Extreme mountain biking

With spring in the air and folk dusting off their bikes I want to tell you about the toughest form of mountain biking - and appropriately enough its known as extreme cross country (XC) mountain biking!

As full-suspension bikes – those with suspension at the front and rear, capable of handling the toughest terrain – become the norm, extreme cross-country (XC) mountain biking that pushes bike and rider further than ever has never been more popular.

In Britain a new generation of man-made trails, built by enthusiasts to provide more challenging routes, have sprung up in the mountains of Scotland and Wales, while the Witch’s Trails in Fort William, near Ben Nevis, is about the toughest you will find.

However, even these pale into insignificance when seen against the trail in Whistler, British Columbia known simply as Comfortably Numb. The trail was built by local legend Chris Markle, who set about building it with spades, axes and a chainsaw. Because there’s no access for JCB diggers every part had to be crafted by hand, cutting trees that had fallen naturally to make wooden pathways and to negotiate boggy patches or water crossings.This is one of the toughest slices of man-made XC track in the world and unlike straight downhill mountain biking, XC requires the rider to go up as well as down, and is far more technically challenging.

Comfortably Numb starts at 2,067ft then rises to 3,323ft at the highest point before dropping back to 2,346ft at the finish. The whole ride covers 15 miles and along the way riders must negotiate near-vertical rocky drops, cross mountain streams and weave between giant trees.

It has been rated by the Canadians as a “black diamond” XC trail (the toughest grade there is) and is super-technical from start to finish. Section after section requires 90-100% effort to haul your way over huge roots and up steep rocky trails.

You need to allow between four to eight hours to complete it – four hours for ultra-fit pro XC racers, six to eight hours for strong and experienced endurance mountain bikers. Whoever you are you are going to have to keep a cool head and demonstrate a skill and endurance which will test you to the extreme. To whet your appetite I have included a short clip from the Comfortably Numb trail at Whistler. Your turn next!

Swiss man soars above Alps with jet-powered wing

Wow - look at this:

Thank you to Frank Jordans from the Associated Press on Wednesday May 14th - I have copied this in its entirety…

“A Swiss pilot strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane Wednesday for the first public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure eights and soaring high above the Alps.

Yves Rossy’s performance in front of the world press capped five years of training and many more years of dreaming.

“This flight was absolutely excellent,” the former fighter pilot and extreme sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.

Rossy, 48, had stepped out of the Swiss-built Pilatus Porter aircraft at 7,500 feet and unfolded the rigid eight-foot wings strapped to his back before jumping.

Passing from free fall to a gentle glide, Rossy then triggered four jet turbines and accelerated to 186 miles per hour, about 65 miles per hour faster than the typical falling skydiver. A plane that flew at some distance beside him measured his speed.

The crowd on the mountaintop below gasped and cheered.

Rossy’s mother, who was among the spectators, told journalists she felt no fear.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Paule Rossy said of her son, who now flies commercial planes for Swiss airlines.

Steering with his body, Rossy dived, turned and soared again, performing what appeared to be effortless loops from one side of the Rhone valley to the other. At times he rose 2,600 feet before descending again.

After one last wave to the crowd the rocket man tipped his wings, flipped onto his back and leveled out again, executing a perfect 360-degree roll.

“That was to impress the girls,” he later admitted.

Rossy said after Wednesday’s five-minute flight, he is ready now for a bigger challenge: crossing the English Channel this year.

The stunt, which will be shown on live television, will test his flying machine to the limit. Rossy said he plans to practice the 22-mile trip by flying between two hot-air balloons.

“I still haven’t used the full potential,” he said.

Rossy told The Associated Press that one day he also hopes to fly through the Grand Canyon.

To do this, he will have to fit his wings with bigger, more powerful jets to allow for greater maneuverability. The German-built model aircraft engines he currently uses already provide 200 pounds of thrust, enough to allow Rossy and his 120-pound flying suit to climb through the air.

“Physically, it’s absolutely no stress,” Rossy said. “It’s like being on a motorbike.”

But on this ride, even the slightest movement can cause problems. Rossy said he has to focus hard on relaxing in the air, because “if you put tension on your body, you start to swing around.”

Should things go wrong — and Rossy says they have more times than not — there’s always a yellow handle to jettison the wings and unfold the parachute.

