Good post, Jake. Hope you enjoy the maddness that is "Seabreeze".

Nice post, kitegrab. I'd just like to second the importance of a pre-flight check as this is something that I don't see people doing very often, and it is a lesson that I learned the hard way. Obviously, it's important for everyone, but if you're a newb, as I was when I learned my lesson, it's even more important because it helps familiarise you with your gear and how it works (and pulling that safety a few times before each sesh will help build that muscle memory...). It is also important because as a newb, one is forever crashing their kite, inverting it, pulling safeties, etc..., and the condition of one's gear can change abruptly.

Here are a couple of my own early experiences to drive home the point:

At the end of a lesson, I finally got up and away on my board for about a hundred metres before crashing in a sea of whitewash. When I emerged from the wash, I could hear my kite screaming across the wind window overhead because of a massive tear in the canopy. It turns out that the leading edge had about an 8mm cut in it from a shell, a cut I might have detected with a preflight check, and a cut that exploded into a blowout when my kite hit the water. A day that should have ended on a high note, instead ended with an expensive repair. Lesson learned. I have twice since detected tiny tears in my canopy during pre-flight checks; these were easily fixed.

On another occasion, I tried to drift launch and inverted my kite requiring me to pull my safety and untangle my rat's nest of lines. This happened twice. My next time out, I got into trouble (I can't remember what the trouble was, except that I interpreted it as unsalvageable) and pulled my safety, only to see my kite take off downwind, completely unconnected to me. I yelled out for help, and an instructor turned around and caught it before it could do any damage to anyone or anything. Back on land, I diagnosed the problem: my flagging line had snapped. It had a tiny knot in it, barely enough to notice, but enough to critically weaken the line when the strength of a fully powered kite was placed upon it. Again, a careful preflight inspection of my lines could have prevented what could have been a very dangerous situation for the people downwind of me that day. At a minimum, you should always inspect your lines thoroughly after you've had to untangle a rat's nest of lines...

As with most things, in kitesurfing we learn the most from our mistakes. Hopefully, others can learn from mine and from your wise analogy.

Thanks again, and welcome to Seabreeze...

Jwins,

Thanks for adding a couple great stories! Some good stuff that we can all learn from.

Hi Kitegrab,

Your post is good, and the onus is definitely on the kiter to look after themselves and have all the bases covered. Unfortunately, in most parts of the world, we have some really dumb instructors who do not teach correctly or safely. It is not entirely the kiters fault. I mean, you don't know, what you don't know.

Instructors who think that teaching kiting is about getting people up on the board and planing as soon as possible are a bad joke.

When I hear instructors bragging about how they got a student up and riding in one lesson, I make a mental note to never hire that person and to steer clear of them if I ever see them on the water.

If all instructors focused on the "real" job of teaching students to kite safely and be prepared for any eventuality as well as to be totally self sufficient ie, accept but not rely on others to get them out of sticky situations, we'd have amuch safer sport for everyone.

Until such time, we will see many, many, incidences where people are needlessly hurt or worse.

Message to ALL instructors: Your job is not to teach students how to ride, they will figure that out by themselves as a result of the other stuff you should be teaching them. Your job is to arm them with the knowledge and ability to foresee danger, to act decisively under pressure, unconsciously, and be prepared for anything that may happen when on the water or the beach.

The amount of il/partially trained kiters that come to my school after up to 10 lessons with other schools or instructors, is disgraceful and I am angered to think this happens daily for something so trivial as a fast buck. You know who you are. Shame on you all!

DM

I'd just like to add a few safety points to this discussion and reinforce what has already been said. I'm an IKO instructor, some of these points are questions I am frequently asked by beginners or I incorporate into my lessons.

Know your equipment
Most importantly know your safety, how to use it and when to use it. Practise using it often. Pulling the safety should be second nature, any time a situation arises that could become dangerous your hand should automatically go to the chicken loop release. If you do this you are ready to release if need be.

Pre flight check
Along with damage to equipment as mention above, simple checks like making sure your lines are connected properly and your kite is fully inflated are very important. Recently I've launched a couple of guys who initially had their lines connected incorrectly. One even wanted to proceed with the launch even though I was shouting and waving to tell him his lines weren't right. Simply go to the bar after set up and lift each line individually and you'll see if they are right.

Launch and land safely
Always use someone to assist you launching and landing and make sure they know what they are doing. This is particularly important for beginners who may not be able to control a kite that is released at the wrong time (here is a good example of when to use your safety).
Again recently I've had guys launch for me who have just let go of the kite as I was still walking to position. Luckily it worked out well but all I got was "Oh I thought that was a thumbs up". Obviously he had no idea about launching a kite as the canopy was still flapping, why would you think that was right. If I was just learning it could have ended much worse.
Also as a beginner, if you are going to launch in stronger wind than you have done before, make sure the person launching for you knows this. Discuss with them. Everyone will push their upper wind limit at some point but do so as safely as possible. Go for gradual increases in wind speed, not big jumps. Make sure the helper stays in position after they let go. Slowly bring the kite up, if it feels too strong on the way up bring it straight back down to them. Bottom line, if you have any doubts about if it is too strong for you, don't go.

Where is the safest area in the wind window to fly your kite?
Always asked by beginners. They hear about someone getting lofted and ask, "How do I stop that happening to me?"
This is mainly for on the beach or standing in shallow water.
Simple way to remember it. If you are down low (i.e. standing or walking) keep your kite down low, at around 10 O'clock preferably at the water side if cross or cross-on. This it the best way to prevent being lofted, if you are hit by a gust you will be dragged towards the water instead of up the beach.

If you have been lofted, keep your kite above you at 12 O'clock. Do not pull your safety while in the air. Do not let go of the bar.
Release your safety as soon as you land or even just before, when at a safe height. This will stop you being lofted again.
If you keep your kite above your head you will at least have something above you to slow your fall. If you release in the air you fall like a rock.
The kite has better lift, and therefore slows your descent more, if you keep the bar pulled in, if you let go of the bar or push it away you fall faster.

Know the weather - Look behind you
Learn about the weather, how fronts work and what different types of clouds may mean. Then when you are out kiting look behind you every so often to see what is coming. In general but not always, any clouds moving in will come from upwind. If you see thick dark clouds approaching chances are a squall is coming, probably best to stop for 10-15min to see what happens as it passes. Better to wait it out on the beach than get caught in some strong gusts.
Also as a beginner if you see a whole load of people leave the water in quick succession, it's probably best to follow them, it's unlikely that's it's just a coincidence. Then ask someone why everyone left so quickly.

Wear a helmet
There are a few misperceptions about helmets and why they are apparently useless. They are generally wrong.
1. A helmet won't protect you from a hard hit to a solid object, rocks, wall etc.
Yes a helmet may not stop all injuries but it may mean you end up in a coma rather than dead. So wearing a helmet is going to give you more protection than no helmet.

2.Hitting water doesn't hurt.
Usually landings on the water are quite soft, if you aren't too high, you land the right way or most importantly, if you aren't moving too fast. Landing on water from a height or at speed can be like hitting concrete. So if you lose control in the air and land from a few metres up while being pulled by the kite you could do serious damage.
I have a friend who knocked herself out hitting the water, not doing anything crazy either just hit the wrong way, she was lucky she came round quickly. So the idea that "I can't do any damage so long as I'm in deep water" is rubbish, yes you may not crack your skull but you can still knock yourself out, then drown...

I hope this helps some beginners out and maybe prevents a few accidents. Seems to be far too many of those happening here. There are plenty more points I could mention but this seems pretty long for now, these were the first to spring to mind.