It doesn't like he put his hand anywhere near the safety. Maube he thought unhooked would be safest way to launch over those rocks. It looks pretty gusty as well.
Silly
i like how he just stands there, hands on hips, waiting for his mate to chase down and return the kite
no white horse's, gusty wind down low, camera man up high, etc.....
just back from cashconverters.....................
love the way he runs for the kite and not his mate laying on the rocks, then it takes 24 seconds for the cam guy to even ask if he is ok. top work boys
I watched this (here in Australia) and thought 'that looks like that sketchy launch at Pungarehu'. And lo, it was (Taranaki, New Zealand)
Local custom dictates that the launcher does not enquire as to the general health and well-being of the launchee unless the latter appears to be;
A) Dead
and;
B) With good stuff in his pockets
Hey that's me .........not really but I do have two kites the same make/colour.
What a dodgy looking place to launch, rocks, not onshore enough causing it to be gusty due to a hill behind him causing a windshadow down low.
If he was experienced I reckon he would have either, launched elsewhere, had one hand on the safety, one in near the middle of the bar (which he didn't) or been unhooked with one hand on the chicken loop and one in the middle of the bar so he could control power and steering (which he didn't).
If he was a beginner he wouldn't have been able to react fast enough to release the safety when his hand was nowhere near it.
So my wild guess with absolutely no evidence whatsoever to back it up.
He was a beginner with either
I) Enough nous to launch unhooked but no idea how to control or trim the kite.
or
II) He was hooked in and when he pulled on RHS of bar to try to get the kite up it caught a little gust, his left hand then came off the bar causing the kite to shoot straight up and around into the powerzone, something then broke or gave way on the CL (maybe he didn't have donkey dick in and CL just became unhooked by itself).
Whatever happened he was very lucky.
P.S. I think 'The Walks' might be right he has come straight from Crime Cash Converters.
Never launch a kite on a pile of rocks.
Why would you ?
He could have walked back 50 metres and launched in the grassy cow paddock.
When the kite feels comfy in the air, make your way carefully over the rocks and then into the water.
Just launch it on the other side of the wind window whilst standing in the water.
I see lots of people who can't do sh!t, but when it comes to launching they are getting either very brave or very stoopid.
Reminds me of the NZ kite wave nationals - was a disaster waiting to happen at mid- low tide.
This place is the stuff of dreams and nightmares combined.
Also a lesson not to let your kite oversheet although I expect the wind was mostly to blame
Black and Blue I bet.
Good post to keep us vigilant.
I agree with Slave.....launch somewhere safe and then walk the kite. It is amazing how easy it is to get around once the kite is up, even climbing over fences and negotiating reef can be a snap...........unless you are a learner and/or total nob..................good on them for wearing a helmet. Funny how it is often the helmeted ones that do silly stuff.
I'd love to see anyone try to get over/through this hedge with a kite strapped to them
(this is directly behind where 'ol mate tried to launch):
classic I reckon he was just lucky the chicken loop came off.
Can't you just feel the tension in the air when he is about to launch
crazy, even at high tide that looks like a bad place to kite - all those rocks just lurking under the surface ready to eat your board.
those thrusters never had much depower on the bar or in the safety, lucky it fully released..... where was his safety leash??
If that is Taranaki, there's a couple of paddocks without hedges, just cows, depending on which road you take or which section you get access through and you could launch with heaps of space. But Ive walked out over the Taranaki rocks/boulders just with a board, there is no fkn way i'd try it with a kite, even when you get near the water, its just all slippery rocks, crap footing. Must admit I did laugh at that vid tho.