Just to add a bit of controversy to the site (just for johnie)

Lets talk about the times we've been a tool and stuffed up.

We like to think we are in control and experienced but every now and then the wind gods lay down some justice to let us know who is in charge.

I'll start. I have plenty, here's one of them.

Tried to launch the 10m manta in 30 knots at the edge of the window. Upon launch the tip tucked, kite flipped 180 untucked and hammered right through the powerzone.

I did the worlds fasted skudd at what felt like 50kph. i was looking down at my feet in some kind of sureal slow motion looking at the sand churh out from underneith my shoes like a barefoot water skier.

When the kite got to the edge of the window i didn't slow down. The kite was so damn powered that i kept of skudding... feeling immenent distaster approaching ( i pulled the primary safety to discover I kite still had enough power to skudd me....

bugger i then had to pull the secondary safety and watch my pride and joy woft off towards the driftwood!.

Passed out my skudd and it was a non stop 80m skudd!

haha, but ur right it happens to everyone sooner or latter and ive had my fair share, i remember launching my 4mtr c quad at mission bay, (yes we used to kite there but no longer) the wind was north/west a xshore around 25kts hence the 4mtr (my smallest) and i got lofted almost the whole length of the bay, accross the sand , the rocks complete with oyster beds and dumped in waist deep water way to close to the road while all the boys in the car park laughted so hard nobody thought to come help. it was pure luck i didnt end up in the traffic, i could have saved the moment and just kited away but my board was back where id launched my kite, 100mts up the beach.

undoubtedly the most intence kiting moment in my kiteing journey was the day i hit 80kph...i was very inexpirienced and had just bought my buggy, had no idea how to really stop and on this paticular occasion was where i learned how to drift a buggy, (libre v-max)

so i was trying to keep up with perrin! that was the problem all allong looking back, i should have stayed in the truck.....but oh no, try to keep up with perrin!!! its windy as hell, ssw on muirs, probably 25 to 30knots and is by far the windiest day i had flown in,im well out of my depth but im holding it togeather just (have been flying this kite for months static down in newplymouth where the wind is harder ) a elcheapo rhombus firebee2.3m (airea raptor copy)
so i know how to fly it but everything is happening so fast and with soooooo much power, im barley touching the ground half the time when i do overturns, im not running the kite anywhere near the powerzone at this point and looking back i was actualy really just trundling around with the kite over my head, untill perrin yells something and points to over the creek and heads of through it,
so now soaking, i watch perrin pull away into the distance, so kind of on my own and very frightend, i slowly start dropping the kite into the power....and OH MY GOD!!!!
what the hell is this, some kind of cruel trick!!!this couldnt be real... i went realy fast realy quickly, and it was very very exiting...i backed off about a dosen times before i trusted the beach and that there really wasnt any treestumps in the way to kill me, it was just pure flat hard sand for miles and miles....

and i let it all go and it felt like i was sitting on missle...my tiny v-max was flying allong the beach, i learned that if i let the kite go it pulls me to close to the dunes and if i point up wind i slide but gain ground back..this id good (kind of, im really scared im gonna tip the buggy) but it feels safe enuff so i push harder, all 3 wheel break traction and im drifting down muriwai holding my line going flat out...i fell in love..
but for the whole expirience i was terrified...

wowa a 100m lofting/glide.... must have been ring puckering! how high!

Al. nothing like sitting on a missile eh?

actually Al i think it was the time we all nuked the moose and you got lofted over a dune with the blade 6.6 from the hard sand during a squall , maybe you were more in control that day though by the sounds of it.!?

I remember that day. we've come a long way since then. So have the kites!

Damn i need to nuke that beach again. thats the one and only time i've done it! would like to do a sub 1hr nuking. also a water nuking aswell.

ps come on Jimmy regail us with the time your tried to kitesurf through a fence. Anything that leaves scares needs discussion.

plummet dont be cheeky, thers no need to pop my sitting on a missle bubble...anyway, it made the story better, if id have said it was like sitting in a real fast little cart it wouldnt have sounded as good...

the dune loft day was totaly out of control blade fury, it wasnt exiting...just outright scary...i had no controll whatso ever and diddnt achieve anyhting...it was a very good physics lesson tho, i understood all about center of pull after that..

the 80kph day was that intence because i actualy had a choice to do it or not, that fact that i put myself there made itall the more betterer.

comon jimmy, you must have a story....how about the day you got your first yak outa the bag?

OK I've got one for you.

For a little while I actually had pace. For a slightly longer time I actually had some form. Gone now but I am pretty sure its not a false memory.

In 1995 we were getting into trick riding. I was trying to do my spins as fast as possible. I had done some great moves at Raglan and my big old peel was the perfect kite for it.

