Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Snow kiting in Washington D.C. and a cautionary tale

From Keith Edwards, my neighbour who is living near Washington D.C. - here's a novel way of enjoying 40+ inches of snow in DC,  with the Washington monument in the background.



Back in Australia, a friend of Keith's had a kitemare at Merimbula.  He got tangled in his kite lines when body dragging and was hurt badly after being "tea bagged" repeatedly.  He was rescued eventually by a tourist boat in the vicinity.

Some tips to avoid this type of accident::

  • Have enough lessons to learn kite control and safety drills. Five is a realistic minimum.
  • Practice your safety drills - such as releasing your kite completely.
  • Carefully check your set up before heading out.  
  • Carry a safety knife and cut your lines if you get tangled in them, don't try to "sort it out" unless the kite is safely on the beach.
  • if you get tangled, land the kite and re rig the lines before flying it again.
  • If in doubt, release your kite without delay.

Link: Happy to be alive, Merimbula News

2 comments:

Boris T said...

Man that pic is awesome! They're getting showed in pretty bad on the east coast but at least the winds are good for some snow kiting.

Michael said...

Keep up the fun blog posts Peter.

Cheers,
Michael
http://kite-line.com