Location/date:
Torquay 5.30pm 31/1/10
Conditions:
Wind Sthly 25-30 knts, 42 knt gust recorded around time of incident. Low tide.
Kiter:
120kg plus with a 9m kite.
Incident:
Kiter had assisted launch, unknown reason kite backstalled and fell on rear edge/tail, then rolled onto sand, powered up by conditions, kiter down onto his backside and dragged about 20m on hard packed sand, kite rolled a number of times. Came to a stop, assisting kiter ran to kite, kite took off again before assiting kiter got to it, kiter back to his feet, kite powered, assisting kiter grabbed hold of harness handle, (total body weight of both kiters more than 200kg !) saw that lines twised numerous times just above bar, then in a split second the kiter was lofted about 6m into air, travelled horizontal about 10m before kite looped down into water, kiter slammed chest/face first into hard sand about 10 metres from water, knocked unconcious, dragged like a rag doll towards water, assisting kiter ran and grabbed injured kiter, released kite and started first aid. Assistance from other kiters and windsurfers including 2 doctors until ambulance arrived and conveyed kiter to Geelong Hospital. Sickening experience to witness.
Injuries:
4 broken ribs, broken wrist, concussion, suspected bleed on brain, abrasions & bruising, Surgery 1/2/10.
Take care out there, the incident lasted about 20 seconds from start to end, a reality check for those on the beach, fun but dangerous sport, no need to leave negative comments.
Thanks to all the Torquay crew who helped out, I've been in contact with the kiter and his wife, he's recovering okay, they are extremely grateful for the assistance.
Get well soon.
If you see something like this arc-ing up...
just jump on the kiter.
Forget the kite, go for the kiter.
hope he gets well fast with a full recovery.
to prevent instances like this happening to me, in strong winds (25+ knots) when self launching (the rear wingtip catch method) or having someone i don't know launch i don't hook in the chicken loop and just hold it with my hand to control the power while the other hand directs the bar. not a practical method for a beginner that uses both hands on their bar and hence no depower, but should anyone be out in 30 knots on a kite that cant control a kite with one hand.
Ouch - get well soon to all involved.
As cwamit said if you are not hooked in you can't get spanked.
My take if you see this type of carnage and the kite is already out of control: forget the kite, forget the kiter, get the damned safety release pulled.
Sorry to read this...get well bud.
My method for launching is to always clip leash to 1 flagging line. Unlike cwamit I am hooked in, but keep one hand on release....same thing for landing the beast except here I do depower and unhook.
When launching and landing it is always a good idea to mentally go through the actions you need to take when something doesn't go as planned..................make it a habit.
Sh1t that's no good! Have had kitemares myself @ Danger but nothing like as bad as that!
I thought it would be another high tide off the grass incident but I guess it was just bad luck.
Hope the dude gets better soon! 
Laurie, if your monitoring 
How about a permanent kitmare/incident post on here ?
All Forums> Kitesurfing> Accidents/Incidents
ouch, get well soon mate.
sounds like the cause will probably turn out to be some sort of unforseen equipment failure ?
Thanks for sharing the story Surfer 62.
This is a good reminder for me to abort sooner rather than later when things look like going pear shaped when launching/self launching.
Best wishes to the guy.
J-P
Wave,Harry & Saffer,
In this particular incident going the man (even as a last resort ) didnt help even with a combined weight in excess of 200kg. 9m kite 42 knt gust, can anyone calculate the power/lift in that ?
From experience any kite with that much power i would steer clear of. Ive been taken out by the kite, whilst trying to take control of it and just before ive got to it its taken off and looped into me. One time i ended up with a bloody nose and a mild concusion and the other time i got a two inch cut on my neck. Both situations could have been avoided by the kiter using his saftey release.
I dont see any excuse for not having a decent safety system that works and more importantly being ready to use it. Even experienced kiters can make mistakes,have something break or get caught out.
