Ever been gliding over some shallow sand banks and seen the puff of sand as you've frightened some poor resting stingray?
These f@#$ers are dangerous!!!!
Last Saturday I was tuning my new Takoon Nova in the frying pan at Noosa rivermouth when I was impaled by a small stingray in the thigh. Yes....the thigh. The little bastard got me while I was on my board on top of the water.
Check out the photos of the injury at
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=729
Anyway, I'm out of the water for at least a month, possibly longer as it ain't healing. Which means no kiting, no surfing, no sailing. Trip to Bali is cancelled and social life is gone.
So when you see a puff of sand, or feel that slimy feeling on the bottom of your foot, BEWARE, they sting, they hurt and they kill your kiting!!
Hey, the same thing happend to me while kiting at Augusta in the shallows.. I hit it me on the bum while kiting overpowered, it vertually jumped out of the water and then took off in a big puff of sand. It put a hole in my wetsuite and covered my ass in smelly slime and bruised my poor but, but luckely it didnt make it through my skin :)
Where's Uber, surprised he hasn't jumped on to this. Another potential life killer!
PS I'm also a stingray loving hippie!
If anyone does get stung by a stingray, the best emergency treatment is to immediately immerse the foot or hand in hot water. And I mean HOT. It should be as hot as you can possibly stand. The poison injected is a protein of a similar consistency to egg white. The hot water causes the protein to harden like the white of an egg when you boil it and thus prevents the venom from spreading and damaging the surrounding area and immediately releives the pain.
Fitzy Gold Coast OZ
Hot water treatment is bad advice.
Super hot water will immediately burn the patient and create further complications.
The best treatment is a local anaesthetic to the affected area.
Regards
'slave
not boiling water,'slave
just as hot as the victim can handle.
and thanks fitzy, i,ve got a glass of red.
how bout you 'slave?
Have seen three people treated with the hot water system, all administered by Gold Coast medical staff. I know it works and is particularly usefull if medical help is not immediately available. The water should be as hot as you can stand, but obviously not hot enough to scald or damage the patient.
Fitzy Gold Coast OZ
The problem with the hot water treatment outside the medical enviroment,
is that the victim is in so much pain that they have no capacity to determine,
the degree of heat in the hot water.
The victim wants more and more heat to eliminate the pain and eventually burns will occur.
This happened to my wife once when she stepped on a cobbler (WA catfish),
and I administered the hot water treatment.
(Pissing on the affected area is a way better method.....seriously)
Anyway, she ended up in the burns ward due to my backyard medicine.
Regards
'slave
lol, u idiot 
You know you could of put your finger in and tested to see if it was as hot as you can stand, it would likely be as hot as your wife can stand aswell 
I prefer to administer the amputation method personaly, 1/No water required. 2/Victim is usually out cold. 3/Good way to buy a cheap quiver and board(no use to victim now).
Anyone wana come kiting with me??[}:)]
p.s Im taking my hacksaw and medi kit to Mambo!!!!
i quite like 'slaves suggestion of pissing on the victim.
"hey guys, this dudes in agony, lets all piss on him."
don't tell the euro's, they don't need another excuse.
which is quite nice with fish and chips or jellyfish stings.
but with a stingray wound it would be like putting lemon juice into a paper cut.
nice one.
just like to point out that the majority of stingrays DO NOT HAVE VENOM, POISON OR ANYTHIN LIKE THAT!
its a worldwide myth that all species have the ability to inject a venom, well the truth is the barb is a bone like appendige, when exposed, just seems to collect bacteria and thats what causs the infection [hence no healing of wound]. the pain is caused by a razor sharp object getting rammed deep into you at an alarming speed, then yanked out on a different angle.
this happened to me when i made the mistake of stepping on one in the shallows of my local beach. went into the heel of my foot, missing the bone, then the ray took off and it pulled the barb out sideways tearing a hole up my ankle... yes hurt like hell. when i was treated i was worried about poison, but i was informed it wasn't the case, as majority done have it.
i was lucky, as ma best mate 6 weeks later stood on a ray up in QLD, the barb went into his heel bone and snapped off, leaving him 40km from a hospital and in agony! surgury took 2 hours.
but yeah, thats all i know about the slimey, pain inflifting, ugly lookin rays.
