You can't blame a man when that's the circumstance... I mean, I'd throw down a backside hello kitty to blind handlepass kiteloop upon seeing that and probably not nail it... thus crashing the kite near the beach.


For NW or W, I just go right over the bridge, aprox 1 mile from my house, redington Beach.

North of the rocks, there's very few people... and then you can ride either behind the rocks where there are no swimmers, or right off the beach about 200 yards north of the rocks where there are also no swimmers.


When it's just a seabreeze, there isn't much chop.

Optionryder420 wrote, regarding crashing the kite when women in topless bikinis are present:
You should not have revealed to me this limitation in your skillz. Based on your admission, you will not be invited to the secret spot with the hot nymphos.

Just let me know when you get female nymphos, then I'll improve my skills.

No skillz, no thrillz...

brian, I'll take yours and other people's advice and stay away from BS, although the place would be great even for me on a cross-winder, every time I get there, the wind is dead on shore...
E-bone, I agree that ignorance is no excuse, but I'm still not all that sure what happened, I triple checked the lines after re-hooking them and even Tom checked them out when helping me launch, appeared to be OK.
I tried to hold the kite low , but I guess a gust of wind took it all the way up to 12 despite me trying to keep it down.
I think I might had it sheeted in too much with the power tuning knots, I'm still trying to figure out where to tie the lines depending on the wind conditions..

No worries, Z, I am not calling you out, especially given that you are a lot bigger than I am! Also, I have screwed up while kiting much more often than you have.

What I am trying to convey is the idea that when you kite, if you get worked, it's almost always on...you. Try to look at things like that as you are learning, it will help you to progress. That's been the case with me. I nearly got seriously injured earlier this year in part due to what may be a design weakness in a new kite. My main focus after the beating was not the kite design problem, however, but the mistakes that I made that exposed me to the potential weakness in that kite's design. That focus has so far helped me to avoid a repeat of that incident.

Regarding your launching excitement, I know how you must have felt yesterday. I had a 20M Rhino for two years. I got dragged onto the beach by it more than once, I launched it once with only one of the back lines attached (it didn't steer too well), and I got teabagged on it when I went out with too much power. Each time I got worked because I screwed up somehow.

Here's another example of me screwing up. Last summer in Cabarete, I was hitting some tasty waves on the reef and everything was cool. Then, suddenly--SLAP! I smacked my face on the water as I went over the top of my board just in time to have a wave break on my head. Why? Because my left footstrap came off on one side. I had to track back to my board through the waves, then drag my ass back in to shore, and slog a few hundred yards upwind back to the hotel. I was pissed, but...

What was the real cause of my fall, the footstrap coming loose? No. The real cause of my fall was that I hadn't bothered to tighten the footstraps down for several days, even after several sessions in the waves. It's all in how you look at things.

The main idea I was trying to convey to you is that because there are things that we can not control--wind gusts, equipment failure, etc.--we need to be prepared to deal successfully with those uncontrollable aspects of this sport. When we fail to meet the challenge and get worked, the analysis should almost always be inward and not outward.

Don't take my comments as being negative toward you, Z. I want to see you do well because I expect to see you out there riding with us for years to come. I'll look forward to seeing you out on the water soon.

Only time I ever rig my kites differently is if it's blowing a HELL of a lot...

Otherwise they're always on the outside connection points on the middle knot. REALLY strong winds, I put the front lines on the knot closest to the kite.

Your kite is tuned right if when you have the trim strap all the way out (powered) and then pull the bar all the way in, the kite doesn't stall/the tips don't move towards eachother. If the kite oversheets, your kite isn't setup right.

if the wingtips are flareing out that means it's oversheeted.

jus clearin that up for Z

E-bone, no worries dude, to me all advice is constructive, and long time ago I realized that learning from other people's mistakes hurts a lot less....

420 bro, that's exactly what I needed to know, I assume the back knots on the kite are always on fast turning (is there a reason why it should ever be tied to the slow turning knots?)

I think that oversheeting is my problem, 'cause most of the time the kite looks like a damn jelly fish ........
and just out of curiosity, what's the highest wind I could use my 20M safely? I'm around 220 lbs...

I don't really think tying it to the slow turning knots will make it turn much slower even... You can work it out while flying it really... just let the trim all the way out, and pull the bar in... if the wingtips flare(thanks josh) then it's oversheeted. Land it, and extend your front lines... use small leader lines (like 4 inch ones with knots) and go off of that.