Injured myself on Saturday at sandy point while Kiteboarding. Conditions were very strong probably 25 knots directly on shore easterly. Not ideal beginner conditions and in hindsight should have avoided but after driving 3 hours to get there it was a tough decision. I arrived there around 10am and I was the first Kiteboarder there. I waited for about an hour until other Kiteboarders arrived. I had an assisted launch and off I went into the water with my board. I walked to waist deep water about 30 meters in from shore.

Waterstarted to my left I got up first time and was Kiteboarding for about 150 meters I quickly reached the beach as it was on shore wind and I cannot ride up wind yet. So I slowed down stopped walked to waist deep water about 30 meters from shore and waterstarted to my right this time same thing I got up and was Kiteboarding for about 150 meters until I ran out of water reaching the shore. I repeated this exercise for about 90mins going left and right.

At this stage I was feeling really happy as I felt I was making progress particularly with right foot leading. The incident happened shortly after when I misjudged my approach to shore and I was going way too fast I ran out of water and tripped on the beach at speed I hit my head on the beach did a 360 flip and landed heavily on my chest most the impact was on lower left hand side of rib area. I released the safety line immediately and lay motionless for a few minutes on the beach.

Help came from a guy who I was talking to prior to going out he came and secured my kite and check to see if I was ok. I was able to get up however in a lot of pain from lower left rib area and it was painful to breath I was worried I may had fractured a rib. So I packed my stuff and went back to camp site to rest.

Next day I went to emergency they took an X-ray and doctor tells me with 90% accuracy there is no break or fracture but will be confirmed by specialist tomorrow. I was very lucky that I had been wearing an impact vest otherwise the outcome would have been very different.

Lessons learned are:
1. Understand the conditions you are going out in
2. Never kite alone and always speak to someone before you go out particularly if you are kiting in new place
3. Always wear your protective gear impact vest and safety helmet
4. If you can't avoid riding in directly on shore condition body drag as far away from shore as possible for water start and slow down well before you reach the shore.
5.Share your experience with others

Also trying to explain what kiteboarding is to doctors and nurses is not a fun exercise.

What size kite did you have ?

ive heard of plenty of injuries occurring due to beginners and intermediates kite surfers get to the beach with a suitable forecast. But the conditions are windier than forecast so they often think they are pumping up the right kite for the conditions, and they don't have a smaller kite anyway. This happened to me and I was lucky to only get bruised feet.

A good mate has just just bought a 12 metre and a board. Refused to buy a smaller kite. So I just gave him my 10 metre spare kite until he can get one.

Maybe kite schools and the IKO need to research the root cause of the injury's that occur. ??!

my 2 sense.

acitta said..
Hey I arrived after this happened and think I spoke to you for a bit, but didn't realise the extent of what happened. Plenty of very experienced kiters have come unstuck at sandy point so don't get disheartened. It's pretty gusty at the best of times and Saturday was no exception so you did well to get up and riding. Will hopefully see you again on calmer days!

Appreciate the support I will definitely go back there when my skill level improves beautiful part of the world.

geordieboy said..
where's Sandy point
think we have all hit the beach hard at some point unlucky bud

Thanks mate. Sandy point is in south gippsland victoria near wilsons promontory national park it is about 3 hours drive from melbourne.

Got 'rag dolled' by a 6ft wave last week. Let go of the bar and in five seconds, put one end of the bar through the center lines twice.

Kite looped 8 or more times and took me back to the beach quickly. I thought my hook was caught on one side of the bar. Looked at my bar and even if I released it wouldn't do anything, other than move me further away from the bar.

chuck it or sail it? Got it to 12 20m from the beach and looked down at my bar, lol- knot around depower and safety line.

so pulled the donkey dick out and thought I was going to watch a kite fly away.

On the beach I put the bar through the center lines once, and again. Fixed.

good wind, waves. Straight back out.

simon78 said..
Got 'rag dolled' by a 6ft wave last week. Let go of the bar and in five seconds, put one end of the bar through the center lines twice.

Kite looped 8 or more times and took me back to the beach quickly. I thought my hook was caught on one side of the bar. Looked at my bar and even if I released it wouldn't do anything, other than move me further away from the bar.

chuck it or sail it? Got it to 12 20m from the beach and looked down at my bar, lol- knot around depower and safety line.

so pulled the donkey dick out and thought I was going to watch a kite fly away.

On the beach I put the bar through the center lines once, and again. Fixed.

good wind, waves. Straight back out.

That sounds really scary it's amazing you were able to stay calm and troubleshoot/fix your bar in a few seconds.

Never kite in onshore winds until you are experienced and competent. This is how most serious accidents usually happen. Especially in conditions like you went out in gusty 25 odd knots.
I've seen even experienced people end up bouncing off cars in a car park.