Someone actually died in port phillip bay i think by being spiked right in the heart. THeres rays everywhere sucks to get spiked.
Are you sure there arent poisonous ones???
medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002853.htm
This page also states soak wound in water as hot as victim can withstand.
ie. not scalding, wavelslave 
i bet your wife was pissed at u after
i read somewhere sometime that the stingray barb is coated with a protein mucousy stuff and other organisms that the human system doesn't particularly like,hence outragious pain.
which causes people to douse you with hot water, urinate on you and then sprinkle the wound with vinegar.
MORAL, stay away from stingrays.
Stingrays do have a protein like venom in their barbs and hot water does prevent the venom from working.
Fitzy Gold Coast OZ
Now that you actually have the wound and it won't heal... Try wrapping some papaya (pawpaw) skin over the wound, flesh side down.. The enzymes will help to break down the poisons and any remaining shards of the spike.. I don't know why but it seems to work very well with most sea creature wounds.. If you ever get a sea urchin attack it's the only way to go.. I'm told that pineapple works too.. Worth a try
The venom is produced by the stingray and is run down the groove of the spine when it is trying to defend itself ie. when you step on it. Have a look at the barb and you will notice the grooves. The venom is protein based and breaks down when heat is applied. Therefore the longer the foot is in hot water the more venom will break down until it is eventually gone. This can take some time, depending on the size of the animal. Other marine critters such as stonefish, cobbler, etc have a similar protein based venom.If you have a barb halfway thru your foot it would be best to push it all the way thru to the other side, the barbs have hooks on them that will embed in the flesh. This will cause nasty infection that could last months.
I deal with about 4-5 per year, we immerse the foot in hot water and then chug them off to the Silver Chain nursing post. Haven't had a death or amputation yet, which is all good.
if you despatch them and remove their fleshy fins and dunk them in boiling water for ten seconds then the skin will come off easily and you can cut the firm flesh into rounds and egg and breadcrumb and fry them and they taste remarkably like scallops.
tasty revenge.[}:)]
Hey Guys,
Here's an update to my injury.
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=762
Some stingrays have venom and some don't. The best treatment is to be administered by qualified first aiders!!
In my case there were fellow kiters who rinsed my wound with saline and assisted me to a location where an ambulance collected me.
Because of the "dirty" wound, no stitches were inserted. However a course of anti-biotics and daily dressing changes was prescribed.
A week later it has not healed as, according to a biopsy, I am now infected with a microbial algae which is slowly responding to a new anti-biotic.
So to sum it all up: the stingray stabbed me and mutilated my boardies with his little barbed appendage and, by doing that, exposed my delicate innards to a crafty little algae that loves to live in warm, salty water in drought affected SE Qld.
I am not angry with the little bugger, I am pissed at us humans for causing the climate conditions that allow the oceans to spawn toxic algal growths.
So if you wanna help me, stop farting, smoking, driving, using electricity or just gimme money to buy a new kite!!
anyone been stung in the broadwater yet ? I always see some big mommas out there and
once when it was murky i stepped on something that felt like one, I think it was dead, maybe it was bigwavedave who succumbed to microbial algae whilst out kiting ! 
yeah when we go diving, we see a fair few rays and dont eva have any problems with them, they usually come up close and have a look at us, we look at them, and then go our seperate ways... that or they see the spearguns and back off.
i have had a 6ft wide (wing tip to wing tip) ray swim about 2inches under my fins (flippers) once, scared the bajeezus outta me, but it just cruised off along the bottom, unphased by it all.
i think they're usually calm untill they feel threatened, then they fling the tail and take off.
maybe someone should develop a board fin that makes a vibration at speed to scare them off well b4 you are within striking distance?
The danger is walking in shallow water.You tread on them,and they lash out. As you would,if some big monster trod on you !
The solution is to shuffle your feet when walking in the shallows of murky water.
On another note though,I did hear about a guy getting taken out by a Manta Ray which jumped out of the water directly in front of him while he was going fast,no time to avoid a collision !
Here's another update on my stingray stab wound.
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=767
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=768
Going for an ultrasound as the doc suspects an abcess has formed.
Yee haa