At the first Moose I had some pace and roared past the pack who were going quite quick. As I went past I did a 180 intending to roar away backwards. Didn't work. Right in front of 6 guys I high-sided and rolled on the ground initiating an emergency situation involving lots of big skids and crashed kites.

Soooo lucky not to get run over. Should have looked like a hero, ended up looking like a dick. I even got the dick of the day certificate for that. I think they called it the sand monster award but I knew what it really was.

And there was the time I waded into the harbour up to my chest in my winter gear in a strong tidal current to retrieve my buggy.

Dumbest thing I ever did was to sell my 1997 comp frame. Loved that. It set me up for my big fall but it was straight and stable and really comfortable.

I think I remember that day Johnie… mind you it wasn’t the only time. I recall he wind was strong enough to clear the smoke from the Bedford that day.

Oh yes C-quads… I don’t know how I didn’t do myself in sometimes. Wetsuits didn’t last very long in those days. Some time around early 1999 I was learning to kitesurf with my new 4m C-quad out in Tamaki estuary on a classic squally NW’ly. I had just set up a shorter line-set and had just picked up the handles when a gust lifted and launched the kite. Safe to say I was inexperienced… erm stupid enough to hold on all the way. Went past Ballistics on the way home and they were trying to get rid of a 6m. Same day, a few hours later, I thought I would launch my new 6m at my local park. Swear it was the very same gust had come looking for me… lofted halfway across a soccer field to come down chest first on an embankment. I actually let go this time!

Some time later in the year A&E physician helped remove some of the Island bay oyster population from my arm. I learned a lot back then. Like not to laugh at Perrin when a squall lofts him past you. Especially when he’s flying a 4m and you are on a 6m. 2-3m C-quads when used for kitesurfing in the conditions needed to use them are evil little gnats. It was just before my birthday I learned about not going out further than you plan to swim. I kinda decided to take a swim back from Bean rock to Mission bay with all my gear when a line broke before I came to that conclusion. I bought my first C kite, a Naish AR5, shortly after that.

Oh Oh Oh I've got one /two hmmmm, maybe three or four

but first . Al what about the time at the Moose on a 30 knot NE ( off shore) and I came to you aid when you tryed to go to OZ with out you pastport

haha that one must have been funny as hell to watch, so im upside down hardwired into my buggy with quite an angry kite that i now cant seem to find the handles for looping me across the beach ...now im not going that fast,i am a bit of an anchor at this point, but their is definently no way im going to stop unless something stops me (flat beach) or the kite crashes (it diddnt willingly) because i was really strugling to do much under the buggy,fint the handles, pull the safter....i cant put my feed down because im constantly moving and buffiting around, im kind of just flapping at stuff trying to orient myself with my arms and feet (this is the bit you have to try and picture as an onlooker)
all this is ok, im not hurting and other than sand abrasion nothing can realy get me....apart from the water..i know that somewhere and soon are big looming deep puddles held back by a huge sandbank, i know roughly where im heading and my course is heading through these puddles, im skared that im going to end up at the bottom of one and im definently not happy about the fact that very soon im going to be dragged upside down through them....worse still i know that if i make it through the puddles i have a 40m or so sand bank to cover and then its the drink...this isnt a happy thought and the kite is happily looping away.....the other half of this story is my knite in shining armour....gannet.

he came to my rescue, he had seen this episode unfolding and saw the free ticket to oz and decided he had better try to intervien, this is the best bit.....so gannet, my saviour....my knite in shining armour makes a bee line straight for me, and straight through and into one of thoes puddles....up to his chest and stops...dead... sitting their in a huge puddle and im still looping my lazy way upside down out to sea....
if somebody had a picture of that id pay good money for it.....

anyway, gannet probably has another half to this story but in the end my kite crashed before i got to the sea and gannet managed to fly himself out of the puddle and was ther by the time i finaly came to rest....

gannet, im still very happy you were there that day, even tho you were taking a bath i felt much safer..

