... 20 to 30 was the day after the big wind. When the low moved away wind picked up then settled down, I prefer 20 to 30's over gusty 33 to 48. I nearly killed the 7m, bloody thing nearly folded in half!!
My mate (Craig) swung under kite at the end of a big jump and when he hit the water the chicken loop came off the harness hook and the kite went to safety (which is a North 5th line system.) With the kite in the water, wind gusting and surf rolling over him, he started to pull the red safety line back in to retrieve the chicken loop. Kite rolled over a breaking wave and caught wind and sort of launched up so he let go but with the ferocity of the wind, a loop of safety line caught his finger and launched him into the air. Kite landed back down on the safety but the loop around his finger had done its magic and gone through skin and muscle but not cutting tendon and bone. Not pleasent I tell you.
By the time I realized his trouble, I raced in and got another mate to get a knife. Once on the beach we had to cut the line away then cut the line off his finger which was so tight and under the flesh. Craig remained calm and he took off to hospital. Lucky for him a specialist for hands was on and got stitched back togeather. I figure if the line was thinner it would have done worse.
Ironically the wind settled down and next few hours were great but man did it give me the heebeejeebees for the rest of the session. It all happened in such a split second and even with Craigs 10 years of kiting experience, it can happen to the best of us. As he said it happened in such a split second. In all the rush to get him to the hospital, no one thought to take a photo (not that you'd wanna see it by the way
) but I'm sure we'll get one of the stitches later.
cheers for now,
Robbie
