this from page B3 of today's NZ Herald:

Warning for kitesurfers

BRISBANE - The deaths of two kitesurfers on opposite sides of Australia on the same day have prompted a plea for thrillseekers to get proper training.

Australian Kitesurfing Association vice-president John Messenger said that although he did not know the full details of the accidents, proper training would ensure that kitesurfers had the necessary skills.

Om Wednesday, 24-year-old Peter Robert Hansen, of Cannonvale in Queensland died when he fell to the ground while kiting at the Airlie Beach Sports Park.

A 47-year-old man died near Perth when strong winds took his kite and swept him into parked cars, then into power lines.

Kitesurfing uses parachute-like kites to prpel a person on a board along the water. The participant wears a harness hooked into a crossbar, with lines to the kite.

Messenger said people should avoid taking 'backyard' lessons and go to a properly registered kitesurfing school. He also questioned why the Perth victim was unable to release himself from his kite.

Mr Messenger said kites should be fitted with a disarming leash that would disable a kite, and a quick release on a rider's harness.

"You do have a fairly decent safety system and every rider should be aware of how to use this." He said the association was campaigning hard on safety.

My brother Kitesurfs in perth and from what he heard the first guy was a learner and was practising in the park, got a gust and was boosted into trees
The second guy was fairly experienced and the conditions over there at the moment are very gusty, he was getting ready on the beach and got boosted by a big gust, aparently it was the impacts with the cars that killed him, dispite ending up in power lines he wasnt electocuted.

I suppose once you get boosted it happens so fast that if you do bail you are already quite high and picking up speed fast

... and not to kite in super gusty conditions... the scary thing is that this can happen to anyone at anytime... especially in less than perfect conditions.

..... be careful guys.

Here then are my carefully considered opinions on the subjects of safety systems, kiting accidents and tragic fatalities.

Firstly: kites do not kill people, squalls do not kill people, safety systems or lack thereof do not kill people. What kills people every time is immovable objects (usually man-made but also occasionally cliffs, trees and rocks) getting in the way of irresistible force (a kiter following an out of control kite for whatever reason). This is a very important distinction that I've found most kiters and other wowsers don't pick up on. Launching, landing or kiting in close proximity to man-made objects is potentially life-threatening and unfortunately for many of us urban dwellers, an unavoidable reality of each session.

Virtually every scenario that results in serious injury or worse would not have the same outcome in an area surrounded in soft sand dunes or even better, cotton wool. Experienced kiters will have all gone through at least one terrifying incident on land when for a millisecond their kite has taken charge, they have been lofted into the air, usually backwards and realised in a blinding flash that all their so-called safety systems are worse than useless - their body is unable to react to the brain's urgent messages because they have lost all control, are fighting unimaginable G-forces and are flailing to keep their head up. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, by blind luck or the grace of God we get away unscathed. Twice, I haven't been so lucky and have taken big hits on man-made rock walls that are unfortunately a feature of where I kite everyday.

Fortunately these impacts haven't killed me outright and it is my experience that the first impact rarely does. In fact on both occasions, I bounced out of my un-shackled safety-less system and was left with significant injuries - but in my opinion far better off than if I had stayed along for the ride, enduring the secondary impacts that would have surely followed with escalating severity as my kite made it's way inland, merrily powering up from one side of the window to the other or locked into the spiral of death.

This is why I view all so-called safety systems with distrust. Obviously, I can see some benefits from all of them. Losing your expensive kite less is often a possible advantage but possibly losing your life is a bigger issue to me.

My second point is: when shit happens - most of the time, most of us get away with it. When shit happens and you are a few metres upwind of walls, rocks, breakwaters, cars, powerlines, houses or boats - there is a very good chance you will hit them with force that in your wildest nightmares you would never have conceived were possible. No-one ever has time to pull their fancy snap-shackles when their feet are off the ground. Their only hope then is to survive the first impact and take advantage of the momentary slack lines and eject one way or the other. If you're in shock and wounded this becomes a hell of a lot harder - if you're unconscious and shackled impossible. That's how people get killed.

Remember the first point: It doesn't matter how or why you come into contact with them - hard things kill - generally not with the first impact but they have a cumulative effect on rag-dolled kiters.

That's why we all need to consider everyday more than anything else, WHERE we kite. That's why I laugh when people spout off about safety systems, and knowing how to use them - when these very things and people's unfounded reliance on them can so easily be the nail in their coffin.

In a nut: Bad decisions, nasty squalls or gusts, crossed lines, collisions, rotten luck, retarded safety systems, primary or secondary impacts can all work together to ruin your day but always remember: HARD THINGS KILL!

Hey SSS

Interesting point you raise and I agree. (not that you need it) I guess the thing is to "Live to Kite Another Day" Know your strengths but more importantly know your limits and beware. "Live To Kite Another Day"

The other thing is that having kites directly above your head in gusty conditions is inherently dangerous. If lifts rather than pulls to the side if you had it on the edge of the window. You definately have more control (even if its a second ot two to release the kite) if your have the kite to the side of the window. Comments anyone.

But it ain't an extreme sport for nothing. "Just Live to Kite Another Day"

Ka Kite
KT

like the "Just live to kite another day" slogan
hope no one got seriously spanked by the windy gusty shite that we had today in Auckland and particularly that 4.30 - 5.00pm squall that came thru

Shaan, you would be a prime one to talk about not killing yourself on a kite, and yes i guess in your case the secondary impact of 150+kgs of mass hitting you while you were in fact doing 20+kph across the orewa carpark could have potentially caused quite a bit of damage.........

please keep up these amusing stunts as it always gives us something else to laugh at you about :twisted:

you are misinformed, as well as unable to clearly make a point without contradicting yourself.

in fact i didn't travel over any part of the orewa carpark at any speed - i had stopped movement well before then on account of a rock breakwater.

i agree with your apparently sarcastic comment - this does qualify me as a prime one to talk about this issue. if you understood my earlier points you would understand why i wasn't killed, where others may well have been - if tethered to their kite by elaboarte safety systems.

i'm glad i've given you something to laugh about as you obviously lead a fairly bleak existence. may rotten luck strike you when you least expect it and may anonymous losers party on your grave...

Enough of all that, how was Taranaki?

Chris

hey shaan lighten up I think that was a lame attemt at a joke about a rather large windsuferrer (RT) jumping on ya. often hear it joke about that being body slammed bY him did more damage than the initial impact
yeah how was the Naki

taranaki was a piss-fest in every sense. we scored a soggy little flat water sesh at waitara - then got down to serious drinking just as the heavens opened and chucked down several months worth of rain in two days, followed by some of the scariest wind velocities and confused seas i've encountered.

so the spring break kiting holiday turned into an indoor sports, movie watching, girlfriend humoring, clothes shopping, shite-talking disaster-a-thon followed by the normal five hour drive back to j.a.f.a land and more rain and un-usable wind.

winzurf / guest: sorry - i suspected you may have been trying to be hilariously funny but were literarily challenged. yes, if roger tweddell had of body slammed me i would have spent a hell of a lot more time in white sheets i'm sure. i'm glad it was all worth it and the regrettable incident has become an urban legend, even amongst your disturbed wind-wacking cronies. peace and aloha. may virgin schoolgirls practise fragrant flower arranging on your grave - after you've lived to a ripe old age and died peacefully in your sleep with a couple of hundred million in your piggy bank.