I do think it's great and I really appreciate that we can tap our heads and have an available kiter help safely land our kites but why do so many people immediately kick a bucket full of sand on the canopy like a dog excitedly burying his bone??

Unless it's over about 25 knots its totally unnecessary and only causes wear and stretching of the canopy. Its especially annoying when the kite is wet..

Is it that inconvenient to ask?

Small price to pay, just wrap your lines up then remove the sand.

would rather have sand on my kite than kites blowing across the beach. Although when landing a mate I usually wait with my foot securing their kite until they can secure it.

Agreed, unnecessary unless there's a lot of wind or uneven ground.

Mostly I use my board on the leading edge to keep it down. I sometimes wonder if wax is detrimental to the material.

I usually look over to the person for whom I've landed a kite and ask with a shoveling motion of the hands if they want sand on their kite.

If they're not looking I put sand on for safety reasons.

How bout....when its windy, I land your kite and I put my foot on it waiting for you...dont start messing around down there with your bar and lines, board, looking at the ocean, chatting etc etc

immediately after Ive landed your kite RUN up to your kite (with bar, lines, board - no need to detach first) and make sure your kite is secure before you start messing around with everything.

I dont want sand on my clean but wet hands

As I said I really appreciate the land and fyi i've launched and landed my fair share of kiters as I almost always hang around to watch and learn after my session.

Yep right on guys, land kite, signal using a shovelling motion or wait a few seconds for owner to rush up to kite and decide whether or not to put board or harness over the leading edge.

Agreed, if the kite owner is distracted, incredibly slow, stuffing around or not paying attention then sand it up for safety reasons.

Totally safe, totally easy!

Putting sand on your kite is likely to increase its life, not decrease it. It reduces the flapping of the material which is probably the main deteriorating factor.

If the sand is wet from receding tide or beach is busy with bathers etc, I tend to catch the kite and flip it upside down taking a few steps towards the pilot to take tension out of the lines and then hand the kite to them to do whatever the fook they want to do with it- put sand on it, leave it on the beach to flap away, make a little sun-shelter/ wind break out of it. Some folk are understandably anal about getting gritty wet sand on their wet kite prior to them packing up.

What pisses me off is people who think their Hulk Hogan in the WWF and body slam your kite into the ground after they catch it for you.

Noobs pack on the sand!

Don't forget that if it's blowing 20 knots or more a pile of dry sand can quickly blow off a kite leaving the kite vulnerable to lifting off. Put your board on it or a bag of sand in strong conditions.

Did someone say 'bag of sand'?

Taurus said...

Why don't you stop being lazy and self land.

I've seen an incident when a self land went pear shape and took off another kite few meters downwind. It wasn't pretty. The lesson: self land only when noone is around to catch your kite, and there is at least a couple of line length downwind space.
I haven't heard a case when fine sand on the kite would have caused excessive wear. Of course it is different on a rocky beach.