General Kiting

The guy obviously has aspirations of being the corpse of an idiot.

Cameraman BEWARE

Forget the ambulance, phone for a hearse...

Did he even think about what he was doing?

I would guess he didn't even come close to any type of 'real' thinking ..... inexperienced most likely. Not considering at all what was about to happen and only thinking about leaping into the sky on youtube !



Found the youtube link and found quotes made by him after the incident ....

hospitalized with fractured spine broken ribs and punctured lung but came out smiling and loved every min ov it! kiting is still favourite sport and wishes girlfriend had cought the land which was approx 60ft but she darnt look. knocked me clean out was taken away in ambulance but would do it all again tomorrow! Timothy McManus, ossett, west yorkshire.

if you listen carefully you can hear me hiting the floor, i cant remember hitting the floor tho but i can remember letting go of the kite on thinking s..t lol

i wish are lass could have filmed all of this it was crazy

a real tool tim the tool man

I sat there watching .... thinking ..... why did he not eject
SO lucky he didn't get a second reaming !!!

Because you were sitting at a computer watching, not actually there doing it.
From the time he his board hit the semi submerged rocks until he was on the beach, on his back on rocks, took about 2 seconds.
Fortunately he was flying a stable, high depower kite.
Maybe he should have flagged it when he was on his back on the rocks, looked like he was not hurt much and was well padded, it was a low speed impact, and I think he had a helmet on with a camera on it.

Had to stop this guy launching in offshore conditions on Sunday with this storm cell rapidly bearing down on him, 10 mins after this pic was taken it was lightning thunder, pissing down and the wind had done a 120 degree shift!!!

Cheers for poining out the obvious Steve ......
Sitting on his bum was the moment I was talking about

Blind freddy could see the first smash was a quick one and he was there for the ride .... hence why I said "second reaming"





Lucky for that fella you were there to stop him from launching. Big dark clouds and a total lack of other kites is a good indicator you are not making a good decision.

Lucky for that fella you were there to stop him from launching. Big dark clouds and a total lack of other kites is a good indicator you are not making a good decision.

Yep, I got a lesson at Sandy Point on just how far away the big dark cloud can be, but the wind squall is only moments away!! Joel pointed at it and said something along the lines of 'let's get the flock outta here before that hits us' It seemed a good kilometer or two away, but less than 500 yards down the beach it hit. Logged and filed for future reference!

Have another watch of the 'Freak Storm Front formation" video on page 2 of this thread.

Serious change .... seriously quick.

Another cracker

Substitute a Queenslander for the American and you get this.... 'What just happened, Man?" QLD'er.. "nah, yeah, just workin' on my dismount, man"...

Very good tech information

I'm sure glad that guy isn't trying to teach me maths. Carve upwind hard ??? He never moved!! Redirect....yeah? WHERE TO? Kite specific height - WTF ??? Clear as MUD.

so many rookie lessons & stupid mistakes I don't have to learn the hard way now...

Ah don't worry, thats the great thing about kites, just when you think all the stupid mistakes have already been made you quickly find you can invent one more

Coroner Carla na Nagara gave her findings into the death of experienced kite and land boarder Ruben Laas at an inquest held at the Nelson District Court yesterday.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news ... c-accident

Interesting read Marty. Some key points:

1) experienced kiter, 15m^2 (arc I assume) in winds gusting up to 32 knots and perhaps even higher gusts. I have flown my 13m^2 Venom II for a few years now and would not fly it above 20 knots for the land action and in 32 knots + would definitely fly a much smaller kite. Really the upper limit of the Venom is around 25 knots for water action with my 67kg. Not sure what the Phantoms are like, I think that is what he was flying.

2) his safety mechanism was altered and difficult if not impossible to activate. I know that some of the earlier PL safety pull release mechanisms did not comply with the European standards, ie need too much force to release, but then to tuck the release away so it can not be reached easily, perhaps a disaster waiting to happen.

3) His safety pads were strewn across the paddock. Wonder what happened there?

None the less, still hard for his wife and family that he left behind.

Interesting read Marty. Some key points:

1) experienced kiter, 15m^2 (arc I assume) in winds gusting up to 32 knots and perhaps even higher gusts. I have flown my 13m^2 Venom II for a few years now and would not fly it above 20 knots for the land action and in 32 knots + would definitely fly a much smaller kite. Really the upper limit of the Venom is around 25 knots for water action with my 67kg. Not sure what the Phantoms are like, I think that is what he was flying.

2) his safety mechanism was altered and difficult if not impossible to activate. I know that some of the earlier PL safety pull release mechanisms did not comply with the European standards, ie need too much force to release, but then to tuck the release away so it can not be reached easily, perhaps a disaster waiting to happen.

3) His safety pads were strewn across the paddock. Wonder what happened there?

None the less, still hard for his wife and family that he left behind.

I think your first point sums it all up Norm. You cant dispute the fact he made a very bad decision .... which resulted in the ultimate price.

QR and pads through the paddock .... all we can do is speculate about this.

How not to launch your kite in 40 knots