exarch said...
hmmm pro rider jumping bigger than the average punter..... not surprised :P
Jim, i had a 9 in the boot of the car it was just too good an oportunity to not get the brand new toy out and while i agree the conditions were far from perfect i think you would understand
1. new kite + board
2. first time on it
3. okay but far from ideal conditions
4. gunna ride it and not do anything stupid like see just how far i can push it
moral of my story, 9 probably would have been perfect. 12 would have been okay. about 1/2 hour of usable light, hit it but don't be stupid.
i understand your concern, you probably hang around st kilda a fair bit as such you would see all kinds of punters face ploughing the beach and anyone with a new kite and board combo setting up in less favourable conditions would normally deserve a good talking to. as we can tell you clearly kept an eye on things and saw a kite bening managed well enough, there were no stacks, no injuries, no one pushing the envelope and thankfully no noobs hanging around to get their kites tangled in.... hence the less than frequent trips to st kilda on my behalf.... that area is a death trap :P
Its all about understanding risk along with risk to those around you:
1. If you're out on a 12m you're a risk to those around you because you have less margin of error in conditions which have proven to be squally (see injured pilot riding an 11m on the same day - apparently not a beginner like everyone thought)
2. Taking a new kite, any size out is risky enough in squally conditions. Manufacturers are known to get line lengths wrong or basic configs wrong, seen it happen many times before, its what happens in a manufacturing process where they allow for a certain amount of error. Picking a larger new kite when you have a small kite in the car? Well, thats unnecessary risk, its not like there wasn't more wind predicted for the next day that you could have got out on it in mediocre conditions.
3. Did you actually test your safety to see if it worked? I doubt it.
4. You go on about mangina's but kiting is an extreme sport. The one clear difference between kiting and the real extreme sports is that most of the extreme sports junkie's are smart enough to carefully check conditions before they head out. Ever seen how long it takes for guys to plan high risk base jumps? Or the check thats guys go through before hangliding? Its not all about balls, its also about being smart enough to make sure that each session is not your last.
The reality here is that its not only your life you're endangering when you head out overpowered on a kite. Its all the kiters around you along with a variety of people on the beach, and innocent people driving past. Its also kiting you are risking because if you get dragged over the beach and across the road into some cars, kiting will get a bad rap in general and the council starts to wonder whether its a good idea to have kiting within the city limits. Its this exact "I know what I'm doing so I can drive as fast as I want" logic that most hoon drivers use when they break the laws without realising that its not about the risk to themselves. I'm pretty happy if darwin candidates want to go out and remove themselves from the gene pool, the gene pool is so shallow these days that a little more depth would help, but do so in a place where there is no risk to anyone else.
