Kookouts
Stupidity
Lack of knowledge regarding conditions and weather
Bravado
Poor teaching
Dodge equipment

Bring your comments and tin foil hats...
Go go go

One person shared their kitemare and now it seems acceptable or standard practice to do so. No more accidents (in relation to numbers kiting) but people feel obliged to share.

Not saying good or bad, just saying. Sometimes it's helpful to read the story to be aware for your own safety, other times not.

eppo said..
We also have a generation of iPad, incoherent weaklings, devoid of any sense of personal responsibility and safety of themselves or others, that have very poor developed motor skills (dont believe me check out any high school oval at lunchtime now, it's bloody empty).

As part of that generation i dont believe you. I'm sure the generation older than you were saying the same things about TV and hows its ruining kids physical ability etcetecetc

Really... think about it... now in happy modern times, if you can take your gear down to the beach without an angina, you are fit… and if you can swim 100m without being drawn, you are able

Theoretically, if overnight you put every kiter onto 15 years old gears (two liners… R3 etc), then the overpopulation of the beaches would be resolved in a week…

(Sorry... it was not meant to hurt, bu to awaken to reality...)

I recon its simply more water time due to lots of wind. **** happens more often when theres more people and lots of wind.

Damn I'm becoming a grumpy middle aged man before my Own eyes!!!!

Plummett is is probably close to the mark although more people means you get a greater cross section of the population, and hence we get to my points.

Mrodda...I did a survey/stats assignment with my year 11 class...we surveyed nearly the whole student cohort at the college o what type of sport they play.

of course, football, netball, hocky, soccer scored heavily. But do you know what description produced the largest score was by a significant margin?

NO SPORT AT ALL. In fact it accounted for half the entire school population.

anyhow was probably a large stretch to relate this to kiting accident Increases, but the problem still stands. Just as an example ....

My 8 yr old boy surfs every second day (and through board riders), sails with family friends on the weekend, does advanced swimming squad, triathlons through the tri club, basketball, football, a little gymnastics and even a bit of motor cross once a month on a friends property. We have a trampoline where he learns back and front flips (learns spatial awareness) and if I had my way would also do some martial arts when he's a bit older. Of course he does the obligatory skateboarding and bmx riding at the local skatepark etc...

Im preparing him to be a waterman, with excellent motor skills, swimming and overall body strength and to face some challenging moments through this to prepare him for the envitable kitemare so he has the the right skills and temperment to make the right decisIons.

I even have a rope kiting simulator with pulleys on the outside lines in the shed where he practises jump position, hanging upside down, rotating etc and of course the occasional kite instruction on his uno, but I'm taking it easy with this, plenty of time.

...and then we have the greater cross section of the community mentioned strapping themselves to a kite.....

Those of us who have been kiting 10 years or more learnt on kites that had poor depower, dubious safety systems and would punish you if you did something wrong. You developed a healthy respect for the kite and did not treat it with casual disregard, for fear of your life. You needed a background in ocean sports and a degree of fitness.

Todays kites are much, much safer. This is good, but I don't think many newer kiters have enough respect or understanding of a kite than can potentially kill you if things go wrong.

KIT33R said..
Those of us who have been kiting 10 years or more learnt on kites that had poor depower, dubious safety systems and would punish you if you did something wrong. You developed a healthy respect for the kite and did not treat it with casual disregard, for fear of your life. You needed a background in ocean sports and a degree of fitness.

Todays kites are much, much safer. This is good, but I don't think many newer kiters have enough respect or understanding of a kite than can potentially kill you if things go wrong.

Well said.

Also remember that sooner or later mother nature will kick your arse. No matter how good you are. You will have your arse handed to you on a plate!

All of us who have been kiting for a while have been bitch slapped at one time or another. If you haven't... your time is yet to come.

Some times **** happens.

