Lines are visible in the top photos...... The plot indeed does thicken waveslave... 
There is ALOT of total BS in this "story"
1. Have you evern seen a power company turn up early - or with in 10 minutes?
If requested by an emergency service they Never give a eta. Always "within the hour"
2. Accidents happen everyday - power company reps. Would not care - they have their job because of these.. They use a EWP (elivated work platform) for most overhead jobs anyway crew would not work without one. SOP.
3. 5 cop cars?? Really??
People can climb/sit/plank on overhead wires - see asia for details. A slingshot kite is not going to bring 2 down.. Nor is it going to start a house fire - the kite would just flash and burn its self - unless a gust of wind blew the burning kite into your shed when you had just tipped petrol all over your floor, had the oxy bottle cracked open, fireplace cranking, durries going and maybe a few oil soaked rags in the dryer. That might just cause a fire then..?
Hopefully I can shed some more light on the story. I was walking my dog at the bent st ramp so wasn't far away. The guy was riding a surfboard and when the little front came through he was clearly struggling with the wind, I was heading that way to land him when he got to the beach but he ditched the kite before he got there, the lines landed on the ankles of a guy pushing a pram waiting to cross the rd, luckily he stepped aside and didn't get dragged or zapped. The lines lay across the road and the kite created a nice fireball dropping two power lines, it didn't continue to burn though.
I moved my car to northern end to direct traffic up penguin rd and when western power came up the right lane with lights on (which was only about 10 mins) an elderly lady tried a U turn right in front of them causing them to lock up, another close call. Once they cut the lines off and cleared the road they disappeared for a while and I took off. Didn't see any cops for the period I was there. Hope that clears up what is and isn't BS.
Interesting. In the second photo you can see the tension insulator and conductor hanging down. Clearly the conductors did actually break.
Did the kite break the conductors (hard for me to imagine) or are the conductors not fault rated (or heavily corroded) and so a decent phase to phase fault blew them apart? The story of the council worker banging into a pole and then conductors coming down does really sound like the conductors are either not fault rated in this area or are corroded. This is also consistent with the eye witnesses report.
This is however really bad press for kiting. Sadly, they will try to ban us even more - I guarentee it.
WAKSA should request the outcomes of the fault investigation from Western Power. If they won't supply, ask if energy safety is doing an investigation and then ask them for findings. (If neither is investigating then something is not right). I don't really believe 'Kite rips down power lines" (I could of course be wrong). Seems far more likely to me that the conductors in the area are not up to a decent fault - in other words a flying umbrella might have had the same impact & you don't see the councils trying to ban them.
Dickhead move to not come forward. **** happens but it's poor form. Good luck to Western Power actually collecting on a $50,000 repair bill. You could drag that **** out in court for year and it would be ruled force majure anyway unless they could prove neglegence.
Now that the person has fled the scene though, they are ****ed if caught. That $120 for a WAKSA membership and 3rd party liability seems like a good idea now i bet.
Knobs.
I lived a few hundred meters from this power pole for 6 months last year.
During that 6 months I reported two power issues within a few hundred meters of this pole; one pole was sparking and one power line was hanging that low that it caught on my neighbours small truck.
So while this isn't conclusive evidence, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the kite isn't fully responsible for all the damage.
I also hardly kited at the pond as often 30 kites were trying to kite in the size of a football field and many were rude europeans who wouldn't help you launch land or give you right of way. They really ruined my opinion of european kiters, which thankfully has been returned to a positive one (thanks SUCK crew)
It does not escape from the fact that the kite drifted over water, small sand dune a waist high fence, missed the pine trees and hit the power pole, or why he was trying to land up that end of the pond where there is very little space... I am very confused by the story.
Or escape from the fact that it appears to be a "hit and run".
Sometimes bad stuff happens to the most experienced so I won't judge until I get a full story that adds up.
I actually take out extra insurance on top of AKSA which gives me more extensive 3rd party insurance and public liability, as my worst fear is hurting someone and as no matter how safe I try and be, anything can happen.
Not living in the area I can't say what the kiting conditions are like.
But I do work for a supply company.
The power pole in the photos has a lot of work done on it in the last 4-5 years, New steel cross arms, insulaters on both the HV & LV & the look of the wires they are aluminium.
The wires can very easily burn off in a phase to phase flash over before the protection kills the line.
