Power Kite Forum

OBE's

Blitzhound - 18-8-2016 at 12:55 PM

Since I started buggyin about a year ago. As of yesterday I've been yanked out of the buggy 5 times. The first 3 were by a little 3m Toxic. They were not fun. I didn't get hurt but I was a little bruised and a lot sore the next day. That was back in February. In April I was yarded out by my 5m Beamer and again yesterday by my 8m Neo both times. It wasn't scary I didn't get hurt. In fact it was fun! I can't be the only one that has got up from an Obe and thought "Holy #@%$#! that was awesome!" The one in April working on tacking up wind. Well about as good a Beamer can do. She us really powering up wind pretty well actually when I suddenly went over a 2-3 foot drop in the sand lost my grip on one of the handles. She shot straight up and back behind me. Lifted me straight out of the buggy backwards. I landed flat on my back. It was quite exhilarating. Yesterday I was testing out a new spot. But the sand was too soft. I got stopped in the soft sand. I thought I'd just do a loop and power out. Well...I sure did. Power right out of the buggy and about 5 feet in the air. Landed on my feet thankfully. But i was stoked. I was yelling at my wife. DID YOU SEE THAT? THAT WAS AMAZING. HOLY #@%$#!! She just said I was crazy and walked away. Haha!
Anyway... I'd love to hear other people's tales of amazing OBE's

jeepersjoey - 18-8-2016 at 01:04 PM

Mine was at 46.8 mph.

I looked down at the GPS and saw the speed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the kite quickly fly behind me.

This was on the first day I ever rode the buggy on the playa.

Makes a great story tho.

Blitzhound - 19-8-2016 at 01:23 PM

Maybe my wife is right...maybe I'm just crazy to think this is fun!

soliver - 20-8-2016 at 09:43 AM

Well I can tell you that there is that adrenaline rush when you get Obe'd and not injured... But then there that last one,... And then you decide never to let it happen again. It can change your kiting experience for good ... I'd advise caution, Justsayin...

Windstruck - 20-8-2016 at 10:41 AM

Quote: Originally posted by soliver  
Well I can tell you that there is that adrenaline rush when you get Obe'd and not injured... But then there that last one,... And then you decide never to let it happen again. It can change your kiting experience for good ... I'd advise caution, Justsayin...


I'll see Spencer's 10 and raise him 10-20. Justsayin...

http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=32253

soliver - 20-8-2016 at 04:32 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Windstruck  
Quote: Originally posted by soliver  
Well I can tell you that there is that adrenaline rush when you get Obe'd and not injured... But then there that last one,... And then you decide never to let it happen again. It can change your kiting experience for good ... I'd advise caution, Justsayin...


I'll see Spencer's 10 and raise him 10-20. Justsayin...

http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=32253


YES YOU CAN!

Curious who's medical bills were higher? :puzzled::smilegrin:

ssayre - 20-8-2016 at 05:55 PM

Come to gusty Indiana wind. I promise you will not have fun on an OBE. :)

Windstruck - 21-8-2016 at 08:17 AM

Quote: Originally posted by soliver  


Curious who's medical bills were higher? :puzzled::smilegrin:


Hardly a competition my friend. I was fortunate in that my insurance picked up the tab, but the actual bill was astronomical. Since I fell from a great height, broke my helmet and blacked out for several minutes I got the full cranial and spinal X-ray and MRI trauma work up. My shoulder was also injured and I had a lot of pain in my rib cage so they performed imaging studies of those areas as well.

I've got to be honest, the whole premise of this thread creeps me out a little. I'm not judging Blitzhound, but having very fortunately lived to opine on this subject leaves me a little unsettled. I completely get the perspective here and I've laughed too after getting yanked around, but I've come to truly appreciate just how much we as mobile powerkiters flirt with the edge by the very nature of this endeavor.

For buggying I now feel reasonably good that with an AQR installed that getting lofted shouldn't be an issue anymore, but I don't kid myself with thoughts that OBEs are the only danger here. Early on I got myself quite hurt (and it could have been a lot worse) pile driving my buggy into a large metal soccer goal. Snowkiting last winter I almost pulled myself into a barbed wire fence at high speed. Regretfully, I could go on as my list of stupid mistakes is both long and distinguished (just like my...). Bottom line, I've come to appreciate that if I want to continue to enjoy being pulled around by the wind (something I enjoy a lot!) I have to be highly risk adverse and conservative.

