Light wind + lost board = painstakingly slow body drag. Within an inch of my board I see a kiter upwind of me and flying their kite low downwind of me. I see three options. 1) hold ground and risk a fun accident. 2) body drag down wind quick smart loosing the board. 3) yell obscenities. Obviously, being a newbie I went with option 3 (I'm not proud of this decision, sorry anonymous kiter that you had to see my outburst), while attempting option 2 and wondering if option 1 would be worse than trying to get back to the board... So my question is this, what do you do when faced with this situation?

I got yelled at the other day i was kiting with my kite about 4 to 5 meters off the water and a guy was coming the opposite way below my kite downwind
I think he thought my kite was gonno hit him so he fell off his kite and he yelled a bit of abuse as i yelled sorry

Bit of fun probably should of lifted my kite a bit but theirs a lot going on when your starting off

Good advice nickT cheers

Yeah but in light winds, it's pretty hard to control the kite, let alone stay upwind to avoid situations. I am sure most caught in this dilemma try their best, but accidents can happen anyway.

RideLikeAGirl said..
Thanks everyone, although I'm still not sure what I should do if this happens again! Going off like a tosser isn't a viable long-term solution...

That would be ok if you were a angry surfer LOL ..... Well are you????

Gorgo said..

Loftywinds said..
Yeah but in light winds, it's pretty hard to control the kite, let alone stay upwind to avoid situations. I am sure most caught in this dilemma try their best, but accidents can happen anyway.

In lighter winds it can be hard to keep things together when you raise your kite overhead, especially if some clown has cut close inside you. At best you stop and may have to settle into the water. At worst your kite can drop out of the sky.

The solution is, as always, to keep an eye on where you are going and anticipate things that can happen and avoid them.

In the case of the original poster, it sounds like she has good reason to be peeved if some boofhead is not using his superior skills and power and manoeuvrability to simply turn around and go the other way.

I agree it just make sense (like eating lamb on Australia day)

RideLikeAGirl said...
Light wind + lost board = painstakingly slow body drag. Within an inch of my board I see a kiter upwind of me and flying their kite low downwind of me. I see three options. 1) hold ground and risk a fun accident. 2) body drag down wind quick smart loosing the board. 3) yell obscenities. Obviously, being a newbie I went with option 3 (I'm not proud of this decision, sorry anonymous kiter that you had to see my outburst), while attempting option 2 and wondering if option 1 would be worse than trying to get back to the board... So my question is this, what do you do when faced with this situation?

I think you used your best option of the 3 possible you listed. I can't think why any kiter would approach someone body dragging to their board in the way you described unless they just didn't see you ?
They weren't coming over to see if you needed any help by any chance ??

Yea I recon you should have held your path..

A kiter in the water trying to get board has right of way...

And thanks Gorgo and Roony. Good advice, expect the unexpected while chilling out

I think giving someone a audible warning of your presence is often a good idea
Just try and keep the profanities to a minimum, unless they are serial short tacks.