Hey guys,
Was out kiting at Safety Bay today and came off my board after a jump. While I was bodydragging back to the board a windsurfer screamed through and smacked straight into the board, cutting a nice slice into it with his fin (see photos).
I'm pretty sure the board is totalled. I'll go in and see what Dave has to say about it in at Katana Boards in Osborne park tomorrow, but aren't expecting it to be salvageable.
I'm after some advice on what the done thing is here. After some discussion out on the water the windsurfer agreed to come into shore and swap contact details. The board is a 2012 North x-ride with limited use so I'm not too happy about the whole thing.
I'd love to hear what peoples thoughts are as to what's fair here, particularly from other windsurfers.
As both a kitesurfer and windsurfer, it certainly isnt his fault he hit your board. On the contrary I would have thought you would be liable for not maintaining full control of your equipment. So I would have though you should be paying for any damages you inflicted on his gear and not the other way around.
Just had a look at the location guide to double check and I was definitely in the kiting zone. Due to the wind direction there seemed to be a fair few of the windsurfers tacking upwind toward the point though.
Thanks for your comment freddofrog. I was making my way toward the board when this guy came through and had to stop body dragging as I was concerned he was going to hit me. If he had of hit me instead of the board would that change who's at fault? Happy to initiate some discussion here.
So a person going flat out, could not see a 1cm thick object in chop. Hardly surprising
Probably ****ed his $200 fin.
Even better, he was avoiding you, and in going around you he hit your board.
Your point is....?
Hi Mark,
Fair point. I've never windsurfed before so not sure how hard it is to turn or change speed. Personally if I see another kiter (or windsurfer) in the water I'll slow down a bit and give them a reasonably wide berth, keeping a lookout on the water. Is this more difficult while windsurfing?
I think this one falls into the **** happens category. If a boat hit your errant board and destroyed a prop (hypothetical) you would be liable and for the damage.
It sucks but at least it wasn't on your feet at the time. It's not as though he did it on purpose. Bummer though.
Ok sorry - I'm missing something. I've only been to safety bay once but the guy who took me there was an experienced local. He told me there was an area for kiters and a separate area for windsurfers. I seem to recall a line of buoys separating the two?
So if that's the case, how come a windsurfer who sails through the kiters area is not in the wrong - and responsible - if in doing so he or she runs over and damages a kiteboard? Not judging - just saying, it's kind of counter intuitive? Why have any rules at all? The guy who plays by them gets his board cut up - and the guy who doesn't gets off totally free? Or according to some, he gets his fin fixed at the expense of the guy who was playing by the rules?
Any help on what I'm missing here?
Id say its realisticaly its just bad luck. If the sailboarder struck you by not doing his best to avoid you then he would be in the wrong.
When cracking along on a sailboard at 20 knots its hard to see whether a kiter has a board upwind or downwind of him or is it submerged and attached to his feet.
If you were in the surf and lost your board and it got taken in by a wave, then got struck would it be any different?
Basically if its not on your feet its just bad luck. A twinny is hard enough to see in the water at the best of times - let alone a blue one.
Just one of those things mate.
My opinion is the windsurfer should at least pay half.
I'm a very polite non confrontational person - however I would have bailed him up on the beach ( in a nice way ) to cough up. I have done it once before.
A newbie was kitting at Brighton and I lent my kite to a friend, I watched in horror as this guy crashed and took out 2 lines off my kite. I bailed him up, clearly a beginner with limited knowledge. He was annoyed I wanted half but he hit my kite. If he was not there or had more exp my kite would still have been fine. He paid up, I felt bad and actually kited and gave tips on 2 other occasions with him (was a nice bloke).
My point is the sailboard hit the board, they pay half. To say a windsurfer could not miss say a 137cm object in the water --- pppfffttt - whether he could see it maybe another thing, but still his bad luck cough up.
If the windsurfer was close enough to you for you to be concerned about colliding then I'm sure a lot of the windsurfers focus would have been on you and the lines. Not whatever additional pieces of your equipment you had floating around the area.
I would look at it from a collision at sea COLREG type scenario. In this case you and your kite could be classified as the vessel. The windsurfer has upheld his part of the avoidance requirements by dodging you, whether it was good seamanship to not slow down is probably dubious. But the extent of his responsibility is to avoid you and assist if able in case of your life being in danger which it wasn't. He has no obligation other than to himself to avoid other obstacles not part of your vessel, which when you lost your board I would argue that it is the case. In which case he has to suck up the damage to his windsurfer and you for your board.
All sounds rather wanky I know but probably better to let it go than stress out about trying to get cash back off from someone who might think they are in the right.
There are probably reasons the windsurfer was wrong (more than 5 knots with 50m of another vessel) but most kiters are guilty of the same in these areas.