Yesterday reinforced just how much I am willing to make that trade off. I got some really sweet laps on a large grass field in my buggy with my all time favorite kite Session Saver (a 12m Peak p2). There were some moments where the wind was just right, I was cruising along at a brisk by comfortable pace, the kite was perfectly parked and rock steady about 10 feet off the ground and I had my 10-year old's grin firmly locked on my face. I'm good with that.

ssayre - 21-8-2016 at 08:46 AM

Ha, glad your insurance picked up the tab. Mine will too after I pay $10,000. That's one big reason for me to try and avoid injury.

Blitzhound - 21-8-2016 at 09:39 AM

Holy shnike you need better insurance!

ssayre - 21-8-2016 at 09:46 AM

well, we pay over $600 a month that covers nothing. Our other alternative is to pay $1,800 a month for better insurance.

I find I have 2 options in my profession. Make decent money and have no benefits or take a job with a crappy salary and have marginal insurance. I'll take the money every time.

Blitzhound - 21-8-2016 at 10:07 AM

I have always been a bit of an adrenaline junky. As a youngster I grew up on a farm riding horses, Bulls, dirt bikes, quads, snowmobiles, once I got my license it was all about the hot rods. I drag raced. (PB 11.18 Sec. 1/4 mile) then I joined the Army. Served 5 years in the 82nd Airborne, jumping out of airplanes for a living. Since then I have spent the majority of my life sailing the high seas. I've sailed around the globe at least 4 times. I've sailed through a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, ice shelf sin Antarctica, and survived the Bering Sea in the winter. My point I'm trying to make is I'm no stranger to danger. I feel I'm well aware of the potential for injuries. At some point I'm sure it will happen when it isn't fun. But...ultimately what I feel I was getting at was initially I was afraid of getting yanked out of the buggy. It was a scary proposition. But the couple of times it's happened to me so far. We're not scary at all. They were actually quite exhilarating. I wasn't trying to dig up horror stories or cause war flashbacks. I was only looking to see if others had had the same "that was awesome!" OBE experience I had. I'm sorry for your injuries. It's never easy. But you got back on the horse. Good for you. My military career was cut short do to things going wrong with wind. My canopy rolled in a shear wind, jumping into a canyon. and I fell about 100 feet to the ground. Shattered the left side of my body. I spent 5 months in a hospital bed and it took me almost a year to walk again. So believe me when I say I have full respect for the power of wind. I apologize for posting this thread. It was not my intent to stir up bad memories.

ssayre - 21-8-2016 at 10:40 AM

I don't think there's any need to apologize. I think everyone gets the idea you were making and getting tossed around is fun when all ends well. It reminds all of being young and wrecking our bikes or falling out of a tree. Maybe bad examples but you get the point.

And let's face it, if there was no element of danger and excitement none of us would be doing it.

Also, I admire everyone who has served and is serving. So thank you. One of the thing I wish I would have done.

hiaguy - 21-8-2016 at 11:03 AM

Quote: Originally posted by ssayre  
I don't think there's any need to apologize. I think everyone gets the idea you were making and getting tossed around is fun when all ends well. It reminds all of being young and wrecking our bikes or falling out of a tree. Maybe bad examples but you get the point.

And let's face it, if there was no element of danger and excitement none of us would be doing it.

Also, I admire everyone who has served and is serving. So thank you. One of the thing I wish I would have done.


Yup. The thread kinda' warped into a "let's compare booboos" :o , but it looked to be in good fun.

Personally, I'd love to have an OBE that was fun. I guess I'm not that advanced yet :lol:

Brant - 21-8-2016 at 11:11 AM

Never been in a buggy, but I did have an awesome session with my snowboard where the wind picked up more than I thought and tossed me around quite a bit. Didn't think it had been that bad till I landed the kite and realized I'd broken my board pretty well in half just in front of my binding. Very fun though and totally worth the $50 snowboard I busted. Already have the next cheap board ready for this year.

Blitzhound - 21-8-2016 at 11:25 AM

Quote: Originally posted by ssayre  
well, we pay over $600 a month that covers nothing. Our other alternative is to pay $1,800 a month for better insurance.

I find I have 2 options in my profession. Make decent money and have no benefits or take a job with a crappy salary and have marginal insurance. I'll take the money every time.


So much for Obummer care making health care affordable. Sorry to hear it man.

Blitzhound - 21-8-2016 at 12:07 PM

Hiaguy: I don't know about being advanced. While I didn't get hurt and it was kinda fun. I admit all my OBE's were caused by me being a dumb dumb.

Maybe I'm an advanced dumb dumb. hahaha!

