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Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

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snowycarter
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Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby snowycarter » Tue Dec 09, 2008 7:13 am

Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face'

http://www.theage.com.au/national/kites ... ml?page=-1

Skyway Scott
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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby Skyway Scott » Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:07 pm

Sounds pretty bad. Hope he heals up.

AndrewJMcGee
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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby AndrewJMcGee » Tue Dec 09, 2008 5:51 pm

Ill tell ya what!!! There is something to be said for perfect launch spots!!!! Spots where you can't see a hazard for miles!!! Meaning walls, cars, signs, people, logs, and all the other things that seem to cause us problems if something goes wrong.

Problem is those spots are very rare, but they do exsist! Anyone have a local spot, that seems to be the safest they have ever seen!!!!! In most wind directions.

Andy

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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby eree » Tue Dec 09, 2008 6:58 pm

yeah, sounds really nasty. hope he'll be well soon.

btw, what does "woy woy man" (in the article) mean in australian? :)

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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby osiolahuj » Tue Dec 09, 2008 7:23 pm

from the article it seems like he got lofted during the launch, does anyone else have details?

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mx5alan
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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby mx5alan » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:44 am

AndrewJMcGee wrote:Anyone have a local spot, that seems to be the safest they have ever seen!!!!! In most wind directions.

Andy
Yes, a couple of my spots I ride at - but only at low tide. Can be upto a 1/2 mile or more walk to get to the water.
But then at very high tide they can be tricky, if not impossible to launch at times with less than 5m of sand available.

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fearlu
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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby fearlu » Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:07 am

Hope the recovery is complete! Jeez...

I vote for the Laguna Madre in South Padre Island, Texas as the safest kite launch in America. Most dangerous I've seen? Treasure Island in the SF Bay. Haven't developed the nerve to try that one yet, but I've been to both of the above places several times.

Funny how each place has it's quirks and challenges. At Sherman Island, California you need to be comfortable launching in a field, upwind of a giant steel structure that houses a single picnic table (surrounded by RVs) or just downwind of the world's most congested log-jam at the river's edge. In Stevenson, WA there are boulders as large as houses all along the shore. In Maui, to launch successfully at Kite Beach, you should be prepared to RUN with your kite in the air at 45 degrees out to the clean tradewinds as they wrap around the southern point of Kanaha. I guess it's all about what you're used to. Come to think of it, the cleanest launch around here may be Waddell, where the large sharks are quite plentiful and the waves can kill you on a big day-- not exactly peril-free.

It's all about risk/reward assessment I guess. If in doubt, don't go out...

Any other super-safe places as proposed by Andrew J. McGee?

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Re: Kitesurfer 'peels off half his face' - accident Down Under

Postby Puetz » Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:51 am

woy woy is a place!


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