“I’ve had many ‘whoops’ moments,” he said. “My safety is altitude.”

Rossy wears a heat-resistant suit similar to that worn by firefighters and racing drivers, to protect him from the heat of the turbines. The cooling effect of the wind and high altitude also prevent him from getting too hot.

Rossy says his form of human flight will remain the reserve of very few for now. The price and effort involved are simply too enormous, he says.

So far Rossy and his sponsors, including the Swiss watch company Hublot, have poured more than $285,000 and countless hours of labor into building the device. He would not estimate how much his device would cost should it ever be brought to market.

But, he believes similar jet-powered wings will one day be more widely available to experienced parachutists ready for the ultimate flying experience.

That is, if they don’t mind missing out on the breathtaking panorama above the Swiss Alps.

“I am so concentrated, I don’t really enjoy the view,” Rossy said.”

…. well that’s a pity, but no doubt the design will improve rapidly (although it’s pretty amazing already) and your reason for doing it will be the bird’s-eye view!

Rock Climbing Jargon? … Why not!

Well, we’ve done kite surfing and snowboarding so why not some commonly used words in the rock climbing world…

However, with rock climbing it is a little more serious. Not just a whole new dictionary like the above sports but, a bit like scuba diving with its hand signals, rock climbing has a few critical expressions that one needs to know. It sounds a bit dramatic that it could be ‘the difference between life and death’, but at times a leader and the second might lose sight of one another and, without verbal communication, one climber might begin climbing before the other is ready to belay which is a scary thought.

So, a set of calls should be known beforehand and even practiced and agreed upon beforehand. Some common calls are:

• “Off belay!” The leader has reached a secure place. The second may discontinue the belaying process.
• “Taking in!” The leader will now pull the slack of the rope that remains between the two climbers. The second should watch for snags and tangles in the rope.
• “That’s me!” The second informs the leader that no slack remains.
• “On belay!” The leader is ready for the second to begin climbing.
• “Climbing!” The second answers that he is ready.
• “Climb!” The leader gives the final cue to begin the climb.
  
  
• “Slack!” The climber asks the belayer for extra rope.
• “Up rope!” The belayer may remove any slack that has accumulated.
• “Tension!” The belayer should take in enough rope to support some of the climber’s weight; a somewhat urgent call.
• “Watch the rope!” “Watch me!” or “Take me!” A fall or difficult move is anticipated. The belay may be tested, so get ready!

The Fascination of Extreme Rock Climbing

Some people might say “Why, why do it? What do you get out of rock climbing for god’s sake?” You go up - you have to come down again, is that fun or just a waste of time?

But I think this video explains the ultimate satisfaction of this sport to those who do it. The feeling of achievement, of getting up there - although I would be tempted to suggest that the desire ‘to conquer’ is also behind the urge to get to the top.

This Puts Extreme Sport Into Perspective

This is a story of extreme courage and the life of an un-sung heroine.

I know I’m going off at a tangent here, but I had to divert a little from extreme sport to the example of extreme courage shown by Pearl Witherington who died in March at the age of 93.

Back when Pearl was a ‘pretty young thing’ extreme sports had not even been thought of, but who needed it with the Second World War on their doorstep.

Pearl was born in Paris to British parents and accustomed to hardship from an early age. Her father died of drink when she was barely into her teens and at the age of 14 she was shouldering much of the responsibility for raising her siblings. Still in her teens she fell in love with, and got engaged to, a young Frenchman called Henri Cornioley - to the despair of his parents who thought she was far too poor and ‘lowly’ for him.

However, the Germans invaded in 1940 and she had to flee, with her mother and sisters, through Portugal to Gibralter and from there to the safety of England. In London she worked as a secretary at the Air Ministery but found the routine excessively dull and a year later applied to the SOE (Special Operations Executive) which had finally begun taking female recruits.

“This student, although a woman, has leader’s qualities,” noted her end of training report, “cool, resourceful, and extremely determined. Very capable, completely brave.” It was also observed that she was “the best shot, male or female, we have yet had.”

In September 1943, Pearl was dropped into central France where she began work as a courrier, taking messages from one Resistance group to another. She always travelled with a case of beauty products so that if she was questioned she could claim, in her fluent French, to be employed by a cosmetics company. Her work was incredibly dangerous, said the Guardian, and, as she put it herself, “terribly, terribly, terribly tiring”. On one occasion she cycled 50 miles to deliver a message, only to find a bridge heavily guarded by German soldiers. Undeterred she waded across the freezing river carrying her bicycle over her head.

