I had the misfortune to have a fairly serious kiting accident near Marlo this week. Just thought I'd share for the sake of safety awareness.

Basically I was kiting in the Marlo inlet when I jumped and landed at speed in the path of a piece of driftwood that I couldn't avoid and impaled my lower leg. It was fairly scary for a while and seemed like forever before getting a copper lift out of there. I am so grateful to the local police, ambos, ses, heli crew and Alfred hosptial staff who were amazing to basically save my life.

au.news.yahoo.com/kite-surfer-thought-die-impaling-leg-high-speed-crash-091722466.html

I'd consider myself fairly experienced but still came unstuck. So maybe just take a few extra thoughts about what to do if something does go wrong eg where you are if you had to describe it, checking mobile reception, etc before hitting the water, especially if in a remote location, which might make all the difference. I kite regularly in the bay in melbourne where driftwood is not usually a factor. Also I might try to only push the limits in deeper water... though in some ways I was glad to be in shallow water near shore when it happened.

It was a really great kite session up until the incident point. We all take risks to the extent were comfortable to do the things we enjoy. I do hope to get outdoors again and if I can walk I'll kite. However this accident has really focussed my mind on what is really important and all I wanted at that time was to see my wife, kids, loved ones again, everything else seemed so little.

Stay safe everyone and have a good holiday!

Get well ,quick...I had a workmate years ago who was a champion barefoot waterskier. While barefooting he hit a driftwood and ripped his whole heel clean off except the skin at the achilles just keeping it attached. This was on the shoalhaven river west of Nowra.

Best of luck with your recovery mate, it must of been an awful experience for you. Very brave! Makes you really appreciate the emergency services at all levels. They do a fantastic job.
god bless.

You wooden believe it hey

Talk about sticking the landing

did you lose a bit of bark

Sticky situation Bramber. Thanks for enlightening us all. I'd never thought of it like that. I hope you recover fast. I talked to a father of a sponsored cable wakeboarder. She had a compound fracture (with pins and plates). She spoke to ex world champions and was advised to hit the gym immediately. Instead of taking 12+ months to recover, she was back wakeboarding 3 months later. When I broke my ankle, after the cast came off, I had to learn to walk on my foot again because it had gone weak. After I'd recovered fully I had to catch up on things I hadn't been able to do so it was 6 months before I was kiting again & it was a clean break, not displaced. Stay positive to avoid depression. I hope your kitesurfing mates visit you and bring you more drift wood to cheer you up :))) All the best

I think you've been modest on how serious your injury really was, so firstly, I'm glad you're still here to tell the story and thanks for sharing.

I just spent 7 days in Marlo. I got a total of 20 mins kiting the whole time as the wind did not want to play ball.

I went there knowing what had happened to you so I kept a special eye out for potential skewers and there are a lot there as I guess being the Snowy river outlet, lots of trees get washed down and then semi-buried in the sand. Some are obvious, some are just below the water line. So yeah, a bit of a minefield.

All the best with your recovery and we hope to see you back on the water soon.

Photos?

Select to expand quote

bramber said..




au.news.yahoo.com/kite-surfer-thought-die-impaling-leg-high-speed-crash-091722466.html

If you mean ,the actual incident..

Thanks very much for all the well wishes, it makes a big difference to my morale. It was a very harrowing experience personally and for the family. However I'm now recovering well. I'm all sewn up now with lots of new stitches. The team at the Alfred hospital have done a great fixing me up.

I was very fortunate considering the size of the driftwood spear that it somehow missed the major blood vessels and ligaments. At the moment the main task is to mend tissue and clear infections.

Then starts the rehab... may not get back on the water until next summer but quite frankly I'm happy to just to have the opportunity to be able to go home!

Spent the arvo at Marlo today, expected Easterly did not build enough.

Saw just a few inches of a driftwood log, out in the centre, went to inspect and ..... a rock solid tree. Blood washed off? Pays to thoroughly check out depth and obstructions. Bad luck Bramber .....

Entrance almost outa sight at the moment. Check out "Kitesurfing Marlo entrance. 20 knot SE with a 1 metre swell - sure beats the hell out of workin' on Youtube