I've been tumbled around a thousand times after falling from my board & no harm done. On this occasion a fintip had broken during my session leaving a treacherous jagged edge and this was the result, a deep puncture to my knee. You may notice the tail fin behind is showing similar stress marks to what the broken one had prior to heading out.
I was quite shaken to see my injury and there was little more I could think of but to stem the bleeding. I'm very grateful a fellow kiter was at hand and took responsibility for my situation, running for help from the lifeguards, even packing up all my gear for me and returning with my clothes as it was clear I was heading straight to emergency. I owe you one Craig, thanks heaps!
There's 2 lessons to this experience. 1)Gear maintenance, there were signs of a tired fin with many stress marks so thorough strength testing or better still, a full set replacement would have been reasonable. Of course even a fin in good condition is a risk and keeping the edge rounded & smooth is a good idea. 2) There's obvious hazards to kiting and we need to be on constant lookout for one another, even the more experienced guys can come unstuck. I know this has been covered previously, I don't think it can be repeated too many times.
Safe kiting
Col