Ah yes, Al with the buggy/turtle suit on standing up and kite looping himself into a face plant . he rolled over and then stood up with buggy still strapped on, all ok until his kite looped and it smashed him face first and dazed him getting dragged into the surf break and out to sea with the kite still looping. pete wizzed over and saved the day. Now my land boarding one was interesting. i was learning to kite surf with my fuel II 15m LEI and got a land board for those light wind days. i was at long bay with others actually kitesurfing and i decided to try out the land board with my 15m lei. setting out was pretty easy, i got going and immediately had to scrub to hold the power. i did this a few times in short hops but then going going a bit too fast and froze up for a few seconds. i was now powered up and had to let out the bar fully to cope, this made me go faster and faster. i got near the end of the beach after passin some kite surfers and realized id be slamming into the cliff at the end with in the next 15 seconds so i tried to go into the soft sand, it was soft but i was so powered it made NO difference at all, it was like i was surfing it, i then turned into the wind a bit hit the hard and it was even worse, i decided to just step off the board. i did, my feet hit the ground and my body rotated and i slammed my shoulder into the ground and cartwheeled over on to my feet dragged down wind in a massive arc then it was like water skiing around a jet boat, but heading for a #8 wire fence and 150mm poles. I dug in with my feet super hard and pulled my release, nothing happened. That was my one shot at zero pain. I hit the fence with one leg either side of the pole , smashed the ARC sign with my shin and cheese grated my shins with the #8 wire, about 2" wide and 8" long, the sign going to the bone on one leg. the kite had crashed down over the low fence and then decided to kite loop back up in the air, i watched it rise and power up , pretty helpless,and i hear this huge crack, i thought it was my spine, everything went numb. it was the release. my legs were covered in blood , A+E for the next few days in a row to graft some skin back 5 days off work. and Lee from anabatic knew about it when i called to say hi so i guess others did too. i made a key ring from the shattered sign that i carry with me and i never kite surfed again. and that was my nuts thing.

Ha freaken ha... good stories

here's my potentially fatal story.

Let me regail you with the time I could have died smashing into a post. This happened 4 years ago after i'd been flying for about a year

In this instance i was landboard kiting in a paddock. There was tree's several hundred meters upwind so it was gusty unpredictable wind. I was flying an older depower foil that was very powerful with little depower.

I kite too close to a fence which is running directly downwind. As I am changing direction and fly the kite through the Zenith i get lofted by a gust. The lofting in its self is not an issue. I keep the kite at the zenith and ride it out pulling the bar in just before i land for a soft touch down. but when i land its smack into the fence.

My kite likes wrap around a fence post (about 10cm diameter) this sends the kite powering up into the powerzone with enough force to snap the post clean off at the ground and smack me dead center on the forehead! I always wear a helmet and this day was not different. The post hits my helmet with so much force that it squashes the foam flat and the plastic cuts into my head causing a 4cm gash.

Blood starts squirting out of my head wound into my eyes at the same time i start getting electric shocks. Dammit I've crashed head first into an electric fence.

I'm daized, bleeding and being shocked. But i'm still consious and i disconnect from the kite and electric fence and head off to the emergency room.

The morel of the story.

I'm sure that the helmet saved my life that day. ALLWAYS WEAR A HELMET!!!!! Don't kite next to fences!

well jimmy your story is not funny..... it makes me squirm..... ouch.

plummet wrote:


Dang! Head trauma and electro-shock treatment... what a combination. Explains a bit though. Chasing buggies while wearing tutu's at least.

jezz this is a good thread, but somone mentioned bombs and it made me remember the time at one of the m/meets when i buggied back to camp with this smoke bomb id found in the dunes.

it was in my lap and all bent up i came happly bouncing ova the dunes thinking how great it was that the army left it behind for me bla bla bla,

then charlie brown and perrin noticed wat it was and freaked out then i freaked out cause charlie told me it was still live, as in undetonated and i should carfully lay it on the ground and leave it alone, wat a dumb ass.

How about the time at Taranaki when Johnnie Got his ankle and wrist tied up to his back axle by his lines and his Kite was fully powered up and dragging him towards the ocean. That could have been very bad.

My first trip to Mooseland 1996. I thought I was going down a slope. Turns out there was a 6 foot drop. Powered down the slope off the edge. Crashed. Dropped my quick release handles while lying on my back. Quick release didn't release Next thing I'm dazed getting dragged backwards on my back up a hill by a big peel looping in full power. Thankfully there were no obstructions and the kite eventually hit the deck and it was all right. Cudby saw the whole thing but was a bit far away to help.
That was the same year Crafar flew off the biggest drop out the back and did a wee paraglider flight with a stack of flexis. He flew way out off the edge and fortunately swung back in landed half way down the face. We all thought it was bullshit but Ted saw it and confirmed it was true.

this thread should be compulsary reading for kite newbes, it might deter them meaning more room for ue eh lol

bombs and paragliding? hehe. charlie theres a common theme to your threads. they generaly start with "I was flying a big peel".

here's a kitesurfing one.

relatively new to kitesurfing i was out the back about 1km offshore but i new what i was doing as i'd been landboarding for years!!.. anyway jumped off a wave lip and rotated (my release out of the water was all stuffed up). In my rotating confusion i didn't re-direct the kite. i then promptly swung under it and when i landed the kite was way out of the wind window and hindenburged out of the sky tieing its self up in the lines as it went.