In May 1944 the leader of her unit was caught by the Gestapo and Pearl was put in charge of around 1,500 Maquis fighters. By then she had been joined by her fiancé, Henri, and together they set up HQ in the gatehouse of a chateau near the woods where their Resistance friends were hiding. From here they organised sallies against the enemy who were making their way north to fight the Allies after the D-Day landings. However, the Germans soon learned their whereabouts and attacked the gatehouse, forcing Pearl to hide in a wheat field which the Germans would periodically pepper with bullets. She remained concealed there all day.

After the war she was recommended for the MC for bravery, but since, in those days, the award was not open to women, she was offered an MBE (Civil Division). She rejected this with an icy note pointing out that “there was nothing remotely ‘civil’ about what I did. I didn’t sit behind a desk all day.”

In old age, Pearl and Henri moved into a home near Bourges which was specifically for people who had made a significant contribution to French life. Fittingly, it was in the area where they had helped take 18,000 Germans prisoner in the last stages of the war.

In 2004 the Queen presented her with a CBE telling her “We should have done this a long time ago,” but the award she valued the most was her Parachute Wings, which she received last year. “I was tickled pink, because I was somewhat miffed when no-one thought to give me them all those years ago,” she said. “But I don’t consider myself a heroine. Not at all. I am just an ordinary person who did her job during the War.”

How to Rate Your Rock Climbing Adventure

It’s about time we got back to rock climbing. I have been horribly aware over the past few days that I promised to do an entire cover of rock climbing but I got side-tracked by ‘air racing’ (which gave me the shivers!) and other more ‘normal’ forms of extreme sport.

So… rock climbing and the grading scales that you need to understand for the various types of climbs that you will come across on a sortie to a rockface. Please be aware that these grades vary enormously from country to country. Many guidebooks will have a conversion table for your convenience. And everywhere you go will have their own guidebooks on their own climbs.

The following guidelines are based on the American grading scales.

The grading scale

Each trail or route is rated on a scale from 1 - 6 (with 1 being a relatively easy hike and 6 being a strenuous climb). Class 5 is highly subdivided to include all possible free climbing environments; it’s what you imagine rock climbing to be.

• Class 1 is characterized by trail hiking. Just a walk in the woods. No rocks involved. Too easy.
• Class 2 trails may require the use of hands for support. A couple of rocks but still no climbing.
• Class 3 trails contain some rocks. Inexperienced climbers may wish to use a rope, but it’s still fairly easy.
• Class 4 has more difficult rocks. Many climbers choose to use a rope for safety. Usually, natural protection ie: cracks, crevices etc. are easy to find.
• Class 5 is free climbing. A rope and protection are required. Class 5 is subdivided by the Yosemite Decimal System into fifteen groups from 5.0 to 5.14. Beyond this division, decimals from 5.10 through 5.14 may have an A, B, C or a + or - to further indicate difficulty level. A general guide for the decimal system is as follows:

1. 5.0-5.7: This range is easy for adept climbers. Most beginners start in this range.
2. 5.8-5.9: Most weekend climbers settle in this range. Specific climbing skills are employed.
3. 5.10: A dedicated weekend warrior may achieve this level.
4. 5.11-5.14: This range is for climbing experts. Extensive training and possible reworking of the route is required.
5. Class 6 is characterized by artificial (aid) climbing. Holds may not be available without the use of equipment.

This One’s For Southern Hemisphere Ski Bums

In 1983, less than 10 percent of United States ski areas allowed snowboarding, but by 1997, few resorts excluded it.

Today, snowboarding is now as accepted as skiing in most ski resorts worldwide and its popularity is growing at such a pace that the number of skiers in the US has declined by 25% and number of snowboarders increased by 77% making snowboarding the fastest growing winter sport in the US.

Today, more than 3.4 million people snowboard. An astonishing research has found that the number of people who snowboard is predicted to overtake skiing by 2015 !

However, I would be tempted to differ to these figures. When we were in the Alps the other day we were told that for the first time ever there were less snowboarders than skiers on the slopes - prior to this year the snowboarding figures (as suggested above) had always looked set to overtake skiing.