EWP's are standard practice & the power crew could not work off the pole on this job as the pole is splinted & there is a union work ban on climbing these poles
Cheers Booga
Main Roads and Local Governments spend millions of dollars every year addressing 'Blackspots' where drivers regularly crash into cars, pedestrians and stationary things like power poles.
The millions are spent every year even if the cause of the accidents are drivers are drunk, speeding, texting or hooning.
This time it appears to be an amateur kiter but I agree underground power is the go along this scenic piece of coast.
Could this runaway kite, ^^^
be the result from a snapped death-leash ?
Probably.
Maybe it was a death-leash that had been weakened after undergoing mods by the owner ?
I'm talking about mods in the form of knots to shorten it's length.
Shrunken down the lazy way to prevent the leash drooping, dangling, tangling and deathlooping.
On every kitebeach there lurks unsafe, moded, knotted-up death-leashes.
Runaway kites just waiting to happen.
It's a fact:
Knots tied in bungy-rope will diminish the rated breaking load on the tether by up to 70%.
Don't tie knots in death-leashes.
Don't make an already flawed kite-management system even worse than what it is.
I'm not a handle passer, but Space monkey man's posted about this before - I gather your standard kite leash just can't take the strain of regular use, and is prone to failure.
Select to expand quote
I am a resident that lives on Hawker and was without power for about an 1.. this was the second time without power in two weeks. The first loss of power was a council worker hit the power poll and live wires came down in my neighbors yard. Luckily their child wasn't in the yard playing. Accidents happen. Kiting on any level should not be banded, locals and visitors just have to kite safe. Follow the rules, always wear a leash.
Thats it ! Ban all council workers 
I was just joking man.
ok guys, this is from a non kiters perspective.
The Who, How and Why of how it got there doesn't really matter to the general public.
The fact is it is a very dangerous situation and could of caused some major injuries to peron/s and babies, not to mention the power distruption.
A couple of you guy's seem to realise this,
Some others seem to think bugger the community, its only a power disruption, no one was injured, its been blown out of proportion, whats the big deal.
I'm really suprised to see some bad attitudes out there.
Most of the kiters I know are responsible guys and we get along great.
Stay safe guy's
Really,
And without power lines the kite blows down the road into an oncoming car that jumps the sidewalk and cleans up two kids.
What do you say then " bring back the power lines and this wouldn't happen"
90+ percent of you guys can do this without having to change the surrounding environment to suit your own mistakes.
From the authorities point of view what is going to be easier.
1, Spend millions on underground power or
2, Ban kiting.
Think outside your own little circle, use what locations you have responsibly when the sh/t hits the fan or power lines don't go blaming everybody else for your stuff up.
I have an insurance broker who finds the best cover for me each year. This year I am with Allianz who are the only insurer to specify that they cover accidents while kiteboarding to 3rd party or property. (They actually specify kiteboarder!) This cover meets and exceeds AKSA. Don't know about power pole, can ask this week.
I have approached AKSA on this issue of paying two insurance twice, proposing that AKSA has only a membership option where the kiteboarder provides a letter of cover from their insurance agent. AKSA responded and said they believe it will cause cost increases for all should they cater for the few who will take this option. Thus no provision for myself to only pay membership was made this year.
Unfortunately I have a different opinion, this is making it more expensive for many kiteboarders as a packaged insurance, kite, house, car can often be much cheaper and easier esp when you have a broker. However I don't know how many people have and want more extensive kiters insurance, so AKSA is probably right.
I started negotiations with an insurance broker firm last week for sponsorship, hopefully a topic of this will ways to improve insurance cover and lower costs for specific for kiters with insurance companies. More to come February.
One thing I do think we need, is a way of policing reckless and dangerous kiters. I'm not saying this dude in this topic here is. It could have been a complete accident. I am referring to a kiter at our local spot seen on a blue moon. I saw and met him for the first time this month. He lived up to his bad reputation. Firstly this guy is an experienced kiter who actually teaches! I saw him launch to the left between sunbathers and not to the right where the beach was clear, crash twice into beach goers standing at the waters edge with his kite, this is not including the numerous other crashes into the sand. My mate also saw him crash into swimmers and I believe also hit a surfer within the 3hr period he was out. What can you do about this guy? I've been told to not even try talking to him as its been tried on several occasions in the past and to just stay clear with my kite as he often crashes into kiters too. ??? (Probs shud have started a new topic on this one, but maybe AKSA can jump in here)
