Not sure if this is been covered but let's hear all the good / bad kitesurfing experiences that you've experienced.

Here's mine....

WORST EXPERIENCE
It actually happened on the beach not on the water. I had just arrived at the beach and was pumping up my kite. Next minute I got taken out from behind from what literally felt like I got hit by a car. Then I was dragged down the beach for about 20 meters. It was another kiter who lost control of his kite on the beach. After we somehow separated, he continued down the beach out of control and took out another 2 kites in the sky. He hit me directly in the mid/lower spine. I got hurt pretty bad. Luckily I was wearing my harness otherwise I would probably be in a wheelchair now. The harness shielded the impact and protected my spine. The impact was so hard that still caused damage though.

SCARIEST / FUNNIEST
I was kiting towards the beach in a nor'easter. I saw a power boat approaching perpendicular to me and travelling pretty quick. There were about 5 guys in the boat and from their looks you wouldn't want to mess with them. There was no chance of collision as they were travelling too quickly. As the boat was nearly in front of me I saw the guy on the front left passenger side pull out what looked like a real gun and point it at me. I was about 25 meter away from the line the boat was travelling. My heart dropped. Without thinking too much I dropped my kite down towards their heads. I still remember their faces when they looked up...Priceless!!!! They sh** bricks. The guy dropped the gun and the others nearly fell out of the boat.

Scariest

Teaching my brother to kite.

Funniest

Teaching my brother to kite.

Scariest:

Cape town, 3 to 4 metre waves 500M offshore, very sharky waters on a 10M ~25 knots, in a wave with kite too low, kite gets caught by previous wave and breaks on it, me getting flown off the board, kite all messed up impossible to relaunch, waves pulling me under every 5 seconds, release safety but stuck in the lines somehow, kite starts loops of death. sending me flying off the waves towards the shore, too strong and too often for me to release the kite completely and water is full off sharks... kite bringing me back to the beach like a rag doll... kite crashes on the beach and stays there! hallelujah ****ing lucky I managed to walk to it and secure it, just a few rips in the canopy...

Perth: bridle breaks near the light at pinnas on first tack... swim back to shore in a bout two hours end up on whitfords beach just after the firsts shark attacks of last year...

Funniest:

As an instructor, watching your newbies messing it up and getting airtime, scary but yeah funny too...

Scariest:

seeing the guy with the 2 broken ankles at Quinns Rocks. Those pics still shock me.

Funny

not kitesurfing but landboarding in London

my main land kiting location was frequented by Pikeys on trail bikes one of there favorite tricks was ragging it through the setting up area and as a result destroying the grass surface, sets of lines and tearing out bridal points etc . . . .time and time again
these guys were world class f**k heads

anyway it was blowing about 20 knots or so and one of the flyers was landing his frenzy and securing it to the goal post as he usually did . . .
One of these regular knobs came out of the trees ripping accross the setting up area on his trail bike, my mate pulled on the centre lines of the frenzy launching the kite with the chicken loop still attached to the goal post
the bike rider must have been doing about 60kph when he hit the lines at chest height and was ripped clean off the bike . . .

was so funny to watch . . . and they steered clear of our lines from that point on

Plummet said..

There has been so many.

Silliest.
solo 40 knots double to triple head on rocks and boulders inshore. had to body drag for 30m mins to get my board back through 6ft high white wash amongst the boulders. Very stupid.

lofted into a fence post landboard. kite powered up snapped the post clean off and center punched me straight in the head. had a helmet on but still split my head option. But wait theres more. it was an electric fence. yep I was also being electrocuted while blood spirted out my head like a splatter movie.

most memorable and also very silly.
24hr landboard distance world record. done in a 30-40 knot storm.... that was simply insane. insane....

40km down winder in 5m swell + 25-30 knots. massive waves, epic epic day.

various big boosting sessions aahhhhhh. gliding!

boosting off sand dune.

A long session in the waves. head to double head perfect walls. boost on the way out rip up the wave on the way in epic stuff.

Funniest?
hands down. tennis ball tag landboarding and buggying. stupidly fun.

Jeeze Plummet you don't do anything in halves...

zarb said..



Jeeze Plummet you don't do anything in halves...

been at it since 05 so had sine time to amass some silliness!.

my all time funniest moment landing my first kiteloop in Ecuador and on the beach im riding parallel with all the girls are waving. feeling very pleased till I look down and see my boardshort are round my knees and the water is not that warm ;-(