But, just so’s you aren’t a SNOW GUMP or an OL’ POPS here’s a helping hand with a few snowboarding terms for those of you in the southern hemisphere whose season is just about to start:

AIRDOG: a snowboarder who jumps most of the time and is most interested in airial tricks
ARTIC COUGAR: an old lady who goes for really young guys on the slopes and in the lodge!
FRAGGLE: term for accident involving two snowboarders, when the boards entangle causing injury.
FREAK A LEAK: - self-explanatory…
HERB: short for Herbert, a bad snowboarder or skier. In particular a skier who cuts boarders up and can’t do parallel turns. Good looking female boarders and skiers are exempt from being called herbs.
KRUNKED: someone that gets so messed up they cant move for like 45 seconds. e.g. “That dude just got krunked on that 15-stair!”
MEAT TORPEDO: a child between the ages of 4 and 9 years, on skis, with no concept of fear, speed or momentum.
GROMMET (GROM): another name for a small, young snowboarder especially one who is very “in” to snowboarding.
MISTYFLIP: frontflip 180
MOFO: ski-instructor
NOOB: new Boarder (can also be used to insult people). e.g. “That noob over there wiped out on the bunny hill!”
OLLIE: the act of lifting the nose and tail of your board into the air at the same time. “That ollie was HUGE!
POW POW: fresh powder. e.g. “Cuttin the pow pow.”
POWDER PUFF: somebody who only loves riding pow
PRICKS WITH STICKS: an insulting term used to describe an annoying skier or group of skiers.
ROLLING DOWN THE WINDOWS: a phrase used to describe when someone is caught off balance and they rotate their arms wildly in the air to try and recover.

Catching a Wave at -9*C

Take that ‘*’ to mean degrees please!

Not so long ago I posted a comment on Extreme Glacial Skiing where Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala surfed glacial waves. I thought that was pretty extreme but in England and Ireland they seem to think extreme conditions are fairly normal.

According to Jane Fryer in the Daily Mail, “you haven’t really surfed until you’ve done it in the middle of the British winter” as “thanks to low-pressure systems and mid-Atlantic storms, this is when the really big waves come rolling in.”

Waves such as ‘the Cribbar’ - a 30ft wave off Newquay which “travels faster than a galloping horse and is known locally as the widowmaker” or, according to Robert Booth in the Guardian, you could travel to the west coast of Ireland to try your luck against ‘Aileen’s Wave’. Britain’s top surfers, known as ‘heavy water pioneers’ scrape ice off their boards and brave wind chills as cold as -9* to tackle the 50ft monster.

“Surfing big waves in winter is one of the biggest thrills in all sport”, said Booth.

Ted Deerhurst, a pioneer of British surfing, has compared the experience to “jumping off a three-storey house, and then having the house chase you down the street”. If the surfer falls off he or she can be held down for up to 40 seconds and pounded against the rocks. If that happens, “you curl up in a ball and cover your face as the whole of the ocean churns over you,” says Duncan Scott, the 29-year old president of the British Surfing Association. “You go to your ‘happy place’ and try to relax and not panic.”

Rather you than me I think. The lure of the blue skies, sunny climes and blue blue water holds more appeal for me than grey freezing oceans… but I admire those who challenge themselves to such an extent!

Kite surfing jargon

Like any sport kite surfing has its jargon - here’s a taster!

