Another accident Sandgate

www.couriermail.com.au/nocookies?a=A.flavipes

this unfolded today at sandgate, wind was SE around 25 - 28 knots. was just waiting inline to be landed when i witnessed this poor bloke ripped off his feet and slammed into a tree, while he was stuck in the tree the kite sprung into life and went for a series of loops ripping him up into another tree then dragged along the ground, several other people chasing him to hold him down. Poor bloke didnt move once kite was disabled. Hope he is ok.

Kite was a North Evo 11 or 12m

Hope for a speedy recovery.

What the hell was he doing out there on a 12m in up-to 28 knots? You gotta ask about the skill level and who taught them. My thoughts, hope he pulls through and buys a smaller kite to enjoy that kind of wind in the future.

Something to ease the pain of reading this horrible incident. I hope he makes a speedy recovery and/or is safe.

I was waiting to be landed ,very crowded as one would expect on such a windy day, the bloke who had the accident was just getting launch by another guy. The rest as follows .. scream ... Kite loop.... tree...... kite loop.... ouch.

From what i was told he had a 6 hour lesson (not sure how long ago) kite was brand new and might i add not a scratch on it after the incident. In my honest opinion it was a combination of inexperience and kite was to big for conditions 28knots ... Every one was out on 7, 8 and 9's
Simple as that.
Hope he makes a speedy recovery and if he ever does want to return to kiting I'll be the first to give him a few pointers of the fantastic addictive sport

Here is a really good post from some time back, from the boys at Kite power.
Rings very true and when the winds really up read this before heading out!!

This is a public service announcement, brought to you by Kite power Australia…
When things get windy, like, REALLY windy. You should really have at least two things. The first, is a small kite.
This one’s non-negotiable. 25+ knots (even gusts over 25) mean that a 12m kite is simply too big. We don’t care how big you are, it’s just too big ok. When it hits 35 knots, you need a REALLY small kite, like a 6m or 7m. You might even need a 5.5m kite, yes, they make them that small. You also need some respect for what a kite can do.
A little respect goes a long way when it comes to the wind and ocean. Believe us, you’ll never win an argument with 40 knots of wind and a kite. Why are we telling you this? We saw some truly amazing things last Sunday.

When we cancelled our demo day due to excessive winds, (which were gusting up to 40 knots), we still went down to Brighton to see everyone and have a chat, and boy are we glad we did! There was all kinds of craziness going on, from kites in trees to people’s faces on footpaths, and everything in between.

Here’s two examples that could have easily been avoided. The first was old mate pumping up his 12m kite. Next to him on the beach, were two 5.5m kites, and a 7m. When asked why he was even pumping it up, we were met with a nervous reply of ‘it’s all I’ve got, and I’ll depower it’.
That’s silly. Downright silly. Have a look around and if your kite is not the same size as every other kite on the beach, you either need to come and buy a smaller one.
Or open up your camping chair and watch for the day. Otherwise you’ll be confined to that chair for 6 weeks or more while your bones heal. We also heard of a few guys on 10m kites too. They’re excuse was “Oh I was ok, full depower on but I didn’t get hurt”.

It’s very similar to driving your car really fast. Chances are you’ll be fine and NOT crash. But when you DO crash… It’s goanna be a lot messier than if you were driving normally. Example number two! Was old mate who crank launched his 8m and ended up on the footpath. What’s a crank launch I hear you ask? It’s where you send the kite through the window immediately after your launcher lets it go. And they hurt.

How can you stop it?
Two options. The first, is to not do it in the first place. Small kites are responsive, so when you launch them you need a feather light touch. Use your pinkie pressure to bring it slowly up the edge of the window to avoid being launched. Respect the kite, and the wind, and the beach, and the ocean and all that stuff. Because they can seriously rain on your parade if they want to.

If that fails, and you lose all respect for the sport you’re doing. There is always time to hit the safety. Usually about the right time is when your eyes widen to the size of dinner plates as your kite rotates and begins heading towards the power zone. That’s when I tend to think about reaching for the magic red handle.
You should too. So next time you see those green arrows over 25 knots.
Grab a small kite, grab your credit card, or grab a chair. One of those three, there is no option number 4.

Things:

1. @RPM - Trolling is awesome, but not on threads about somebody who is potentially really hurt. Have some class and stick to bashing gumbies.

2. When I started kiting 11 or 12 years ago, you literally couldn't go out on a 12m in this kind of wind because you had no depower or safety. You'd have your friends holding you down on the beach if you wanted to go out overpowered and you could tell how dumb it was. I absolutely hate that modern kites allow people to "depower" enough to get out in high winds (especially on 12m for some reason?). I was out a couple of weeks ago in Sydney when it was 28 or so gusting to 35 and whilst I was doing pretty big megaloops on my 9m C kite there were a few very inexperienced kiters hanging on for dear life on 12s. That's how you get really, really hurt. I hope that everyone who is experienced on here really lays into people trying to do that at their local because otherwise this is how people die or we get spots shut down. We have to be self policing.

3. If you have any sort of room down wind and the wind picks up like crazy, never be scared to put your kite a meter or two above the beach and pull your safety to self land (make sure flag out line is on the top). See McTools post on how to do this. I land by myself most of the time as I don't like to launch and land from the hot spots and this is how I land my kite 90% of the time and it is perfectly safe. Self landing was pretty much a no go when I started as you had to do the "grab one front line method" (I have 3 friends missing parts of their fingers from kiting so I don't like touching lines) but now that safeties actually work.. practice this! I will be making a video soon of how to do it.