For a college cousre project I am hopping to make a control bar. i need to know what type of accidents you all have from the strings of a kite or have you heard of stories of the lines causing burns or even worse. please send in your pictures and or stories.

thanks all.

Hello Philip,
Lines are a major liability for beginners as they do not understand how bad it can be when in contact with somebody else's flesh. Especially kids, which are always attracted to kites and try to get hold of the line(s).
Yes you can get burnt from contact with lines, but most likely you will be cut. My own experience, with a single line kite of my own making, as a teenager, the wind picked it up and holding the string with no gloves, I got a deep cut at the joint of the little finger. Later on as an adult, and still flying single line, I used one of those cheap leather gloves, cut the tips of the fingers off, and showed to younger people the marks that were left on the glove by the string, burn marks, which in fact have saved my fingers.
A friend of mine got a double cut on his chick for not paying attention, a little higher will have touched his eye.

In Pakistan, wher kite festivals are taken very seriously, they put glass shards in their lines to cut other people's lines and become the best (or could that be only) kite in the sky. Someone I knew got caught by a fallign line whilst cycling and cut his mouth half way to his ear:o
Over here it is not that bad but they still have the potential to cause damage - even more so if flying with a bar/handles and you let go without kite killers!

Recently one of our best local riders almost lost one finger and did major damage to another. During a kitercross race he and another kiter crossed lines. One kite relaunched hot while the lines from the other were wrapped around his fingers. It is suggested that the big mistake was the second rider not letting go of his bar.

While kiteboarding on the beach 2 years ago, I was passing some friends who were standing around in a group. Not noticing me, just as I was coming by them, a freind of mine decided to grab the handles of his kite and power up. I had not noticed the lines laying in sand, but suddenly they were about 18" off the ground, just a few feet away, and I was heading right towards them at about a 30 degree angle!!!

Noticing me, my friend quickly let go of his handles, while I immediately ditched my kite and fell off my board. Unfortunately, not before cutting 2 three inch long gashes into the back of both my calves!!! OWW!!!

I still have the scars, and they remind me about how dangerous lines can be.

Unfortunately, my son bears the scars from my early kiting days. He was trying to relaunch a 2line kite and somehow a line got caught on his mouth. It wasn't deep, but his smile looks just a little larger. Maybe that is why it took him so long to get interested in buggying...

Seany

my mum went to untangle the lines of her nasa wing when it took off slicing her fingers pretty bad.

i made a bar! longer the better i say! i got a short PL bar and it drives me mad with my 7.7