I thought I’d share this one with you so you don’t forget what our sport has to deal with sometimes and more to the point, to keep everyone safe.

I went to my local on Wednesday, blue sky, crystal clear water, only a few beach bums on the beach and blowing about 18 knots. I pumped up my kite on the grass and walked it down to the sand and noticed only one other kiter setting up close by (joys of shift work) and a girl sun baking between me and him. I set up and self launched but had noticed he was fart arsing around with his bar and thought to myself something didn’t seam right so I kept an eye on him while I did a few runs.

This is where it got interesting; He finally managed to launch the kite and crashed it into the sand on one side then up it went again only to smash into the sand on the other side. This happened several times and then I noticed where the kite had finally come to rest was only about 10 meters from the girl sunbaking – time to sus this out. Kited back to shore, landed and went over to the guy and asked if he wanted a hand and with a very strong accent he sheepishly said “no it’s ok, I’ve never done this” he then said “maybe you can help me with the bar”.

What I found was a 2nd hand kit probably a 2010 and…
1/ PVC tubing on the chicken loop was broken and the internal rope looked a bit worse for wear.
2/ Alloy around the QR was corroded and lines looked weathered.
3/ The inside lines ran through the bars alloy guide but the safety line ran outside the guide.
4/ There was no retainer finger on the chicken loop.
5/ A rusty washer was tied on the safety line where the leash “should” have attached to.
6/ THEN… I noticed he didn’t have a safety leash, this is when I asked him a few questions .

Q: Have you had any lessons? A: Yes, one. Q: Who from? A: He told me he couldn’t remember his name but described him and it didn’t sound like any locals that I knew. Q: Has anyone shown you how to self launch and land? A: No Q: Where did you get the kite? A: He told me a shop name that I know of but I won’t repeat here. Q: Is this how you purchased it? A: Yes Q: You never got a safety leash like this one (showed him mine) A: No

I had a chat about what I had found, showed him my QR and carefully advised him to pack up before he hit the girl sunbaking, put his kite in the trees or hurt himself and go back to the shop, sort the gear issues out and maybe get another lesson. He took my advice and that was the last I saw of him.

This is all speculation but in your opinion who is likely at fault here; The Kiter, the Instructor, the Retail Shop, everybody or the girl sun baking (joking). Has anybody else had an experience similar to this?

So did you lend him your gear and give him a quick lesson?

flyingcab said..
So did you lend him your gear and give him a quick lesson?

Only person that had any chance of getting a free lesson that day was the bikini clad sun bather ...

Instructor and shop are at fault. Instructors are out to make a quick buck out of everyone a lot dont care if you actually learn anything let alone teach you anything about safety.

Met a guy on the beach who had his lesson from groupon and he was messing about with his kite you knew he didnt know **.

Beginners are ignorant its up to instructors and shops to set them straight.

He had an accent so maybe english was not his strongpoint.
The shop may well have been Cash Converters or similar.
The guy giving the lesson may well have said he needed 20 more as he was hopeless and this guy set out on his own to save money by buying a second hand piece of junk and just giving it a go.
But not really enough info to really know what went on here.

The kiter is at fault.
If you set out to use equipment foreign to yourself, then you better at least research a basic understanding of the gear and skills required.

Nobody held a gun to his head and told him to fly it.
If you launch your kite it is your responsibility, simple as that.

windreams said..
I thought I’d share this one with you so you don’t forget what our sport has to deal with sometimes and more to the point, to keep everyone safe.

I went to my local on Wednesday, blue sky, crystal clear water, only a few beach bums on the beach and blowing about 18 knots. I pumped up my kite on the grass and walked it down to the sand and noticed only one other kiter setting up close by (joys of shift work) and a girl sun baking between me and him.

I stopped reading at this point, and realised you're the one at fault. For not having the guts to go to the girl, having a small chat and asking her to move further away from the kiter for her safety, and the opportunity of course for a date. The noob kiter? Stuff him. He is ultimately responsible for his own actions.

Instructors and shops, aside from safety, really need to start addressing etiquette. Which itself relates back to safety.

Way too many noobs seem to have the etiquette chromosome missing

Hi windreams,

It may be an unusual experience for you, but I personally witness scenarios like this on a weekly basis in the busy parts of the season. Consequences are often worse due to the stronger winds we have in WA.

The bottom line is we can't stop untrained or undertrained kiters from hitting the beach with dodgy equipment. We need more kiters like yourself who keep an eye out for these kind of people and take some time to try to convince them to look for quality training and gear. As you described, you can most of the time anticipate the problems way before the kite is being launched, just by the way they are manipulating the equipment. This is the best time to approach people like this in order to avoid accidents.

I've seen many Newbies come out with all sorts of lies and tell you what you want to hear in an effort to free themselves from guilt.

Of course there are instructors and shops that cut corners on safety... but ultimately the kiter is responsible. I've seen many cases where students received top quality training, took only 1 lesson and decided it was enough to continue on their own even though they were told to get more lessons. I've seen a few of them show up to the beach on their own with old dodgy equipment (sometimes 10 year old gear!). Even despite firm warnings to not fly the kite, they still do! It always ends up in a big crash/tumble down the beach.

Now that I think about it, every time I've talked to people showing up to the beach without any training whatsoever or people trying to fly outdated kites, I've never been able to prevent them from launching the kite. The same goes with mates teaching mates without any safety concerns. You just can't stop stupid people from doing stupid things. I just warn people around to stay WAY clear of them and just let nature do the work.

Christian

Anyone who initially said the shop, should Replace the "kite" with "a car".

I think what should be added to any form of kiting instruction should be (and explained first before any other info) what CAN HAPPEN USING THIS EQUIPMENT WITHOUT ADEQUATE TRAINING.
I was one that learned almost a decade ago and got lucky having only had one lesson and not killing myself.
If I had been taught that death was a possible outcome, I definitely would have invested in more lessons.