So no water relaunch for this white man. I had to do a self rescue 1km out at sea. Thanks Butch for teaching me the low down on self rescue!! rescue worked a treat but took me about 45mins to slowly drag back to the beach!!

It then proceeded to untangle my lines (another 45 mins) re-rigg and get back out there. 5 mins later one of steering lines pops off i'm only 500-600 meters this time. Self rescue number 2 for the day. !!!!

Lessons learnt
Don't do big jumps 1km out at sea
make sure your lines are connected properly, double check!! tripple check!!!

Amusingly I already knew those lessons but it took a couple of self rescues to cement them in my head!

All my big offs have been with a peel.

I ran over my kines once and wrapped them around the axle. The kite puffed up and I managed to leap out just before it pulled the whole rig up a big hill tumbling it over and over. The quick release actually worke dthat time.

Dumped the 7.5 when hurtling toward a training light out of control. Threw the kite off and stopped literally centimeters from the said pole.

i love those old peels but you have to watch them. No brakes or edepower with 2 lines. Juts point it up and wait.

Hehehe... hindenburgering!

Kitesurfing at Shoal bay, a gusty festering mud-pit that presents all kinds of hidden laceration hazards that makes any cut infected if not cleaned immediately. A location that turns any minor gear failure into a daunting stenchfilled primordial mud-covered mission to get back to the sandspit as anyone who learnt there can attest. But it is convenient if you live in the area.

The one time my wife actually lets me go out for a session 2 hours before a wedding anniversary dinner reservation at an expensive restaurant. She even came along and found a spot to camp out with a book on the lawn. Fairly southerly means you are baffing between the motorway and the sandspit.

So what happens when you get near the motorway and hear a whoop from a passerby? You instinctively load up for a jump and throw in a backloop for good measure. Glowing in the adoration of my fans as I ride out my landing I totally forget how shallow it gets in places. Here I meet my fate as I take an instant faceplant. What is strange at this point is that my crash is not followed by the usual unceremonious drag downwind because both backlines snapped and the kite hindenburgerered. The rest involved a very slow 45 minute upwind self-rescue using my board for a bit of extra upwind control. For once I avoided the crawl of shame through the mud and my wife gave me the usual “did you have fun honey”… didn’t even notice my predicament. Even made it to dinner on time though it was hard employing any form of fine dining with arms that feels like they belong to an orang-utan.

Wasn’t so lucky the next time though. If you ever noticed as water flows out of most estuaries it can arrange any shells in the mud in a very nice pattern not unlike the teeth on a shark. As the mud dries it is set and can even stay like that well after the tide returns. On one of my unfortunate attempts at a back-loop transition I got dragged sideways over one of these features. Imagine shaving all the hair off your thigh and arm with a blunt razor and going back again in case any of the top layer of skin was left behind resulting in a lovely weeping scab for a week. So make fun if I wear ¾ pants over my wetsuit some times… I take that over scab covered limbs any day!

ouch cheese grating shells.

i know what you mean about passers by. yesterday there was a whole bunch of bikini clad hot chicks on the beach giggling there way to the water right passed were i was kiting (or was i kiting passed them giggling? you will never know!!! hehehe).

anyway its a carnking 10knots and i need to show these unsusspecting hotties my manlyness by how high i can jump. (fliing the 15manta) i send it way back and wang into the sky. up i go alright maybe 6 foot or so. But i've sent it back to far and can't re-direct it back in time for the powered landing and i end up falling on my arse going from hero to zero.... hehe. i did recover buy cranking the bar for a downloop to drag me back onto my feet and haul arse down the beach.

At least you maintained your grace by not bringing your kite down amongst them… been there too!

Then… the hazards of following Perrin.
One past moose a long time ago I was happily charging along behind Perrin. As we were cresting a ridge I was pretty stoked with myself catching up to him seeing as I weigh a lot more and riding uphill can present its own handicap. Then I heard a squeal as Perrin dropped over the ridge. The imminent meaning of seeing his kite zenith and drop below eye-level did not occur to me. At least not right until I cleared the crest and saw the drop-off and realised the reason for the squeal. See back in those days we were flying on 30-40m lines and this particular dune is on the edge near the forest, half supported by tree-trunks allowing it to remain quite steep.

I couldn’t stop on time and abandoned all hope of making it down alive so stepped out of the buggy and let the kite go in one swift movement. Perrin managed to regain control after landing more than halfway down. Avoiding the jagged remains of some trunks though his kite soon luffed in the lee of the ridge. I recovered in time to warn him as my unmanned vehicle was barrelling towards him. Was a long walk back to find clean wind after retrieving my gear... at least Perrin had something to grin about.

Shortly after getting back to camp Johnie was carted off after breaking his collar bone while doing something silly. Even got it on tape…