• air time: the amount of time spent in the air while jumping. This can be remarkably long; the current record is probably Erik Eck’s 39-second kitemare. Five to ten seconds is not unusual.
• apparent wind: the kite’s speed relative to the surrounding air. When kitesurfing in a straight line, the kite’s apparent wind is a combination of the wind speed and the speed of the kite and rider over the surface, but since the kite is highly steerable apparent wind can vary widely depending on how the kite is being flown. Most ways of increasing power from the kite involve giving it a higher apparent wind somehow, i.e. diving the kite, riding faster, or riding at a greater angle into the wind. Any of these raises the kite’s apparent wind speed.
• body dragging: being pulled through the water without standing on a board. This is an early step in the learning process, and is recommended before trying the board after flying a trainer kite.
• boost: to suddenly become airborne
• chicken loop: a hard rubber loop attached to the middle line which has been fed through the control bar. It is used to attach the control bar to the harness so the kitesurfer can produce tension in the lines using their entire bodyweight instead of using purely arm strength.
• chicken bone/chicken finger: a hard rubber “tongue” attached to the chicken loop which the rider feeds through the spreader bar hook to prevent the rider from becoming “unhooked”.
• de-power: to reduce the kite’s power (pull), generally by adjusting the angle of attack of the kite. Most kites and control bars now allow a rider to rig a kite for a number of different power levels before launching, in addition to powering the kite up and down “on the fly” by moving the bar up and down. Depowerability  (!) makes a kite safer and easier to handle. Some new kite models, especially “bow” kites, can be de-powered to practically zero power, giving them an enormous wind range.
• DP: Dawn patrol; a very early morning session.
• donkey dick: same as “chicken bone”.
• downwind: the direction the wind is blowing towards; to leeward. When a rider is facing downwind the wind is at their back.
• downwinder: a kitesurfing “trip” (could actually be as short as a few minutes) where the rider starts at one point and ends up at another point downwind of their original position.
• edge: tilting the board with its edge into the water. Used to control the direction of travel. Learning to edge properly is critical for learning to tack upwind. Edging is one of the fundamental skills of kitesurfing and is one of the ways kitesurfing is different from windsurfing or wakeboarding. While windsurf boards have daggerboards and/or skegs to steer the board upwind while lift and planing is provided by the board itself, generally kiteboards actually combine both functions and the bottom of the board lifts the rider and steers simultaneously. Kiteboard fins are generally much smaller and are for keeping the board in the water (see “tea-bagging”), but are not essential. Because kite boards have a small rocker, a deep edge can allow the board to act as a large low drag fin. Edging in wakeboarding is used for steering the board; whereas in kite boarding not only does edging steer the kite board, it is essential for kite control and controlling board speed. Riding downwind towards the kite subtracts massively from the kite’s power and helps control board speed as well.
• heel side: the side of a board on the edge where a riders heels are (opposite of toeside). “Riding heelside” is riding with heels down. Heelside is the normal and most comfortable riding position.
• Hindenburg: A reference to the Hindenburg Airship disaster of 1937, which in kitesurfing terminology refers to the kite stalling and falling out of the sky. Hindenburging can be caused either by lack of wind or by the kite advancing to a position upwind of the kitesurfer in the wind window.
• handlepass: while unhooked, passing the control bar behind a riders back while in the air
• kiteloop: is a group of tricks where a rider loops the kite while spinning through the air
• kitemare: a kiteboardsurfing accident or dangerous mishap. Kitemares can be deadly.
• lofted: to get lifted vertically into the air by the kite by a strong gust of wind. A very dangerous occurrence that has resulted in several fatalities when kiters on or near land have been dragged into obstacles. Can be avoided my minimizing time on land with the kite flying directly overhead, and by not kiting in overpowered situations.
• luff: when the air flow stalls around the kite. It may then stall and fall out of the sky. Like sails, a luffing kite has rippling and flapping panels. When launching the kite, if the kite is luffing, the rider should move farther upwind, or the person holding the kite should move downwind.
