in and you get taken 10 metres in the air and thrown into the prickle bushes like a rag doll.
Won't do that again.

my worse accident was not wearing a condomn
and how i could have avoided it was not have drunk soooo much beer

My worst? putting up too big a kite.

Classic example of being a compete knob-head...

I was changing quivers, didnt have my mid size, thought I would go big, check me out, blah blah blah. There were/are no excuses for saying 'no, its too windy'.

The result was a 30 metre skid up a shingle beach on one foot and one shin trying to get a purchase on the ground before I popped the safety. I lost alot of skin from one leg and left a fekking huuuuuge mark on the beach.

I had the biggest slam in 5 years of kiting at melville recently, going for a big kite loop in high wind and getting it butt-achingly wrong (the kite hit the water before me), but the worst thing was that no-one saw it.

I was pretty sore the next day, but it goes to show that a really bad wipeout on water does no where near as much damage as getting it mariginally worng on land - let that be a lesson.

Ha ha ha - Had just learnt backrolls the week before (still kinda getting them) in 22kts. 2nd time I tried to do backrolls it was more like 27kts and flying my Yarga 9m as a 4 line instead of 5th (bloody horrible).

Stuffed up the backroll bigtime when sending the kite - kite was far too quick - and ended up unintentionaly kitelooping and getting slammed big time down onto the H2O back/kneck 1st then 2 more lofts and slamns before the kite ditched (there is a god). Ended up feeling like a jellyfish meets an outboard motor!! I was happy just to bob around for ages with what was left of my impact vest (shredded down one side) keeping me up.

Groan... a little less envelope pushing and more caution next time it's 25+.

Hanging out to try again with the 9m as it is now tuned nicely on 5th and changed to the "slower" turning connectors... amazing the differance a few tweaks make. Very nice kite now.

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Originally posted by extreme

I've got this really neat trick I learnt in Durbin, where I land my "Red Bull" Naish on a 1 metre strip of grass at St.Kilda in a futile attempt to keep her pristine and pack it up, the benifit of which is resale value. Unfortunately one day I was caught unawares by a freak gust sending my pristine kite across a bike path almost decapitating a peskey cycler, who in turn crashed into two parked cars. I of course offered my assistance and asked why he rode into my pristine kite explaining that he would he would have to cover the loss on resale. After setting him straight I put on my bike riding gear over my wetsuit and showed a clean set of heals on my scooter whilst wearing my red bull helmet, thus avoiding any further confrontation. P.S I do not resemble Mr Baldy.

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Don't joke. I felt bad about that

[}:)]Always good too hear about KL's gone wrong. That why i'll never try one

[}:)]I'm one of those eediots that the fella above forgot too give limits so i normally brake myself than relize i went too far

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Originally posted by Blownaway

Dont try new tricks in shallow water....just dont,Trust me on this

Accidental Kite loop during a back roll in 1 ft of water = 7 pins an titanium strapping holding heel together an a whole lot of other dramas.

Beware the shallow water

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quote:

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Originally posted by TheMedic

Yeah good one Macca. He appologised about his caps lock being stuffed and you still roused on him. Your sooooo negative. hahahaha.

My biggest mistake was flying the kite at 12 in a massive squall. Fly it lower at about 30 degrees in high wind. its at the edge of the power window so doesnt have much kick, and if things go wrong you can just drop it. Unlike at 12 when the gust comes in and you get taken 10 metres in the air and thrown into the prickle bushes like a rag doll.
Won't do that again.

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In all fairness to Macca i edited my message with the capslock apology after he complained.

Beware the Prickle Bush !........beware the orange squash on the keyboard !

I've experienced first hand what can happen when someone doesn't expect to end up where they actually do after doing a trick and I never want to go through it again....there were only 3 of us in a big area and I had lines caught all around me from two kites in strong winds.

The best thing you can do is be an actively safe kiter by keeping you're eyes and ears open....be aware of your surroundings, the conditions and your ability.

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Yes Mum.

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Ummm hangtime hasn't anyone ever told you mum knows best... you need a smack or time-out. This post's precise aim is to share cautionary tales.

Caela's spot on... sounds like a freaky situation that one Caela. I know they are super daggy but I wear a Bump n Jump vest that has a knife inbuilt... bl00dy hope I never have to use it though!

I should have added to my post above that I only ever "go for it" when there is heaps of getting slammed about the place area around me...

The accidental kiteloop I punished myself with probably had me covering 50m in multiple directions (thought it was never going to end) The saving grace was I went for it because I was 100m from everything... not just the shore.

Let's face it there's no shortage of "go for the impressive trick on the shore for the ladies" crew out there... maybe they should just go parachuting with an ex WWII chute to speed the process up and not risk anyone else...

Sorry to hear about your stump Blownaway.. that is certainly a hard lesson learnt.

No probs Caelah

Any cuts or slices?

Having been held under water, with both arms trapped to my bod by kelp/weed, for sometime, surfing in Portsea as a nipper, the thought of the same whilst being cut up/strangled freaks me right out!!

Spot on about sacrificing the gear... How did you get out? Lotsa macaraena/twist dancing hydro stylee?

Go the bump n jump I reckon. The knife is up on the shoulder also (tops spot) rather than reaching around to the back of yuor harness, which may not be poss.

At very least, by wearing a bump n jump, no-one will think you are a poser!! LOL Perhaps an incurable dagg but hey... I like to getfunky after all... You should live life dancing like no-one is watching I reckon... "If it works I will wear it" may be written on the cardboard box I am cremated in...

Beware the one footer!
The only kitesurfing injuries that have had me off the water and off work were both one footer related.
Bizarrely just like Blownaway, the latest was from an Accidental Kite loop during a back roll in 1 ft of water, with one foot out and one in the strap = twisted ankle, swollen and bruised, took a few weeks to get better.
The other one was a bad landing, on my arse with the board in front of me, one foot in, the other heel hit the board, hurt like hell, turned into a nasty sore, x-rays didn't turn up anything but I'm pretty sure I fractured my heel.
I spose the lesson is, your board is probably the hardest thing around you when you're on the water, careful or it'll bite ya.

quote:

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Originally posted by Caelah

I've experienced first hand what can happen when someone doesn't expect to end up where they actually do after doing a trick and I never want to go through it again....there were only 3 of us in a big area and I had lines caught all around me from two kites in strong winds.

The best thing you can do is be an actively safe kiter by keeping you're eyes and ears open....be aware of your surroundings, the conditions and your ability.

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That must have been a serious scare Caelah ...i would have been cutting lines like Sweeny Todd at a Hippi convention!

So its be Radical but responsable !

Yeah it was a scare despite no-one being hur. At that point I'd been kiting for 3 years and nothing like that had happened before....so consider myself lucky!

The only consequence was that it took me a good couple of months to get a bit of confidence back, and whenever i heard someone bash their kite on the water I was as quick as a whippet to find out if it was anywhere near me. Lets just say it helped take some of the fun out of the sport!

Am all good now though and if I can get my paws on a wee knife I wouldn't hestitate to start slicing and dicing the lines