A knife perhaps.

i have come across this situation twice on the offshore side at woodys
the first time the person had their leash wrapped around the end of their bar making the kite loop like mad fortunately i was able to ride next to the person being dragged and talk them through pulling their QR on their leash fully releasing their kite. i then rode off down wind and recovered their kite and they swam in. i think they might have been freaking out a bit and all they needed was someone there to calmly talk to them through first finding their QR on their harness and then to pull it.

the second time the person (not the same person) had a line caught around the end of the bar and they were laying on their back getting dragged through the water with their head above the water only about 50% of the time. i had spoken to this guy on the beach only a few mins before he went out and i knew his english wasn't that great so i rode up behind him and tried talking to him but got no response so i had to ride right up to him and nearly run him over so i could reach down and pull his QR for him. his kite fell in the water he got his breath back and got the kite back up in the air and dragged back in.

both of these situations could potentially have been fatal and easily avoided if people would just familiarise them selves with the QR and not hesitate to use it!


if the kite is looping i would never recommend trying to grap the lines cos there is just way too much power and even if you could grab them i dont think you would ever be able to hang onto them and you would just cut your hands realy badly and i dont think cutting the lines is a very realistic idea either because everything is just moving way too quickly with way too much power. i think the only way out is to release the kite even trying to take the harrness off is a better idea than trying to grab or cut the lines. but the best way to avoid a situation like that is to not let it happen in the first place always have a working QR on your chicken loop and your leash and check it offten!!

I think grab onto the guy and try help him hold down the kite, if he hasn't already lodged himself in a tree

My bridle broke, kite looped, and I was dragged through the water really fast but smoothly, torso out of the water. Pulled the QR and self rescued. Still got a couple of nasty cuts on my hands somehow. It would be a different story if you couldn't QR or were submarining.

A windsurfer recovered my board for me which was floating crossshore (never got to thank him either)

H Sci,

We have (Australian Kiteboarding School) run free self rescue sessions in the past and would be happy to put on another one for anyone caring to come on down and have a chat and go back over some fundamentals of SR and safety.

Last time we did it was in conjunction with WAKSA at Brighton and was focused on Self Rescue only, they put on a BBQ and we had about 25-30 people show up. We can cover 4 line "C", 5 line, Hybrid and bow kites. I'd be happy to put together a plan to cover safety and SR.

We'd be stoked to do it again once the weather clears up a bit and it gets a bit warmer, like you said, just before the season starts. We'd be happy to show what to inspect on your gear prior to season start, especially when so many riders will be coming out of the winter and dragging kites and boards out of the garage that haven't been used for 6 -8 months.

Maybe if Puppet can contact us and we can organise dates if there is enough interest. I'm happy to come down for as few as 3 or 4 people.

Any takers?

Good winds,

i'm a taker on the reeducation I know three or four guys who would be keen to come along as well, since they only really started kiting late last year.

It also sends the right message to the community that we are a resonsible lot.
the last thing we need is a fatality along our coast, either the personal tragedy of it. plus the following respercussions that councils may feel obliged to act.

lets do it

Yep, i will tag along for that one.

sbray said...

Andrash said...


Any suggestion what's the best knife out there and where to buy it?

The hook knives offered here may fit the bill

http://www.terminalsports.com.au/catalog/index.php?cPath=169_170

Regards
the fossil

Jack the ripper all the way!!! I carry two of these and one smaller steel one when doing CRW (flying canopies Into each other on purpose)first one to drop second to cut entagling lines Dont go the cheep plastic ones they WILL break and rinse out aftyer session and check before!