Its looks awesome fun, but geeze its dangerous! (Kite surfing)

Member Name: freebeme

Product:	Kite surfing
Date:	08/03/09 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun fun fun fun fun

Disadvantages: danger of death

Kitesurfing looks absolutely fantastic. Id love it I just know I would. I love windsurfing, surfing, in fact all forms of fast thrilling water sports. You could say that I'm a water sport junky. However I've heard so many horror stories about things that can go wrong and have personally witnessed things going wrong that I've finally decided (I think) that I'm going to stay clear of this particular water sport.

Dangers Ive witnessed and heard about kitesurfing:

1. I went on a 3 day course (in Borth, North Wales) and the instructor and his friend spent most of the three days telling everyone how dangerous kitesurfing was. In fact his friend said he'd given it up altogether and just kite buggied instead.

2. Everyone knows about getting dragged along the beach and not stopping until you hit something.

3. You can get lifted right up into the air (by freak uplifts). A hundred feet is no exaggeration. The trouble is that the kite is not a parachute so when the air current decides to dump you, you just plummet to the ground. Check out youtube for videos

4. I was on a windsurfing holiday in dahab and saw a kite surfer get it wrong. He ended up being dragged face first across a coral reef. It was a horrible thing to see. The windsurfing guys jumped into the rescue boat and went and got him. When they got back some of them were puking at what they saw. Basically all the skin had been torn off his forearms, nose and chin

5. If you jump up and get air great, but if you go higher than you expect and the kite collapses you fall straight back down into the water. Trouble is if you land on your back your ribs will pop out and push through your wetsuit. This does happen!

6. Lifeboats will not touch a kite, they completely abandon it. This is because there was an incident when a lifeboat man had his ear sliced off by the kite wire when he tried to untangle it

7. I know a guy who had to have a skin graf on one of his arms because when he went to untwist one of the lines on the kite, the kite suddenly lifted and the taught line (thin wire) caught his arm and took the skin off

Summary: I still day dream about doing it though ...in waves..fantastic fun I bet