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Old 05-07-2007, 08:42 AM
bryanleighty's Avatar
bryanleighty bryanleighty is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: St. Petersburg, FL
Posts: 1,359
Default bad times at SW. almost horrific.

so.. fully powered on 9m waroo this morning.. rigged and riding by 7am.

745 i was coming back downwind from a huge tack up past the bridge.. just a great great cruising day.

i'm about 200 yards from shore when SNAP.. my right side of my waroo 2006 bar comes apart. kite did a quick, unpowered loop and landed on its leading edge.

i'm thinking 'crap.. this sucks' when the kite loops again.. and again and again.. no power.. just annoying that the damn thing wont settle down.

i yell to guy on the beach to see if he can grab the kite.. he comes running towards it from the side..

kite loops again and again.. little more power in it now.. i see the lines are tightening up.. difficult to stand in the waist deep water.

guy is approaching and i notice that as the kite loops, the broken part of the bar is looping with it and SMASHING into the water with tremendous power.

i yell "Get back .. get back.." .. that bar end would have knocked him sensless. seriously dangerous to come in from the side.. should have gone downwind of the kite and to grab it from the back safely..

i am about to tell him this when the kite really starts to gain power and i realize that i am being dragged quickly into the beach.. i'm trying to fight it.. pointless.. absolutely pointless and i know i have to ditch the kite.

i pull the release and the release on the leash and expect to see the kite fly into the mangroves right there on the beach line..

NOPE.. f**king kite takes flight and goes overtop the trees full steam towards the freeway.

F U C K.

I run to my car and haul ass to the road.. i am expecting to see my kite wrapped around a car or some other horrific scene... i look to the mangroves and THANKFULLY the kite is tangled up in the very very edge tree..

i never would think that i would be estatic to see my kite in a tree.

after 30 minutes of work i am able to climb to the top and cut the lines and recover the kite. not a scratch on it that i could see. (same cannot be said for my legs) bar and lines still in the tree tops. going back to reclaim ASAP to get the parts back and see what exactly happened to the bar.

i am lucky as hell that the kite got tangled where it did. could have been hell.

i had a guy pull out in front of my while driving home yesterday. I was going 50 when he ran a stop sign.. it was the nearest i've ever been to what could be a near fatal accident. i was able to swerve out of the way...

i am freaked out more from todays little adventure.

my bar was about 1 and 1/2 years old.

and.. i do have to say i am quite dissapointed that not a single person at the beach offered to help me recover my kite. i've always gone out of my way to help out in any situation i could. always try to keep an eye out for people that could use some assistance. my legs are sliced to hell from recovering my kite today. another person or two helping out and we could have brought down the limb trapping my kite with ease. not pointing fingers, just saying.. help your fellow kiter cuz i PROMISE that you will need help yourself sometime...
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