There was a kite tangled in the power lines @ Altona beach in Vic.
It was on channel 7's news this morning (6:30 wa)
Does anyone knows what happened?
(Come on our dearest cook, I know you are reading this forum, let us know how you stuffed it up that we can have a good laugh at you)
The same story was on the channel 10 11am news (at least here in SA).
Looked like a blue North caught in the powerlines. According to the report the kiter released the kite, suffering only a minor ankle injury.
Guy went to land his kite but his girlfriend missed it and he was too close to the footpath and landing in the wrong direction for the south easterly. He got dragged over the small footpath wall and halfway up a tree before he could release.
Think he damaged his foot . Fire brigade and cops and powerline guys all turned up.
The kite actually caught on fire on the lines and sparks were pouring over the trees in front yard of the house. We tried to get the reporter to not do a report as we dont want any negative publicity but he saw a story.
Hope the guy is alright. Remember at the end of a session you are tired and sh** can happen at any time so give youself some safety margin and land away from trees / footpath.
Too much more of this and Altona could be banned . We are soon to lose alot of beach for kiting so we dont want a full ban .
damn it... that's all we need now... to get fully banned there...
bloody hell, why can't people concetrate properly when landing their kites... i've seen way too many launch / land incidents at Altona every season...
i wasn't there yesterday, but sometimes people insist on landing on the grass just so that they do'nt get a piece of sand on their kite, when it's blowing over 30 knots... there is absolutely no room for recovery there as the beach is not hugely wide... so keep your hand on the QR at the slightest sign of uncertainty, rather than trying to recover the kite...
Hey Mr superlizard
See if you can ban kite surfing in your local beach by doing something crazy!
Maybe superlizard can join Alex sanz and start a team for banning the sport from the planet!
Only a matter of time until the B word came up and a biatch fight was on. 
The important thing here was no serious injury to the kiter OR Joe public. 
Banning potential is waaayyy behind.
Still can't quite believe it wasn't a Cab though.
definitely too many people launching and landing too close to mcbain st lately, apparently oblivious to the light poles. i wasn't there yesterday, was it up near mcbain st?
on monday there were lots of crew launching and landing from the wrong side for the wind direction in terms of maximum safety.
perhaps some diplomatic peer-education efforts are in order?
This is just GREAT news!!
Particularly for the "LOCALS", who FYI originally windsurfed and kited there since day dot, also kayak, and longboarded near the pier in some cases. The same group who have now over the years been essentially forced further to the west end, due to the ever increasing number of kiters blowing in from who the f$%$k knows where. Now it is getting to the point that we are not only getting forced out of the west end, but we are also looking down the barrel of a blanket ban in the area, due to the ever increasing number of kooks who find their way here.
The last two days have seen not only this instance, but others where some a-hole flying an EH rode a local deliberately into the beach, another dildo on a red cab who looks like santa deliberately line one of the younger boys up twice, not to mention the kooks who simply, either do not know or choose to ignore the basic rights of way, or decide it would be cool to teach their chick to kite in the middle of the primo areas.
Two of these instances were seconds away from physical altercations. Patience is wearing thin.
This is by no means an exaggeration, and locals are pissed of to the point that a meeting with the council on their behalf is being considered, with the intent of forming a club, body, to help prevent a blanket ban being imposed.
Web sites, schools, gear peddlers are pimping Altona to all and sundry, with little or no consideration to the fact that it is screwing the place to the point it will be impractical and unsafe for most during the summer months. (not just for locals) .
It would be nice if the people who openly pimp Altona, would also preach a little etiquette and consideration.
Suggested rule of thumb, if it's too crowded down the east end, don't come upwind to the west end.
Welcome to Altona ...now leave.
I love Altona, this is just the best spot, you have to see it.
It would have to be one of the top 3 locations in the world and by the look of things they won't be any more pollies out there real soon.
The sad fact is that it only takes a few ass holes to get the sport banned.... Where i live in canada there is this one cock sucker who has been causing all the problems. Its not like here where you have so many kiters, i mean a busy day for us is like 10 - 15 kites but this one person nearly had the sport banned in a few locations. One guy and the sport has a bad rep!!!! not sure how many kiters are in Alberta but its more then 40 i think... ha ha.
Unfortunately if you have more people you have more assholes and you have more problems, such is life.....
Hope the guy is okay after that, accidents do happen but yes you can take measures to prevent them or at least lower the chances.
