new weeks shorts on bondi rescue showing kitesurfer hitting wall.

it looked like a fair hit!

maybe this is what kite surfing needs? you see plenty of chat topics about new people coming into the sport buying the cheap gear and getting out there with no lessons or no clue on how to go about it the right way and the safe way. Maybe its what the sport needs to show to the broader public it is a dangerous sport and why lessons arent a waste of money.

It will be interesting to see it and see if anyone learns from it.

There is a lot of talk of cheap and dodgy gear here but I think you will find the guy was on a Switchblade 3. At least that's what I reckon it looked like in the shorts. Doesn't take anything else away from what you guys have said but it's not a case of some learner buying cheap crap and going for it. He bought expensive stuff and then went for it.

Where is this 'short' of this accident ayway?

So, witch way will attract more viewers???
The correct decent approach or the sensationalism to the core with the warning against our "extreme" sport
Come on have a go? lol
Somehow i have a feeling that you may not like their approach
Maybe we should have a poll[}:)]

It was probably a learner.

The kite was doing deathloops and looked like there may have been a problem. The stooge didnt even hit his quick release before getting slammed into that wall.

I just hope that learners on Cabrinha kites arent connecting their leashes to the depower rope instead of the flagging line. Although it doesnt matter when they dont use their QR to begin with.

OK let me tell you guys who and what. The shorts don't tell the whole story.

The who is Grant D. (You'll find out next week anyway.) He's an experienced kiter.

What happened is this. Grant went out on his own after the flags went down with the expressed permission of the life gaurds. (He was expecting other kiters to show up but none had arrived yet.) After about 15 minutes the life gaurds changed their minds because of the contest and called him in. Grant asked them to help him down with the kite, but they refused. He asked some Italian tourists passing by to help him down and they didn't understand him and started pulling on his bar sending the kite out of control. He managed to regain control and stabilize the kite above him, but the leash (attached to the outside line toggle) was tangled around the bar. He then decided to ditch the main line and bring the kite down on the one line but he was using a new bit of swivel hardware instead of the Cabrinha chicken loop provided that was of a thicker diameter and the main line wouldn't release. That's when the powered spiral happened that you see on the shorts.

Lessons to be learned:
1. Take your time rigging up, double check everything, haste leads to catastrophe.
2. Avoid going out on your own.
3. Don't assume passerbys can help you or that they even speak english.

If you can't "bring your kite down" by yourself,don't go out on your own !!

So the life gaurds gave him permission to kite there? Thought it was a complete ban, not a conditional one?

Marty Coffey said...
[Lessons to be learned:
1. Take your time rigging up, double check everything, haste leads to catastrophe.
2. Avoid going out on your own.
3. Don't assume passerbys can help you or that they even speak english.

How about

4. If your a beginner by a kite with a 5th line, instead of a single line death spiralling kite :)..... any bites ?

Agree with Chopper.
A "C" with 5th line is much safer for self launch and land(IMHO).

I don't know where you get your info from. Kiting was banned at Bondi because some Euro went out in a North Easter and dropped their kite in the Icerburgs.

If he was stopped while launching his kite how did he spray anyone? I know him well and there is no way he would go out after being told not to. It was after the flags went down. No point slagging someones reputation with conjecture, here say and rumour.

Marty Coffey said...

If he was stopped while launching his kite how did he spray anyone?

I believe Mr. Goose may be referring to a verbal spray. You know; the heated, one sided version of a discussion.

Marty Coffey said...

OK let me tell you guys who and what. The shorts don't tell the whole story.

The who is Grant D. (You'll find out next week anyway.) He's an experienced kiter.

What happened is this. Grant went out on his own after the flags went down with the expressed permission of the life gaurds. (He was expecting other kiters to show up but none had arrived yet.) After about 15 minutes the life gaurds changed their minds because of the contest and called him in. Grant asked them to help him down with the kite, but they refused. He asked some Italian tourists passing by to help him down and they didn't understand him and started pulling on his bar sending the kite out of control. He managed to regain control and stabilize the kite above him, but the leash (attached to the outside line toggle) was tangled around the bar. He then decided to ditch the main line and bring the kite down on the one line but he was using a new bit of swivel hardware instead of the Cabrinha chicken loop provided that was of a thicker diameter and the main line wouldn't release. That's when the powered spiral happened that you see on the shorts.

Lessons to be learned:
1. Take your time rigging up, double check everything, haste leads to catastrophe.
2. Avoid going out on your own.
3. Don't assume passerbys can help you or that they even speak english.

Id like to think I'd be among the last to flame anyone without 100% knowledge of what went down. But as this post is given as a 'true' and presumably 'positive' (you have gotta be joking) side of the story I'm sorry but I cant hold back.

Heaven help us if this series of events ....
1) is what our 'experienced' local kiters are doing on our beaches.
2) is considered by anyone as making the incident acceptable or excusable or even gives any logical reason for why it may have happened at all.
and heaven help us even more if ....
3) the impending TV coverage makes the 'story' sound any worse than this supposedly factual 'explanation' does.

I suggest that there are a few more & far more important lessons to be learnt in there somewhere than the 3 cited - to say the least.

"It's the latest craze to hit Bondi Beach".

Accurate reporting from the start... [}:)]

where do these people come from???