Sometimes we get a bit too comfortable with kiting. We start to do marginal (aka dumb) things. Doing errands around the car with a kite aloft falls in with that lot. You know, ill advised activities that can rip an arm off, move your face to the back of your head or even do some impromptu redesign on your ride. Skill is no factor in this either, really good kiters can still have a bad day if they set themselves up for it with poor decisions. Sort of like the following ...
Here we have Tophat, Felix Pivec and an involuntary kiteboarder, a minivan?! Yup, the minivan that didn't want to screw with kids, moms, it wanted to go kiting. Reminds me of another van years in the past that was into kitelooping cleverly holding the bar in a wheel well and shredding stuff on adjoining less hip vehicles.
As Felix was trying to collect another kite out of The Hat's van, he caught a line on the sliding door, the kite gets dosed on angel dust, goes ape and the bar rips the poor van's door off and flings it ten feet into the air! Anyway, Felix came out of it ok with some limited contusions and lacerations, as a minor miracle. The minivan was so traumatized that it slipped off that night, grabbed a flight to Italy to be converted into a cappuccino machine. It figured it might come into contact with a saner class of guys only suffering from caffine addiction as opposed to a compulsion to loft automobiles piecemeal.
More photos and details at:
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2350534
Felix on the prowl for vans in the surf, not finding any but still looking!
From:
http://www.kitesurfmania.com.br/
Tophat attending Erik Eck's astounding lofting in Oahu in 2002. What is it about toppers and the bizarre?
More about what might have gone wrong that day
HERE.