Cheers to everyone who gave me a hand today!

What happened

My chicken loop bust while doing a small jump, which pulled the bar out of my hands and my safety leash connection point got ripped out of the my harness (there's a bit whole and ripped stitching in my harness now). My pink Bandit went down and started getting blown down wind of where I was (I think I was near the back and upwind of most of the kiters when this happened).

Some kind guy went and grabbed my bar (thanks dude!) - I didn't realise how hard it is to swim with a helmet and impact vest, but eventually I swam down wind to him and my kite and re-attached my safety leash to my spreader bar.

Unfortunately my kite had kind of inverted in the water and was catching a lot of wind and pulling me downwind with quite a bit of power - so I couldn't wind in the lines. The same guy took my board to the beach (thanks!). Someone else gave me a hand and flipped my kite back the right way. I managed to get the kite flying again (after having to sort out the line attached to the safety leash line which had gotten around my feet).

My chicken loop was stuffed so the kite was fully powered. - But it wasn't flying well at all (I couldn't really move it any higher than 2 o'oclock) - (turns out one of the struts had burst) and lines were also inside out by now. I managed to body drag towards the beach - but was heading towards the wooden pylons of the swimming area. The kite went down again and this time I couldn't get it launched again. So I was about to self rescue - but I was being blown straight towards the pylons and the rock groyne.

Fortunately Andrew appeared and towed me and my kite to shore. Which was pretty tough! I held on to his harness and I'm sure I'm 3 cm taller after being stretched between the power of his kite and the drag of my kite in the water. But we got there and got my kite to beach.

I'm really appreciative of everyone's help. A good number of the guys and girls popped over when I was in the water to check things were okay too!. Thanks to you all.

Yeah, cheers for that Christelle. Was that you in the pink rash vest and the blue kite (was it an F-One)?

If that awful thing happened to an experienced kitesurfer like Christelle, makes you think there is not much hope for a beginner and it's not very encouraging either.

Damn, this sport is brilliant, but so frickin dangerous.

Good winds,
Mike

Hurrah said...

Jono,
You're welcome.

When we're out at Brighton, you can always depend on someone to help.

I always make a conserted effort to look out for and assist downed kiters.
You never know when you will get into trouble.

I was the one that flipped your kite and towed you by the way.

On a side note, all the best to Christelle who was injured recently in Vic.
Hopefully we'll see you back on the water soon.

All the best.

Great to hear that everyone helps each other. Hopefully i see you guys out there this summer. Glad everything ended well...