How I cut electricity for half of city :)

[ERX]

finally I`v got time enough to tell You buddies funny kitemare from recent past.

Couple weeks ago before this snowbreak began all over Europe I decided to go for snowkiting but since didnt found any suitable place with snow coverage thick enough I went to the frozen lake nearby which was shining like a glass ...so to say "will be faster". In a beginning everything was ok and I had a real adrenalin rush. Later gave for a while to keep the kite in a neutral position to my cousin but while moving back safety lash on my hand suddenly gust hit and I flew away with enormous speed and since I was not hanging in de-power loop controlling of kite was too hard. After a short while of struggling I found myself dragged well downwind and discovered high voltage wires on that beach. If I had a safety lash - no problem, just let a kite go but now I was fighting till the last moment and released bar only in a front of wires in order to get kite flying over the electricity line with a hope that kite will fly up and lift the bar over the wires as well....that wasn't a case and kite hit electricity line straight in between the kite and bar. As kite lines wrapped around the electricity wires and tightened all three wires together, shortcut like thunder occurred:) ...I stood there confused for a half of minute and then realized that it can cost not only the price of bar and kitelines. Some ice fishermen nearby advised me to escape `cos, as he found out by phone, part of city have no electricity anymore. I took a brutally landed kite(luckily no damage), left bar hanging 10m high but still decided to wait for local service guys and with a help of good negotiation skills and their manager who was a bit related to extreme sports got back the bar. Technicians arrived on two minivans and later skylift joined too. They said that my "peace of art" costs at least 800$. In a beginning I though they are going to kill me, ended up with a lost lines and a bit of nerve cells...

Only afterwards I begun to analyze what if:
- I would be then hooked in...wind was strong enough to lift me for 10m up to the wires
- even if bar could fly over the wires, there was a road behind them

So...I know what You experienced guys will say and I have read all of those accident logs but man is prone to learn only from his own mistakes. My perception was that just to release the bar is enough to avoid any emergency therefore I even didn`t noticed the trap downwind…
But from other hand I am even glad of such a result since got good school for cheap money and in a future will be much more cautious.

...however…pity, my cousin had a camera but we forgot in that mess to take any photos of accident

ERX

[Toby]

Lucky that nothing happend to you!
Now you learned your lessons: don't fly nearby power lines, streets and houses.
Hopefully you won't tell us more stories like this one!

[BLOWN AWAY]

It's happened around where I live as well. A couple of good kitesurfers have let go of their kites due to the depower loop snapping and as they didn't use a leash the kite flew into the powerlines. They cut power only to the surrounding area... not a whole city... but it was still impressive.

The wierd thing is that the locals just love us kitesurfing so much that they don't the little "technicial problems" that can occur when people who aren't using leashes let their kites go...... at a beach that has other hazards like houses, a road, powerlines and palm trees.

Allways use a saftey leash.....

Don't get BLOWN AWAY

[BLOWN AWAY]

It's happened around where I live as well. A couple of good kitesurfers have let go of their kites due to the depower loop snapping and as they didn't use a leash the kite flew into the powerlines. They cut power only to the surrounding area... not a whole city... but it was still impressive.

The wierd thing is that the locals just love us kitesurfing so much that they don't the little "technicial problems" that can occur when people who aren't using leashes let their kites go...... at a beach that has other hazards like houses, a road, powerlines and palm trees.

Allways use a saftey leash.....

Don't get BLOWN AWAY

[RickI]

Congratulations on coming through a dicey situation intact and with an undamaged kite! As a sport we have been so very lucky to avoid more bystander involvement in the consequences of runaway kites. Excepting the odd loss of power to a bunch of people in most cases. Where were you kitesnowboarding and with what sort of kite?

At any rate, luck doesn't hold forever, even as benign as it has been to us to this point. A runaway kite has the potential to harm a lot more than a powerline as we know well. Say the kite wraps the windshield of a car, one accident like this has already been reported on the east coast of the USA. Lets say the car has a serious accident with injuries. This can happen if you are tooling along at 45 mph, COMPLETELY BLINDED by a large kite. Then there are those lines ... enough said.

It isn't too late to checkout these new spin friendly leashes. It would be great to not have further serious runaway kite accidents. It is up to individual riders to decide by their actions and precautions whether to have such accidents or not.

Rick Iossi

[RickI]

Congratulations on coming through a dicey situation intact and with an undamaged kite! As a sport we have been so very lucky to avoid more bystander involvement in the consequences of runaway kites. Excepting the odd loss of power to a bunch of people in most cases. Where were you kitesnowboarding and with what sort of kite?

At any rate, luck doesn't hold forever, even as benign as it has been to us to this point. A runaway kite has the potential to harm a lot more than a powerline as we know well. Say the kite wraps the windshield of a car, one accident like this has already been reported on the east coast of the USA. Lets say the car has a serious accident with injuries. This can happen if you are tooling along at 45 mph, COMPLETELY BLINDED by a large kite. Then there are those lines ... enough said.

It isn't too late to checkout these new spin friendly leashes. It would be great to not have further serious runaway kite accidents. It is up to individual riders to decide by their actions and precautions whether to have such accidents or not.

Rick Iossi

[BLOWN AWAY]

I read somewhere.... I think it was a link referred to on this forum about some accident where a kite flew away and the bar got caught in a wheel arch of a parked van. The powerlooping kite then dragged the van sideways 1 foot....

That same force is what plucks us 20m into the air...

Be safe kiddies!! Don't get

BLOWN AWAY now...

[RickI]

Blown Away has it right. The account appeared in the 2001 volume of the KSI
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/ ... EFERENCES/

under: 13. Incident # 10 01 2, add to that getting dragged smashing objects and hitting walls in the 2002 volume, 35. Incident # 5 02 1, getting lofted over 100 ft. high and 820 ft. horizontally and hitting at 40 kt. plus, 32. Incident# 3 3 02, being compelled to play tree billards while kiteboarding, 41. Incident # 6 02 1, and many other incidents, you get the idea.

These kites can be extremely powerful. Read about the lessons earned through the pain and extreme experiences of others and learn from them. Otherwise, plan on repeating their experiences as has already happened a fair amount.

Like a big dog that may go out of control and bite someone, "shouldn't you put a leash on that thing?" Makes sense to me.

Rick Iossi