I commend you for sharing and learning from this experience mate. So glad you're ok and well done on quick releasing the power and kite control. Actually, that's quite amazing for a beginner.
One thing that I always tell my students is to never trust the BOM reports or wind reports as gospel. By the time you get to the beach (and in 3 hours winds change dramatically), the winds are completely different. Different direction and strength. I recommend a wind meter as essential kit with your kite gear. Nothing beats actual wind readings on the beach itself. Wind guides on the web are purely that, a guide and never the actual. Good winds.

Great share Orubaie, it can be a tough decision to post an incident story and wear the inevitable, I commend you. This advice helps others learn.

I recall fatigue being a contributing factor to several minor errors of judgement and I'd suggest that 90mins may be about the time when the body & mind need a break when building skills in the early stages of kiting.

Early on, I would make sure I landed my kite after an hour, have a soft drink or water and eat something. Spend 10-20mins onshore, stretch, relax then hit it again for an hour.

All the best
??

raggedflyer said..
Great share Orubaie, it can be a tough decision to post an incident story and wear the inevitable, I commend you. This advice helps others learn.

I recall fatigue being a contributing factor to several minor errors of judgement and I'd suggest that 90mins may be about the time when the body & mind need a break when building skills in the early stages of kiting.

Early on, I would make sure I landed my kite after an hour, have a soft drink or water and eat something. Spend 10-20mins onshore, stretch, relax then hit it again for an hour.

All the best
??

Thank you. In this particular session I was feeling quite good I did not feel fatigued. However in the previous sessions I may have pushed harder as I was reluctant to leave the water as I did not want to go through the process of landing and launching my kite again.

As a beginner it is intimidating to launch/land your kite for a couple of reasons. Firstly you feel uncomfortable (butterflies in the stomach) feeling because you are too worried something would go wrong while launching. Secondly when you are new to the sport you don't know anyone and everyone around you seems to be in groups you might find it intimidating to ask for help. What I have learnt and experienced is that everyone is generally willing to you help out. If you are a beginner reading this don't be afraid to ask for help and when you get to the beach spend 10mins having a look around talk to people and a great conversation starter is "Hello, what size kite do you think I need?". After a while you start to see the same faces over and over and things get easier.

So back to the main point for the sessions where I pushed myself and I was fatigued I did not gain any progress in fact I was getting frustrated things start to get worse. And for the sessions where I actually took a break had something to eat and drink I made progress.

Orubaie said..
Injured myself on Saturday at sandy point while Kiteboarding. Conditions were very strong probably 25 knots directly on shore easterly. Not ideal beginner conditions and in hindsight should have avoided but after driving 3 hours to get there it was a tough decision. I arrived there around 10am and I was the first Kiteboarder there. I waited for about an hour until other Kiteboarders arrived. I had an assisted launch and off I went into the water with my board. I walked to waist deep water about 30 meters in from shore.

Waterstarted to my left I got up first time and was Kiteboarding for about 150 meters I quickly reached the beach as it was on shore wind and I cannot ride up wind yet. So I slowed down stopped walked to waist deep water about 30 meters from shore and waterstarted to my right this time same thing I got up and was Kiteboarding for about 150 meters until I ran out of water reaching the shore. I repeated this exercise for about 90mins going left and right.

At this stage I was feeling really happy as I felt I was making progress particularly with right foot leading. The incident happened shortly after when I misjudged my approach to shore and I was going way too fast I ran out of water and tripped on the beach at speed I hit my head on the beach did a 360 flip and landed heavily on my chest most the impact was on lower left hand side of rib area. I released the safety line immediately and lay motionless for a few minutes on the beach.

Help came from a guy who I was talking to prior to going out he came and secured my kite and check to see if I was ok. I was able to get up however in a lot of pain from lower left rib area and it was painful to breath I was worried I may had fractured a rib. So I packed my stuff and went back to camp site to rest.

Next day I went to emergency they took an X-ray and doctor tells me with 90% accuracy there is no break or fracture but will be confirmed by specialist tomorrow. I was very lucky that I had been wearing an impact vest otherwise the outcome would have been very different.

Lessons learned are:
1. Understand the conditions you are going out in
2. Never kite alone and always speak to someone before you go out particularly if you are kiting in new place
3. Always wear your protective gear impact vest and safety helmet
4. If you can't avoid riding in directly on shore condition body drag as far away from shore as possible for water start and slow down well before you reach the shore.
5.Share your experience with others

Also trying to explain what kiteboarding is to doctors and nurses is not a fun exercise.

I ran out of ocean once like this cos a dog started chasing me in the shallows...he was just down wind of me and I tried to out run him and jibe but he was too fast...looking at the kite, looking at the dogs teeth, beach came out of no where and I ate ****!
tore up my knee real good.

Also lol trying to explain kiteboarding to doctors and nurses....so true

KPSS Used said..
Then best skills you can teach yourself are self launching and self landing...

Self rescue

Today was the first day back on the water kiting again after 4 weeks recovery break so good to be back. Let's all look out for each other have a safe season everyone.