That said I hope hes well soon and jumps straight back on the horse so to speak...
The fundamental thing you are trying to do in any accident is to stop the kite. That's what is causing the problem and the problem won't end until the kite is stopped or the kiter separated from the kite.
If you can get to the kite you grab it and the problem is over.
If you can't get to the kite then it might help getting to the kiter and adding more weight to slow things down, or activating the quick release, if it's still working.
In the extreme, if you can grab a single line at a point where the kite will flag out then you could do that, but you risk hurting your hand, including removing fingers or flesh. If it's too close to the bar or the twists or tangles then the kite won't depower and you will be in the poo yourself. I have done this but I would not recommend it unless you know it is going to stop the kite dead. You can't just blindly grab a line.
Anybody know what the malfunction was? I have had kites roll over and do all sorts of things over the years and the basic depower systems have worked fine. The only thing that has caused a full power flip over is swapping a front and rear line and that's almost impossible with modern kites.
Here is a website that makes for VERY sober reading. Some of the accidents may not happen now with the huge depower avaliable on modern kites, but a line wrapped around you or the bar may still be very difficult to get out of.
www.kitemare.com/kitemare-lessons-learned/
Here is one story that almost happened to me!
Kiter Jumps to close to another Kiter, lines tangle, Lucky escapeWell this is my kitemare story and it's a miracle that I survived! I think it is safe to say that since I was two years old I have been cheating death my whole life. I have been hit three times by cars when I was just a young boy, but not all at once. Then there was the time I was in the Army and had missed my flight to South Korea, and that plane was shot down by a Russian warplane. Then there was a time I just about disappeared during a kayaking adventure. I never saw it coming! But July 1st 2002 at the south jetty of Newport I saw my death coming and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was a beautiful, windy day July 1st, and my buds Brian Wichner and Jimi Kerr and Steve were all there and so were a bunch of windsurfers out playing in the waves. The wind was blowing pretty good that day, a nice 20 to 23 miles an hour, but here at the beach the wind a lot of the time will come up around 4pm so it was edging to 26 to 28 by the time I got my four line 6.5 up in the air. I only weigh 140lb so the 6.5 was a lot of kite for me, so I pulled down on my center line as far as I could go with it and it felt good, so I went out and left Jim Kerr on the beach setting up my 5.0 for himself, "Ahh", it felt good to be in the water again jumping and riding waves as I have been doing now for 3 years. Being a surfer and windsurfer for the past 25 years has taught me a great deal of water rules, and I know that to eat it and pay rent in the surf is all part of the game and it just happens. Most of us know the rider up on a wave has the right of way, and whether paddling out or powered up by your sail or kite, the rider coming in has the right of way. So there I am going out fully powered up with my 6.5 and I see my friend Steve on his 8.5 coming in on a wave, Steve who I have never seen do a jump is riding a nice 3ft. Wave. So I start to go down wind to give him a wide birth, I am thinking we are a good 100 feet away from each other and then he does the unthinkable, he launches himself up about ten feet and lands down wind right next to me. Just before he lands I tried to turn but it was to late. My kite is at 12:00 O'clock and Steve throws his four line kite in the wrong direction and I am now looking up at eight kite lines singing a tune in the wind I have never heard before nor do I ever want to hear again. His kite heads for the water at mock three and mine does the same as they both twist with each other and I some how am getting tied up as Steve lets go of his kite bar. Both Kites are down but I have 5 or 6 lines wrapped around my body, my board and some how around my neck! Out of the corner of my eye I can see my 6.5 getting ready to power up and go skyward, just as I get the lines off and away from my neck my kite shoots to the sky like a rocket and I see all eight lines go into what looks like one great big piano wire. I just missed get my head cut off is what went through my mind as I am now beginning to get pulled up out of the water about 20 feet and then slapped back down like a rag doll for about a thousand yards. I am not sure how many times I was smacked down repeatedly but what I do remember is the feeling of being beating to a state where I was about unconscious. Now I am getting dragged down wind and I am hog tied