Fore sure that's the fastest rock hopping I have ever seen. Not the best place to kite in that particular wind direction thou. I recon he is shackled in and it pops open on a rock. Or his guardian angel magically opened it just in time! He should go buy a Lotto ticket cause he's lucky to be walking away from that.
Looked like crap wind,not even worth kiting in ! One lucky bugger, could have broken some bones real easy doin that stuff. More arse than class with the kite release too
Agreed, however he released looks to be more luck involved than anything. To me he appears to be hooked in holding the bar with one hand when the kite is going up (one of his mistakes instead of easing it up slowly with both hands) ten he takes a fall and some how in the process disengages, I don't think he was leashed in the first place...
Wow! That has gotta be worthy of the tool o' the week award.
Hey we have all made the mistake (er.. well I certainly have) of standing too far upwind in lightish conditions when you can't really 'feel' when the kite is filled with wind. To not be extra sure, too casual about the surroundings and setting up where he is, adds the 'on the way to hospy' points up exponentially.
Let's hope the silly sod learned his lesson?
He he - made me laff the bloke sprinted after the kite, only after the poo really had hit the fan, not when he had a chance to save his mate some band aid credits. Same for bloke who eventually checks if the nong is ok. Too casual all round eh bros.
Pungarehu. The reason you'd want to kite there is that it is a very fast and clean left hand point break. There doesn't appear to be any waves on this particular day though. It's best to wait for the tide to be a bit fuller so that you can body-drag over the rocks. I don't know if I would ever kite there, the wind tends to be more off-shore and gusty than further down the coast.
I broke a boom in a 45 knot gust there while wind-surfing in the mid-90s. Hell of a swim back home as it's the very tip of Cape Egmont so you're effectively being dragged off-shore and there's big rips too.
The last time I did something that dodgy while kiting, I was suffering very bad case of ‘no-wind-i-tis’. This far too common disease has been known to create poor judgement, including making people kite when there’s not enough wind, it’s way too gusty, there’s too much wind for your kite, risky launches etc……… lol
I feel the guy was bloody lucky, don't launch a kite unless the air is clean (no objects like hills, trees, buildings etc in the air flow. I fly hang-gliders and the rule of thumb is if you go down wind of a hill etc to land make sure you are ten times the height of the thing back to be in clear/clean air. Even then you have to be on your toes. One other thing I have learned is if you have a person helping you launch, make sure you tell him/her to make sure the kite want's to fly forwards out of their hands not backwards. Old mate in the vid lets the kite go and she goes backwards..... into the power zone!!