Were you in the windsurfer zone?

Just had a look at the location guide to double check and I was definitely in the kiting zone. Due to the wind direction there seemed to be a fair few of the windsurfers tacking upwind toward the point though.

So a person going flat out, could not see a 1cm thick object in chop. Hardly surprising
Probably ****ed his $200 fin.
Even better, he was avoiding you, and in going around you he hit your board.

Your point is....?

Freddofrog said...
As both a kitesurfer and windsurfer, it certainly isnt his fault he hit your board. On the contrary I would have thought you would be liable for not maintaining full control of your equipment. So I would have though you should be paying for any damages you inflicted on his gear and not the other way around.

I disagree, take the board out of the equation, clearly someone body dragging has limited manouvreability (fark how do you spell that one?) and so the onus is on the windsurfer to keep clear and avoid a collision with the kiter body-dragging. If he was close enough that Lewis thought he was going to get collected then he wasn't exactly doing the right thing?

Put the board back into the equation was the windsurfer keeping a proper lookout? is he/she switched on enough to know that someone body dragging usually means a board upwind somewhere? If the poleys were pushing into the kite area more than usual (don't know, wasn't there and have never kited there) should they be taking greater care?

Two sides to the story, the truth is usually in the middle somewhere, I would like to hear the other half of it?

I think this one falls into the **** happens category. If a boat hit your errant board and destroyed a prop (hypothetical) you would be liable and for the damage.

It sucks but at least it wasn't on your feet at the time. It's not as though he did it on purpose. Bummer though.

Id say its realisticaly its just bad luck. If the sailboarder struck you by not doing his best to avoid you then he would be in the wrong.

When cracking along on a sailboard at 20 knots its hard to see whether a kiter has a board upwind or downwind of him or is it submerged and attached to his feet.

If you were in the surf and lost your board and it got taken in by a wave, then got struck would it be any different?

Basically if its not on your feet its just bad luck. A twinny is hard enough to see in the water at the best of times - let alone a blue one.

Just one of those things mate.

Mark _australia said...
So a person going flat out, could not see a 1cm thick object in chop. Hardly surprising
Probably ****ed his $200 fin.
Even better, he was avoiding you, and in going around you he hit your board.

Your point is....?

As usual mark your one sided mindset has you sounding like an absolute tool..

I would look at it from a collision at sea COLREG type scenario. In this case you and your kite could be classified as the vessel. The windsurfer has upheld his part of the avoidance requirements by dodging you, whether it was good seamanship to not slow down is probably dubious. But the extent of his responsibility is to avoid you and assist if able in case of your life being in danger which it wasn't. He has no obligation other than to himself to avoid other obstacles not part of your vessel, which when you lost your board I would argue that it is the case. In which case he has to suck up the damage to his windsurfer and you for your board.

All sounds rather wanky I know but probably better to let it go than stress out about trying to get cash back off from someone who might think they are in the right.

Technically the windsurfer is at fault.

He should not have been going so fast near a swimmer (ie. you). He should have been keeping a lookout. He should have had the sense to expect your board was in the water (because you were there dragging around). He should have had the sense to go and find some empty water to blast around in.

It's also a cultural and moral problem because so many windsurfers do not have the skill to do anything other than ride flat out and crash at the end. They don't give each other room let alone other water users (this is similar to kiters who do their dick tricks in the middle of everything).

Realistically, sh.t happens in the sea. He should be super apologetic, beg forgiveness, and offer to pay for repairs. You should be super cool and refuse the offer. While it is your shiny shiny 2012 board, it will work just fine with a Frankenstein repair and a big scar. (It will also look hard core and encourage you to go hard on it.) The repair should only cost $50-60 from a pro or you can bog it up yourself with some epoxy.

If he is an arsehole windsurfer blasting around trying to teach those dirty kitesurfer scum a lesson then you should ram the board up his rear end.

You guys are trying to analyse this to much. this is just an unlucky accident. I am sure the windurfer was also pissed off possibly probably damaging his board too. Sh!t happens occasionaly

It's your fault.

How can he be expected to see one of those floating about.

You should pay for any damage to his fin/board

I think the problems with collisions between windsurfers and kiters or hitting the boards is happening more and more. There is a lot of "grey areas" where we share the locations.

From a windsurfers perspective it is very hard to spot the kite board floating on it's own in the water. Especially with the sun in the face,,

It happen to me some weeks back on Swan River where I was going upwind from Peli Point towards Melville. Somewhere in the middle of the river I saw one kiter in the water, so I went upwind of him. To my big surprise there was another kiter in the water further upwind and I just manage to miss him. 20m later I hit the first guys twin tip board, that I never saw? The sun was straight in my face and this was the main problem.

I think it would be great if the kiters could yell out a warning if the board is floating around. At least we have a chance to stop or be aware of a possible danger.

I did stop and assess the situation. I was a dad and son having some difficulties getting up and going. Finally the son got up but the dad had lost his board downwind. I found it about 300m away further down wind.

I went to the beach and gave the dad my details and offered to get his son's board fixed on my cost.

The "bigger picture" was that we avoided a collision with any body parts..

Not sure who is right or wrong. Share the cost seams like the best solution in most situations,,

We don't hit the board on purpose,, - as in this case the carbon fin is $400 on my windsurf board :)

For the kiter to yell out a warning in the water, when his board is floating around, is the best thing I can think off..

Jesper
Sail Repair WA

To the kiter who's board was damaged IMHO it's an unfortunate accident with no one to blame the windsurfer was probably looking at you which is always the right thing to do (boards can be fixed or replaced but if he had hit you)maybe he should have slowed I don't know but that's harder to do on a windsurfer than with a kite. As always though let's try and avoid all collisions these sports are risky enough.

i am actually siding with the windsurfer in this situation. I almost had the same thing happen to me at penguin island yesterday . Coming into the beach on my sector at the last moment i spotted a dark board floating about 50-100m offshore upside down . I pop'd over it as i can't exactly just stop dead on the sector and i was worried about the 4 fins underneath .

Bring back the Pond Police!