three different ways, one around my ankles, two around my harness, and third around my board. I am so tied up I have one free hand to try to get my little knife that came with the harness but that is just about impossible to do when your getting dragged through the water at 30 miles an hour with one hand tied to your back and one kite wants to go out to sea and the other is doing this death spiral spin and wanting to go down wind. Finally Brian Winchner fly's down to see if he can help and I am yelling at him (I need your Knife!) what I don't know is he can not just kite up to me and hand me the knife, his knife is strapped to it's sheath. I finally just looked up at the sky and said God I don't know where I am going and don't know what to do? And a voice came to me and said headstand, lose this gear or lose your life. So I tried one more time to get myself free and this time got my leash off of my ankles, which then loosen up everything and then started to undo this mess that had me hog tied to my board. "OH God" I am free of all lines and board and now I am swimming in only to meet Jim Kerr swimming out to rescue me. Later after everything washed in I found out that one of the lines had cut through my board like butter, my kite was torn and tattered, Steve's kite was just fine and the lines of coarse looked like a birds nest. First thing Steve said to me was, I am so sorry bro I thought I killed you as I dragged my worn out body out of the surf. I was lucky that day but it also instilled in me that when your number is up, it's up!
Jon Monroe/ Headstand
Sounds awful. Hope injuries are not as bad as they sound - esp bleeding on the brain.
Get well soon
A lot of kitemares quite often come down to the issue of when to pull the safety - or at least they do when they are described after the fact. I'm certainly not suggesting for a second this was avoidable, but i'm curious to know people's thoughts on just what is the trigger point for people to actually pull.
My first reaction (and i certainly don't think i'm alone here) is to usually try and get control, and only pull at the point where i'm feeling like i'm about to be thrown.
So to the instructors out there, looking at this exact, and very common scenario, can I get your thoughts.
Assisted or self launch. Kite falls backwards, floats down into the power zone backwards and begins to power up.
Would you suggest the safety be pulled the second it starts to fall backwards when launching, or as is probably more often the case, wait to see if it can be brought to control so as to be more protective to other people on the beach, and if not, pull the safety only when it is realised that the kite can't be brought under control.
ie. Do you recommend that we should we be pre-emptively pulling the safety every time the second it begins to float backwards on launch? Or do you see negative consequences of excessive safety pulling on land, because in 95% of these situations, the kite will fall back a little, catch the wind briefly be safely brought back to a safe position carrying a much lower risk of harming others around. (you know what i'm getting at, worded poorly i know)
From an instructors point of view, working on students to use the safety is the fun part.
In the first for seconds of flying a kite students are introduced to ditching the kite.
even when the ditching technique is just to let go the bar. The student invariably needs several prompts to "Let go the bar". many times after about the 4th or so prompt followed by a gentle but firm slap on their arm, they then let go the bar.
Once a beginner ventures out on their own and no longer have someone to slap that arm. Then we have a situation where it is their own unique character that determines when and if they go for the safety. and this is developed within themselves through their own experiences.
It is a human condition that we never believe it will happen to us. like criminals, they never believe they are going to get caught, even if they have been caught before several times. Hence why even outrageous punishments never stop crime.
So it is with kiters. so when it comes time to pull the safety it is most always when the worst case senario is well under way.
As to whether to try and get the kite under control first? well that's our first reflex action anyway. sooner or later we will be conditioned to know how far to take that.
Hi Guys,
In almost every case, you should crash tackle the kite, even just dive onto it. Don't grab it by a bridle or flying line unless you want to lose fingers.
I've heard of a loose kite where a bar got caught under the front end of a Kombi and it lifted the Kombi 2 feet sideways. Diving on the kiter is just asking for more injuries, in powered conditions it won't help at all. Stopping the kite will!
Sorry to hear of this incident. They happen all the time and mostly we are lucky, occasionally not...
KH
