PLEASE wear a helmet, if nothing else!

I state this as a beginner myself, who got utterly spanked yesterday, and ended up with concussion and a very badly bruised hand!

If the wind is too heaby for you to be able to even get the kite up to the zenith where you hold it easily, it's probably too hard (or you are too inexperienced) to be out flying!!

I went landboarding today to a spot not too wide, and usually crowdy.

Today was 15 knots with peak of 20. There is a new guy there, he comes, and starts to pump a bow kite 11m.

So I go talk to him, and he tells me it's his second day with the kite, he is trying to fly it, he bought the kite from a dealer that told him it's the size to buy !! He watched the DVD an now he's gonna try it.

People are dumb !!

When I left, he had not succeed to make it fly more than 20 seconds without always crashing it. A brand new kite, all pumped tightly!!

helmets are good, knee pads are great and put a kite up that is sized for the gusts not the normal wind speed.

Stay well clear of new flyers if they won't listen to words of wisdom.

Scott

Speaking of dumb people. about a week and a half ago I was flying my beamer 3 meter on the beach in Wildwood NJ. The winds were about 14 mph. I had about an entire city block worth of area to fly without any danger to others. The beach was fairly crowed toward the waters edge, while I was back toward the street. I turn around to see three guys pumping up some type of surf kite. It appeared to be fairly large and I could see a bar type control. The problem was they weren't more that 20 yards away from the crowed part of the beach. At first I thought the knuckleheads were going to launch the kite and then fly it over the heads of the seated bathers and try to get it to the water,,,, I have been flying for about 9 months and by no means claim to be a expert but I knew that it was the most stupid thing I had seen. As it turned out they were not going to try to make it to the water but instead were practicing with the kite,,, still stupid as they were so close to the people,,, they were crashing the kite only feet from people walking by them. I left,,,, didn't want to watch it anymore.... didn't hear of any accidents so I guess thats good for now. Tourists are gone,,,,, beach is ours again!

Quote:

Originally posted by joecat Speaking of dumb people. about a week and a half ago I was flying my beamer 3 meter on the beach in Wildwood NJ. The winds were about 14 mph. I had about an entire city block worth of area to fly without any danger to others. The beach was fairly crowed toward the waters edge, while I was back toward the street. I turn around to see three guys pumping up some type of surf kite. It appeared to be fairly large and I could see a bar type control. The problem was they weren't more that 20 yards away from the crowed part of the beach. At first I thought the knuckleheads were going to launch the kite and then fly it over the heads of the seated bathers and try to get it to the water,,,, I have been flying for about 9 months and by no means claim to be a expert but I knew that it was the most stupid thing I had seen. As it turned out they were not going to try to make it to the water but instead were practicing with the kite,,, still stupid as they were so close to the people,,, they were crashing the kite only feet from people walking by them. I left,,,, didn't want to watch it anymore.... didn't hear of any accidents so I guess thats good for now. Tourists are gone,,,,, beach is ours again!

Amen Joecat---Folly Beach is free at last! Great winds all this week! Its Psycho time!! Seriously, I try and keep it in perspective. Many people spend thousands of $$ to spend a week here. I stay away from the beach for the most part during the summer but now that Im water capabale....woohoo!!!! Are LEI's that hard to fly or just inexperience? I read alot of nose dive sotries!

Welcome to the forums, magicrichard. Sorry to hear your arrival comes with a concussion and banged up hand.

By the way, what kind of kites are you flying and from where do you hail?

Uh huh, and it's always the little kites that spank you, it seems. My worst was when I was messing with a 3.5 m Profoil and failed to notice a little squall line racing off the water behind my back. I got tossed and dropped on my head (with helmet).

I spent 10 years doing volunteer safety patrols in New YorS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s Central Park and saw a lot of bike/ rollerblade wrecks. It was always the guy with a helmet sitting on the side of the road with a crumpled bike saying "Geez, did you see that?", and it's the guy WITHOUT the helmet lying un-responsive or mumbling incoherently.

I just got a new Full Face bike helmet. I go a lot faster in my bug than I ever did on a bike or 'blades.

Sorry to hear that Buggy. We will keep Linda and Les in our prayers!

Quote:

Originally posted by speleopower helmets are good, knee pads are great and put a kite up that is sized for the gusts not the normal wind speed. Stay well clear of new flyers if they won't listen to words of wisdom. Scott

THOSE "ARE" WORDS OF WISDOM !!!!

Buggy ,

How tragic ! The story almost brings me down off my SOBB high. But it's always good to face reality.

For those of you that are just starting out, I don't think I saw a single " old school " rider at sobb that didn't wear a helmet !!!!!!!!! These guys have LIVED through the sport for 20 odd years . THAT should tell you something !