Brant: thanks for sharing that was I was originally getting at. Those times when things went bad but good at the same time. Sounds like quite the ride. I'd love to get into snowkiting. Sadly it doesn't snow on the coast. But I do have some really nice beachs for buggyin.

I'm also sure that if I wasn't out on a sandy beach. That these events would not turn out as well as they do. I have yet to be yanked on hard pack. I can't imagine that's not going to hurt.

Windstruck - 21-8-2016 at 01:23 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Blitzhound  
I have always been a bit of an adrenaline junky. As a youngster I grew up on a farm riding horses, Bulls, dirt bikes, quads, snowmobiles, once I got my license it was all about the hot rods. I drag raced. (PB 11.18 Sec. 1/4 mile) then I joined the Army. Served 5 years in the 82nd Airborne, jumping out of airplanes for a living. Since then I have spent the majority of my life sailing the high seas. I've sailed around the globe at least 4 times. I've sailed through a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, ice shelf sin Antarctica, and survived the Bering Sea in the winter. My point I'm trying to make is I'm no stranger to danger. I feel I'm well aware of the potential for injuries. At some point I'm sure it will happen when it isn't fun. But...ultimately what I feel I was getting at was initially I was afraid of getting yanked out of the buggy. It was a scary proposition. But the couple of times it's happened to me so far. We're not scary at all. They were actually quite exhilarating. I wasn't trying to dig up horror stories or cause war flashbacks. I was only looking to see if others had had the same "that was awesome!" OBE experience I had. I'm sorry for your injuries. It's never easy. But you got back on the horse. Good for you. My military career was cut short do to things going wrong with wind. My canopy rolled in a shear wind, jumping into a canyon. and I fell about 100 feet to the ground. Shattered the left side of my body. I spent 5 months in a hospital bed and it took me almost a year to walk again. So believe me when I say I have full respect for the power of wind. I apologize for posting this thread. It was not my intent to stir up bad memories.


Hey - it was really my bad. No apology needed Blitz. Your life sounds like it was and continues to be quite exhilarating. Good on ya! I'm not exactly a stranger to danger either, having downhill ski raced through college and still doing some racing today in more of a gentleman's league being as I'm 55 now. I have laughed a number of times when I got yanked out of my buggy, and more of my loftings have been as you describe than what I went through a few months ago. Your 100 ft. fall in the canyon was all you needed in that department I'm sure.

My older brother was 25+ years in the Navy on SEAL Team 3 based out of San Diego and for many of those years was on their Leap Frogs jump team. Now that was hairball! Back in the day they'd still be in formation below the lip of the stadiums they were usually jumping into. The winds could get really squirrelly below the level of the lip as I'm sure you know.

BeamerBob - 21-8-2016 at 06:13 PM

Blitz you've been living life the right way!

I've felt defeated and beaten any time I've been dragged out of the buggy. I guard against it at all costs. I'll pack up and go home or not even unload the car if it doesn't feel right.

All my OBEs have been doing slow speed stuff to stop or turn around. The kite and I are happiest in motion. My system is happiest with a full plate of apparent wind. I love that cruising at the limit. It's how I like to snow ski as well.

At some point, we start to get that crystal ball that tells us when things aren't right. I'm always watching for the warning signs that things aren't right and I have planned responses for many of the common occurrences. It's worked so far, but I know I've been lucky and there aren't any promises about my next time out or any time after that.

Blitzhound - 21-8-2016 at 07:02 PM

Thanks Bobby. I don't know if it's the right way...but god damn it my way haha! My C.O. Used to tell me I was to stupid to be scared. I'm not sure if he was complementing me or insulting me. I took as a compliment and as I get older I tend to agree quite often. I get the warnings from the old internal glass ball telling me not to do thing. Unfortunately I usually just tell it to be quit. It hasn't always worked out for the best. I've had 43 bone fractures, two skin grafts. 800 stitches, and 300 staples in my life. Because of it.

Hey Windstruck. We're all still here to tell our tales and make or makeup new ones haha. When I first started sailing. An old salt by the name of Chief Bob once told me. A sea story doesn't have to be true...it just has to be good! But I do feel I have reached a point in life where I'm still young enough to still think I'm superman. But getting old enough to start realizing I'm not. I should probably wear more protection and be more cautious. Cause damn it...I hate hospitals. I used to tell people I liked hospitals for the cute nurses. They might be cute but holy crap they're expensive. At the going rate for a hospital visit it probably be cheaper to pay a hooker to wear a nurses outfit. Haha. Although I don't think my insurance would cover that.