Some evidence to back up eppo's motor skills claim
www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-09/program-aims-to-improve-basic-motor-skills-in-wa-students/7012126
Mid/Late nov, the temp rose, and the wind really kicked in. that drew out the late starters. Too big a kite, worn/damaged gear gone unloved for 6-8 months and overconfidence probably accounted for a few.

Nice find jase', yeh bit of a worry. Boys started playing cricket with their own made bats (in woodwork) but in one of the quadrangles. I ignored the fact that is not allowed (health and safety bollocks) because I was just happy they were doing something! of course soon enough a female teacher on duty took their bats and balls...asked them to go to the oval...too far apparently. Crickey we used to eat out recess and lunch as we walked to the oval, then it was on and we were invariably late to class.

Problem is this propensity to sit around and 'talk' may suite a lot of the female students but the boys...well they just get up to no good.

Anyone noticed the latest bullying stats...apparently increasing, who knows, some peckerhead at University might want Phd funding.

But a bored boy has potential to be a mischievous boy right...


Yeh ya could be right about the early and windy start to the season.

Funny you mention transport to and from school Harley. A couple of groups actually surveyed the college on this matter as well.

Less than 2% of the cohort rode, skateboarded etc to school. The rest by bus or car. Not sure if these has any statistical relevance on the entire population of school kids (given different geographical limitations and road/path access) but it goes to show you. Hey we don't even have a bike rack at school anymore, it's not needed! Oh I think there is a 4 slot one somewhere (for 4 bikes) rarely has any bike in it.


...and Rad/waveslave, not sure if she was hot (first I heard of it when rad asked), I'm sure the teenage boys weren't too concerned overall given the explicit sexual nature of the photos. Stupid thing to do..crikey I don't even let myself be one on one with a student in the classroom as we are all deviouts until proven otherwise hey...they should have milked it for better marks...



and plummet agreed.



...off the topic does anyone ever accidentally go to the windsurfing forum and just start freaking out, frantically getting out of there!...just happened to me, weird behaviour.

westozwind said..
Some evidence to back up eppo's motor skills claim
www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-09/program-aims-to-improve-basic-motor-skills-in-wa-students/7012126
Mid/Late nov, the temp rose, and the wind really kicked in. that drew out the late starters. Too big a kite, worn/damaged gear gone unloved for 6-8 months and overconfidence probably accounted for a few.

Okay im happy to admit im wrong seeing hard data!

And dont get me wrong eppo, you are right. I think its a fair assumption to make that at the start of the sport the people capable of using the equipment would be of higher skill, and now that its very popular the skill level would follow a broad bell curve distribution. But do you think the overall accident rate has actually increased? (im a newbie so i have no input) Increased safety of equipment, potentially less skilled kiters out there, able to notice accidents around the country/world a lot more due to smartphones/increased internet usage and good old confirmation bias all have an effect here so it would be very hard to say without some data

When ya down our way bro, haven't seen ya crankin up those unhooked moves for a while you crazy bastard.

on the last point...maybe...probably...sh1t we found out how to do it without the quality of lessons they get now on horrible kites.

Hey they are trying to earn a buck and at least someone is getting some instruction. Unlike the dicks who teach their mates who have no clue in the first place! How many times have we seen that!!

I'd like to think most schools are doing the best they can, but they can't minimise the impact of inherent goofballs who are really out of their depth in the first place.

Like anything 99% of kiters are probably good to go, but it's that 1% that fck it up for everyone.

Fck gotta get off here, I'm at it again...

bye.

At 7 billion there are far too many humans in the world. We should thank those simple bastards for gallantly improving the gene pool by removing themselves from it, making the human race just a little but smarter and one less mouth to feed.

Rads said...
Eppo, very much off topic but did the female teacher who freely gave out special photos of herself to students, work at your school?

I lol'd at the above because eppo probably has been sniffing around her at the staff room during lunch break ever since the incident!!!

waveslave said...

Rads said..
Eppo, very much off topic but did the female teacher who freely gave out special photos of herself to students, work at your school?

Was she hot ?

lol.

Shoe size and age pls Wavey?