• mobe: This term has two meanings. It can either be used to describe a class of wakestyle tricks: any invert with a 360 degree spin is considered a “mobe.” Also, this term can denote a specific trick: a back roll with a frontside 360 handlepass (while keeping the kite below 45 degrees); this specific trick is also known as “the mobe.” The term “mobe” (as a class of tricks) is historically rooted in the fact that the mobe (the specific trick) was the first type of mobe to ever be landed. Other types of mobes include: mobe 540, mobe 720, slim chance, KGB, crow mobe, moby dick, Pete Rose, blind pete, crow mobe 540, etc.
• nuking: wind blowing at great speeds(30-40 knots). These conditions are very extreme and dangerous for most riders.
• offshore: wind blowing at the water from the shore. Never ride in offshore winds without some means of recovery, i.e. a chase boat. This is somewhat less important in smaller bodies of water, of course.
• onshore: wind blowing perpendicular to and directly at the shore from the water. A challenging condition for beginners, especially if waves are present.
• O-Shit Loop: Two loops on either ends of the bar that are attached to the kite lines and run through rings attached to the bar. A standard leash attachment point.
• overhead waves: waves two or more meters (6 ft) from trough to crest;
• overpowered: the condition of having too much power from the kite. Can be a result of an increase in wind, incorrect kite choice (too large for the conditions), incorrect adjustment, simply going too fast, etc. Interestingly, experienced riders who are overpowered can switch to a smaller board to compensate, to a degree, although it’s common to have just one board.
• pop: height gained above the water using only the board and tension in the lines to get lift, with the kite usually positioned at 45 degrees. Lower kite angles are possible for more experienced riders. Used as a basis for many tricks and regarded as an essential skill for progressing.
• power up: when the kite’s power increases (suddenly), because of wind gusts or the kite’s movement.
• power zone: is the area in the sky where the kite generates the most lift (pull), this is generally between 0 to 60 degrees arc from the center of the downwind direction.
• send it: To move the kite aggressively up through the power zone.
• schlogging: This is riding extremely underpowered. A rider has no power to plane and definitely not enough to jump. A rider and their board bounce from planing on the surface to being dragged in the water.
• Shit Hot: The art of stylish smooth moves.
• side shore: winds blowing parallel to the shore. Usually the most desirable direction for kitesurfing.
• side onshore: wind blowing between sideshore and at a 45 degree angle towards the shore.
• spreader bar: A stainless steel bar that attaches to the rider’s harness. It has a hook that holds the “chicken loop” when riding hooked in.
• tack: The direction which is being sailed, normally either starboard tack or port tack. In a starboard tack the wind is coming in from the rider’s starboard (right-hand) side, similar to sailing a boat. In normal riding, the kitesurfer takes a heading which is as close to into the wind as possible, and in any event leads at some angle slightly upwind, sometimes as much as 45 degrees; jumping or wave riding usually results in traveling downwind, so the net result is to maintain relative position. Alternately, see “downwinder”.
• tea-bagging: popping out of and falling back into the water intermittently due to light or gusty wind, poor flying skills, twisted lines etc.
• toe side: the side of a board on the edge where a riders toes are (opposite of heel side). “Riding toe side” is riding with toes down.
• underpowered: the condition of having insufficient power from the kite. Can be a result of insufficient wind, choosing a kite that is too small for the current wind, rigging incorrectly, board too small, water current in the same direction as the wind, not riding fast enough, etc. A rider who is continuously diving the kite and sending it back up in a sine-wave pattern is usually underpowered.
• unhooked: is a term used to describe when a kitesurfer is riding while the chicken loop is not attached to the rider’s harness.
• upwind: the direction from which the wind is blowing; windward; into the wind.
• VaS conditions: Victory at Sea; very rough sea conditions, generally with overhead wind waves causing severe shore break.
• wind window: is the 120-180 degree arc of the sky downwind of the rider in which the kite can be flown. Roughly one fourth of a sphere’s surface. If the rider is facing downwind on a flat surface, like the ocean, the wind window consists of roughly all the area the rider can see, from the rider’s peripheral vision on one side, along the horizon to the other side, and then directly overhead back to the first side. If the rider somehow puts the kite out of the window — for example, by riding downwind very quickly and sending the kite directly overhead and behind — the kite will stall and frequently fall out of the sky.
• zenith: the location in the wind window directly over the kiter’s head. This is the neutral position where kitesurfers can place the kite to stop moving or prior to movement. This places the kite in a more vulnerable “Hindenburgs” position than any other.