Bad news - especially as it sounds like it was avoidable by leaving a sensible amount of room while landing. Hope he is OK.
Agree with Lizard on the landing stuff and some of UncleDougs comments - riding people into the beach and lining up kiters is not on. We should be out there having fun and not getting aggro. I am not big on starboard right of way - I prefer to choose the path of least resistance - but my pet hate is when kiters passing upwind have their kites low and kiters passing downwind have their kite high.
Do people do lessons at Altona? Not a good spot for it.
I'm not an Altona local but kite there very occasionally when I am in the area or have time. I kite both east & west end when I am there and will continue to do so and not let any localism keep me away (I only kite there max once a month anyway and try to play nice).
UncleDoug got it right with the etiquette and consideration comment. It's common sense people.
James
There are douches, its annoying, there is not much we can do about it. As much as I feel bad for the guy, there is no excuse for this. If you're landing too close that you have no margin of error, you shouldn't be landing or you're not good enough to land that close. It doesn't take a pro to hold the kite in one spot for someone to catch, even in gusty conditions.
First off Altona is not in the top three best kite locations in the world. If you think this you need to get out more and explore this place called australia.
Uncledoug youre just pissed becuase kiteboarding is taking over. Relax, and accept the evolution of watersports and the domination of kiteboarding Melbourne town.
Everybody goes through a near death kook experience **** up at least once, its just part of learning, so we shouldnt judge this fellow too harshly.
I agree, some pretty harsh judgements on the poor bloke who got dragged....
I didnt see it myself as I have not kited there for 2 years but I do know that kites have been ending up in those trees and powerlines for years, by all accounts this time was not as bad as some of the earlier incidents as the power did not have to be cut ( I am led to believe ). There have been times when the whole esplanade has been without power untill midnight because of a kite(s) in the power lines.
I will even own up to having to retrieve my kite from the back yard of a house over the road at Altona as well as disentagle my bar and lines from their Tv antenna allbeit many years ago.
Uncledoug please take your localism elsewhere you dont own the spot..... or do what i did and find UNCROWDED places to kite.
You will have to get use to the kooks and crowds because the fact is that as far as a learning spot goes Altona is about the best around, knee deep for 100s of metres...... I used to kite at Altona every night about 3 years ago I still kite almost every night elsewhere when there is wind in flat water with maybe one or two other kites out, people just need to stop being sheep and explore the coast line there are so many places to kite.
Altona is a excellent learning spot and thus will attract learners and kooks therfore incidents will happen from time to time. It up to the local experienced kiters to deal with dickheads who do the wrong thing and keep them in line to avoid bans not get on a forum and flame some poor bloke who had an accident and was injured. 
Good point Saffer particularly about the kite numbers ie: ten times the kites means far more incidents and that will eventually be a big problem.
In most cases the pine trees act as a good kite stopper preventing the powerline issues, new kiters should be encouraged by the local crew to launch and land in front of the trees as opposed to directly infront of the parking section. This will go some way to minimising public impacts.
As i said I was not there so I dont know the circumstances surrounding this particular incident " was the guy being selfish or a smart arse " from the report I heard it involved the kite catcher as well.
If the bloke did something out and out wrong then I agree flame away,
but if it was a mistake on his behalf or on his kite catchers behalf I think many of us are being a bit harsh, people make mistakes even experienced people ( the difference is smart people only make the mistake once ) it is up to those who are experienced to help minimise the mistakes of those around them through helpful advise.
If this guy is quite new to kiteboarding I really feel for him, he has had an incident, been injured , probably fried his kite and is now being chastised by all and sundry on a national forum. hey.... WELCOME TO KITSURFING
I bet he just cant wait to get down to Altona again and visit the friendly kiters after these posts. It seem the days of kiters helping out and watching out and giving helpful advise are long gone and have been replaced by the peanut gallery who sit on the sidlines chastising beginners and kooks instead of helping or offering advise.... these are quite often the same people who are first to throw their arms up about bans etc...
As I said before if he was being an idiot flame away but if not perhaps we should/ could reign it in a little.
Sorry for the rant ..... but having traveled this county and many parts of the world surfing, I have experienced and delt with localism ( delt with it swiftly in Indo, did what I was told and went in in Hawaii ( the guy was $#%ing huge like Johnny Boy Gomes ) it is a scourge on the sport and something kiting has so far managed to avoid, unfortunately inflated ego's and posts like Uncledougs are proof that the rot is setting in
