I´m reading a lot from people that have busted their knees, dislocated their shoulders, broken their ribs, twisted their ankles etc... It´s always sad to read and I feel sorry for all of you that can't go out in the water due to injuries. Me myself would probably go nuts if I got an severe injury, it must suck!
I´m not 20 years old anymore, so my body is not as flexible as it used to be and it has become more and more important for me to stay in good shape, warm up and stretch in order to avoid injuries.
Maybe I'm naive, but I really believe that some of the simple exercises I do on a regular basis have saved me from injuries and unnecessary damages a couple of times.
If you're an old tart like me then you might found this page useful how to prevent kite injuries
Happy kiting

Very interesting read. I'm guilty of not stretching before a lot of demanding activities.

Stretching and strength are your best protection. Stretching is super important, especially as we get older. Muscle works great at protecting you from impact injury in addtition to doing it's thing in supporting your structure. And joints get injured less if they have muscle supporting them and you aren't just relying on connective tissue to do the work.

But you have to make sure you don't build some muscle groups and neglect others. If you have too much strength in one area you can have an increase of injury in the weaker areas. Crosstraining is important.

At the end of snowkite season I have a lot of muscle in some areas and some actually atrophy because they don't get used. Then when I get on my bike the first couple weeks usually involve some sort of muscle strain because I don't stretch and I'm weak in areas that were strong in the fall and really strong in areas that get built up in the winter.

It happens every year, no matter how careful I am because I'm an idiot and I get impatient.