So there you have it, it may seem like double dutch if you are new to the kite surfing world but it will be a useful reference to check up on what your instructor has said something in class which you did not understand. On the point of instruction it is a must - get yourself along to a qualified and certified instructor before taking to the oceans and causing either yourself or someone else some mischief.

My thanks again to Adventure Escapades for this insight into the world of kite surfing jargon.

Kite surfing safety tips

Power kites can be dangerous… read on!

Because of strong forces that can be generated by sudden wind gusts, people can be lofted, carried off, dashed against water, buildings, terrain or power lines, resulting in what’s termed a “kitemare”.
Most kiteboarding fatalities are the result of being lofted or dragged out of control, resulting in a collision with hard objects including sand.

It is possible to be seriously injured simply by hitting the water surface at speed or from a height. Jumping and being airborne at inappropriate places (such as shallow water or near fixed or floating objects) can be a contributing factor.

To maximize safety, basic safety guidelines should always be followed, some of which follow:

• Always check the weather forecast, color radar, real-time wind reports on the Internet for indications of storms/squalls and excessively gusty winds, wind direction changes and lightning hazards. Do not launch or ride in or near squalls or storms.
• Avoid kite surfing in crowded areas, near rocks, trees, or power lines. In general there should be a minimum of 100 meters of safe distance from all obstructions.
• Try to ride with side-shore winds. Avoid offshore or directly onshore winds.
• Pay attention to changing weather and wind conditions. Particularly dangerous are storm fronts, which are often preceded by strong, variable wind gusts and sometimes involve lightning. If a rider feels a static shock from the kite bar, they should land the kite immediately and seek shelter.
• Helmets and impact vests can save lives and add substantial convenience if a rider wears them.
• Wear appropriate exposure clothing for conditions and a reasonable period of time in the water, should you become disabled.
• Do not remove or disable factory-installed safety equipment or releases.

Harness Safety:

The most basic is a quick-release harness safety system. Harness safety systems come in different configurations; most allow the kite surfer to release the kite with one tug or push, leaving only one line which is attached to a kite leash. This one line ideally will cause the kite to lose its shape and fall from the sky, without power. Redundant safety releases are even better; do not remove your kite release because you assume you can simply unhook. “Safety equipment” also includes the bar floats, the foam floats on the outside lines of most kite bars; most kite lines sink, and without bar floats sunk lines are more likely to tangle around an underwater obstruction. This could even happen with the bar floats, but they do help. With the kite in the water, a tangle like this could drag you underwater and hold you there.

Other key Pointers:

• Never use a board leash without wearing a helmet. Under certain circumstances, a board leash can cause the board to strike the rider in the head. Alternatively, don’t use a board leash. A helmet is a wise precaution in most circumstances whether you use a board leash or not, but never use a board leash without wearing a helmet. NOTE: board leashes have propelled boards through helmets in the past. The best course is normally to not use a board leash and practice body dragging upwind to regain your board.
• Avoid riding overpowered. Using too large a kite for the wind conditions or your experience level is extremely dangerous. Underpowered riding is preferable to overpowered riding. When in doubt, go to a smaller kite and see how it goes. Always stay within the wind range specified by the manufacturer for the kite.
• Be extra careful when landing or launching the kite. Most accidents occur on shore or while a rider is entering or leaving the water. It’s advisable to either un-hitch your kite from your harness while on-shore, holding onto it with only your arms, so you can release if necessary, or simply be ready to operate the quick-release mechanism. Ideally, don’t spend any time on shore with the kite in the air; launch the kite and then leave the beach immediately, and when coming in, land as quickly as possible. When on shore, keep the kite low: if it’s hit by a gust, it can drag the rider, but may prevent lofting.
• Carry a safety knife attached to the harness for cutting tangled lines. Tangles are dangerous because an entangled rider in the water may not be able to free themselves quickly enough in the event the kite powers up suddenly (catches a wind gust, suddenly accelerates, or, if it’s in the water, gets hit by a wave). The tangled lines around a rider’s body can cut and sever a rider’s fingers, toes, or limbs or cause serious and deep lacerations. In a crash situation, with the kite in the water, do not allow a line to encircle a part of the body.
• Notify the coast guard if you lose a board or kite at sea.
• At wind speeds of 50 km/h (a typical speed for a skillful kite surfer), one can easily get tired, and then get farther from shore than an easy swim, which is the primary reason kite surfing in directly offshore winds is discouraged. Other general marine hazards include sharks, jellyfish, sea otters, dolphins, and even crocodiles, depending on the location.
• Collisions with wind surfers, other kite boarders or water craft are significant hazards, particularly at busy locations.
• Some kite designs from late 2005 and onwards have incorporated immediate and full depower mechanisms with the control bar and improved quick release mechanisms, both of which are making the sport much safer.
• Weather planning and awareness are key to safe kiteboarding.

When practised safely, with the proper training and gear, kiteboarding is an enjoyable, addictive sport. Like any other sport, respecting nature, paying attention to the weather and staying within the limits of the riders ability will provide the safest and most enjoyable experience.

Depending on where you are in the world you should be aware of the local laws about flying kites and kite surfing.

My thanks again go out to Adventure Escapades of South Africa for these useful safety tips; the only other advice I have to offer at this time is having read this article is to go back to the top of the page and read it again!!