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You made it through winter, spring is moving in and kiting is on your mind. All those great times on the water are coming back soon!  Here are some ideas to try to get the most out of your time back on the water. 

First, check your gear

The goal is to avoid breakage or loss of control while you are out kiting.  Kite gear can be under tremendous loads and will wear out over time. We can have the tendency to ignore or put off repairs, this can result in accelerated wear, lost gear and injured kiters. If your gear needs fixing, do it without delay.  People considering buying used gear should particularly look things over.

Inflate your kite and see if all the bladders hold air. Kite leaks can cause problems, sometimes serious ones. If you have bladder leaks repair or replace them if not readily patchable. Pulling and replacing bladders can be pain but your speed improves with practice! Make sure none of the bladders are twisted within the kite pockets.

Check your bridle lines, pulleys and pigtails. This stuff doesn't last forever and needs to be periodically replaced. It is important to remember that breakage of components can not only impact control but it also may limit or remove critical depowering.   Emergencies can come with heavy loading of your gear and loss of depowering in such a case is not what you want to happen.  If there is discoloration or visible abrasion wear on pigtails or bridles look to replace them. It can be surprising how they can break much more easily with some visible wear. Make sure your bridles move well through the pulleys which should be free from corrosion or grit. They shouldn't be bent or otherwise deformed, if so, change them out with appropriate replacements.  Not all pulleys are the same so use the right ones.   

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Portuguese Man-O-War also known as bluebottles occur in many oceans of the world, favoring tropical to temperate waters. They even have them around the UK and in the Mediterranean Sea.  We have them in the cooler months of the year in Southeast Florida, though normally in lesser numbers than showed up today.  Their tentacles pack a painful punch with stinging nematocysts that fire harpoon-like whatever they touch pumping in a potent neurotoxin.  

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Surf Expo is a large international water sports and apparel trade show held twice each year in Orlando, Florida in the USA.  It provides an opportunity for manufacturers/distributers to connect with retailers and show off merchandise available for this year.   This time they reported  6276 retailers attended the show, along with 4887 exhibitor attendees, 219 media guests and 128 industry guests. Retail representation included 47 states and 46 countries.   I have gone to the September show since the late 1990's as kitesurfing concerns usually exhibited there.  This was the first January show that I have attended in large measure due to the major standup paddleboard (SUP) presence advertised at this event.  So, here's a look at some of the booths at the show with a focus on standup gear.

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Here is a case of a standup paddle surfer helping a pair of surfers.

Watermen help others within our abilities, it is what we do, regardless of what we're on out there.

Imagine ...

 Dead of winter, a couple hours before sunset off of Northern California. You hit the 50 degree F surf looking for some great rides in head high and better swells. Instead of an epic surfing session you are flushed by too strong a current far away from land. You paddle for all you're worth and then paddle some more to exhaustion, numbing cold and beyond. The guys in the lineup vanished below the horizon a while ago and there are no boats, lifeguards or anyone else that knows where you are. It's just you and your bud being dragged westward towards the Farallon Islands and the cold wet unknown. Dread and cold fear take over as your options sink away. You see something small and hazy in the distance moving slowly toward you from land. What is it ... ?

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Wind moves us, literally in kitesurfing ... or not, if there isn't enough.  If there is too much it might just move us to the hospital ward.  Then comes time off the water, perhaps work, painful lengthy rehab, or worse.  It happens and more than it should too.  People ignore weather at times, may be more concerned about kite pants than understanding winds that can make a stellar session or a real painful one.

Last year there was a video of a dozen or more guys riding all around a funnel cloud in Italy (see the photo above).  They seemed to ignore it as if it wasn’t a threat at all.  Two riders were lofted with one thrown into a car totaling the front end and another was hurled into a house.  Tragically he didn’t survive the experience.  Then earlier this year there were dozens of guys riding in the UK in front of a shelf cloud straight out of Hollywood movie special effects, this cloud looked EVIL (see first photo).  Despite that these guys just rode around until the winds boosted to 50 kts. or more, sent kites & kiters flying all over.  No one was killed, that time.  Then in the last year, there was a young guy riding in Spain, hazardous weather was forecast and another black cloud from hell moved in.  The resulting winds lofted him at speed inland to an impact he failed to live through.  There was the man several years ago who was lofted and blown over 100 m high and 500 m downwind into a mountain in Portugal.  He didn’t make it either.  There have been many dozens of others worldwide over the years. Virtually every one avoidable to varying degrees.  More to come too sad to say. 

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