It was a wild and westerly day.
So saddened by this news but also taking solace in the fact that the man was having a kite (and a competent kiter by all accounts) up until the end of of his time.
There but for the luck of life go we all.
Love and condolences to family and friends, didn't know the bloke but would have gladly kited with him anytime....

He was a friend of mine. He had an amazing zest for life and a great passion for kiting. My thoughts go out to his family. You will be missed mate, RIP.

How tragic, my thoughts go out to his family and friends. When it is not so raw, it would be good if an experienced kiter could offer us some lessons to learn from this awful situation.

Jesus what a nightmare. Very sad indeed. Sounds like he was almost saved before getting lofted a second time.

Yes it will be good to have a discussion when the time is right to learn from this tragedy. There is only one positive that can arise from such a pointless waist of life and that is that we learn from what went wrong and potentially save more lives in the future.

Sadly the course of events in this tragedy are not too dissimilar to other kiting deaths that have occured over the years.

Condolences to the family. Champion effort to those involved on the day, you did everything possible to help. Please support those involved, a very traumatic experience.

Top bloke, always would help everyone out on the beach, always smiling and loving life.

See you at the finish line mate.

My deepest condolences to the family and those close to him.

I agree those who tried to help should maybe get supported morally, I am sure they did whatever was possible.

Obviously in this situation there were people trying to help which is great. But let's learn from it a little bit (in addition to the obvious westerlies onshore risks). Even as experienced kiter I ask people to launch and land my kite and offer the same to others. I am getting heaps of confused looks and "no thanks" responses but I don't care. Let's help each other no matter what skills level we are at, let's engage the safety even though we might have been ok without releasing. Those few minutes or seconds of putting it back together or even redoing lines are well worth it. Finally, trying to avoid kites actually getting tangled due to not following the most obvious rules of keeping distance, keeping the kites low/high, and maybe even remembering way of right rules, and limiting the time on the beach as this is where most accidents happen.
Sorry, probably this is for another post and not for here and now.

Haven't posted before now because I am still so shocked at what we witnessed yesterday afternoon. I went down to Cott just to check it out but without any great desire to get wet. JG and Phil were down on the beach chatting while Phil pumped up his kite. .... was the only kiter out at the time.
He came into the beach and was having a friendly chat with us and mentioned that that he'd been out for a good while. He also said that he had to come in an hour before due to the presence of an large shark.
The wind conditions were almost but not quite directly onshore and only about 6-14 knots. We could see some rain coming but no sign of those. low black clouds.

Without going into detail. He was really powered as the wind picked up ahead of the rain and ran out of water before trying to jump out of his TT and run it off on the sand. He got lofted and was unconscious on the beach before we got to him. There were several huge gusts at the worst possible time seconds later and we were unable to get to the kite or hold onto him, the power of the wind was so great.

I have played the scene in my head over and over trying to figure out what could have been done to save him. I have no answers. The sport we all love is risky and can hand you a thrashing at any time...

Sincere condolences to his family and friends especially his mates from the kite racing fraternity.
Hopefully with time we can all have a chat about how to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.

eppo said..
While I didn't know him I have to admit chaps I found it hard to get to sleep last night, replaying the incident over in my head.

same thing here, had a major scare about two weeks ago myself and keep thinking how easily things may have ended worse.

Condolences to the family and people involved, sounds like a series of very unfortunate events with some very unpredictable weather.

Slack said..

I was kiting at the same time today as that poor guy. I was on a surfboard just in front of Iso???s and I dropped my kite in the water just where all the weed gathers. I ditched the kite and swam in as best I could through the surf and weed and while trying to get my kite into shore. I see some guy has come in, self landed his kite, runs along the beach and saved my board from the rocks. Then if that???s not enough he wades out and passes me to retrieve my bar and lines from the weed and reef. I thank him hugely on the beach and he said well we have to look out for each other which I agreed.

I get a call from a mate this evening that was on the scene telling me of the incident and it was the guy that helped me so much today. I didn???t know the guy but I am sure he will be sorely missed by many.

So sad!
From Slacks post its clear we have not just lost a kiter but a kiter totally commited to the amazing community values which makes our sport an absolute standout. A sport that offers much more value than just the pleasure it delivers while we are on the water.
What a huge legacy to leave behind. His last act before being taken out was to go to all this trouble to help out a fellow kiter he didnt even know.
As a tribute to the one we have lost lets all rekindle that 'All-4-One & One-for-All' community spirit of kiting.
It would be a damn shame if we were ever to loose a value which just emerged as the natural way of things from the earliest days onwards.

Lets all mark this tragedy as a reminder to his last act being one of helping out a another kiter.
Lets all 'Pay-it Forward' as a tribute to a kiter who was obviously a maximum value member of our community.

very sad post,condolies to his family

Sad news. We've all had our fair share of near misses, and this is a real tragedy. Condolences to all.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Giving me goose bumps reading all the messages.
Great to know as a whole theres is such a caring and great group of people that kite and that putting aside the online banter, deep down all care about each other.

take care out there.

thoughts being from the East coast.

Any chance we can setup a fund for the family. As someone who has a 3 year old, I know it's going to be tough for his wife and little one after this and I for one would be happy to contribute something for them.

I didn't know him personally, but have shared the water with him often, have launched his kite and he mine.

I was at the top of the stairs when it happened. Like a You Tube video gone horribly wrong.

We did everything we could to revive and stabilise him and I don't believe that he would have survived even had the accident happened in Victoria Square outside RPH ED. He had unsurvivable chest , head and neck injuries. Many thanks to the amazing team we had working on him. It is the best out of hospital resuscitation that I have been involved in and I could sleep last night knowing that we hadn't left anything out there.

Obviously we need to learn from this accident. I, for one, won't be going out without a helmet any more. Having seen the incident from start to finish, the only thing I think that could have made a difference was if he had been wearing a helmet and had not been knocked unconscious by the first bump. Seeing him lying on the sand and the guys jump on him and being unable to disengage his safety line before his kite powered up again makes me think that if he had been conscious he may have been able to save himself. We wear helmets riding bikes and canoeing, and even surfing. Even if it only saves the life of one of us, once a year, it's worth us wearing them. The only other thing I can think of is that the companies streamline their chickenloop release mechanisms. Even when he came to a stop at the top of the hill against the posts, it took me a few seconds to get his kite off - I couldn't figure out how to disengage it and had to unclip his harness - merely because I am unfamiliar with the brand as it is different from mine. If he had the same release mechanism, then perhaps the guys down on the beach could have pulled the quick release in time.

Unfortunately, he has paid the ultimate price doing something he loves and if we can learn from it then some good will come of the situation. My thoughts go to his partner, family and friends.

Perhaps the kitesurfing community should organise a service or something at the scene sometime in the coming weeks so we can remember him for the guy that he was.

See you out there soon. Kite safely.

This is really sad and tragic. Condolences to the family an friends ...