Personally I'm inclined to think of it as just an unlucky occurrence and try claim on insurance if you have it. You could argue you weren't using it at the time. I.e. you weren't on the board which may allow for a payout.
Technically the windsurfer is at fault.
He should not have been going so fast near a swimmer (ie. you). He should have been keeping a lookout. He should have had the sense to expect your board was in the water (because you were there dragging around). He should have had the sense to go and find some empty water to blast around in.
It's also a cultural and moral problem because so many windsurfers do not have the skill to do anything other than ride flat out and crash at the end. They don't give each other room let alone other water users (this is similar to kiters who do their dick tricks in the middle of everything).
Realistically, sh.t happens in the sea. He should be super apologetic, beg forgiveness, and offer to pay for repairs. You should be super cool and refuse the offer. While it is your shiny shiny 2012 board, it will work just fine with a Frankenstein repair and a big scar. (It will also look hard core and encourage you to go hard on it.) The repair should only cost $50-60 from a pro or you can bog it up yourself with some epoxy.
If he is an arsehole windsurfer blasting around trying to teach those dirty kitesurfer scum a lesson then you should ram the board up his rear end.
You guys are trying to analyse this to much. this is just an unlucky accident. I am sure the windurfer was also pissed off possibly probably damaging his board too. Sh!t happens occasionaly
Its just a case of bad luck. You have to suck it up and move on. If another surfer hits your surfboard in the water you would not try to chase them for damages. It is pretty unrealistic to expect someone else to see a twin tip floating in the water.
It's your fault.
How can he be expected to see one of those floating about.
You should pay for any damage to his fin/board
Oh come on people. The board was not at arms length so the windsurfer was not that close to him.
We pass each other at full speed only 3 -4m away from each other, if I was body dragging and an experienced person passed me at 30kn / 5m away from me I'd feel safe. That is what has happened here so forget the emotive "he was too close" crap.
What is boils down to is the guy's board is totalled and I feel for him but it is not the windsurfer's fault. No way he could have seen that. I note the windsurfer has swapped contact details with him so he can't be too bad.
You need a $50 repair and he stuffed a fin which is minimum $150. Pretty fair.
However as usual cos I call a spade a spade I must be a kite hater and get redthumbed to bejeezus when others who said the same don't.
Didn't expect anything less.
I think the problems with collisions between windsurfers and kiters or hitting the boards is happening more and more. There is a lot of "grey areas" where we share the locations.
From a windsurfers perspective it is very hard to spot the kite board floating on it's own in the water. Especially with the sun in the face,,
It happen to me some weeks back on Swan River where I was going upwind from Peli Point towards Melville. Somewhere in the middle of the river I saw one kiter in the water, so I went upwind of him. To my big surprise there was another kiter in the water further upwind and I just manage to miss him. 20m later I hit the first guys twin tip board, that I never saw? The sun was straight in my face and this was the main problem.
I think it would be great if the kiters could yell out a warning if the board is floating around. At least we have a chance to stop or be aware of a possible danger.
I did stop and assess the situation. I was a dad and son having some difficulties getting up and going. Finally the son got up but the dad had lost his board downwind. I found it about 300m away further down wind.
I went to the beach and gave the dad my details and offered to get his son's board fixed on my cost.
The "bigger picture" was that we avoided a collision with any body parts..
Not sure who is right or wrong. Share the cost seams like the best solution in most situations,,
We don't hit the board on purpose,, - as in this case the carbon fin is $400 on my windsurf board :)
For the kiter to yell out a warning in the water, when his board is floating around, is the best thing I can think off..
Jesper
Sail Repair WA
This isn't a kiters vs windsurfers issue -
As others have pointed out - sh!t happens. It would be nigh on impossible for a poley going flat out to spot a kiteboard. His fin is probably f*cked too. I'm amazed he gave you his number. Move on or write to Dr Phil if you can't.
To the kiter who's board was damaged IMHO it's an unfortunate accident with no one to blame the windsurfer was probably looking at you which is always the right thing to do (boards can be fixed or replaced but if he had hit you)maybe he should have slowed I don't know but that's harder to do on a windsurfer than with a kite. As always though let's try and avoid all collisions these sports are risky enough.
Its not nice to end up with a damaged board but really this falls into the $h1t happens category.
Typical of today's society though we have to find someone to blame.
If another kiter hit your board would it be an issue.
i am actually siding with the windsurfer in this situation. I almost had the same thing happen to me at penguin island yesterday . Coming into the beach on my sector at the last moment i spotted a dark board floating about 50-100m offshore upside down . I pop'd over it as i can't exactly just stop dead on the sector and i was worried about the 4 fins underneath .
have seen a poley go stright over the middle of someones downed kite at full speed there.
