Surf: Beachbreak with long, wall-ey lefts and rights.
Wind: Cross-onshore
Two rippers drop into the same wave at exactly the same moment 20 metres apart from each other.
The upwind guy cranks into a hard, bottom turn and bearsaway to ride left.
The downwind guy holds his line stubbornly while riding twisted-bowel style and locks tight into the potential righthander.
They are obviously on a collision course.
lol.
Who does what ??
(My answer to come later.)
Easy.
Port tack gives way to starboard.
Or (via ColRegs) both bear away to starboard to avoid a collision.
Ahhhh thanks Slave you keep me entertained
Both rider together making eye contact with smile and try not to kn collide........no eye contact then get the crap out of there and avoid the unconscious dude or dudess.
And the chance of this happening? 1 in 500K...........
Enjoy your sail bud, I'm shopping at Big W and K Mart.
Hmmmm... I'll have a crack.
Seeing as it's no different to a scenario surfers have to endure at peaky beachies every session and the number of surfers crossing over these days, I'd say there's a fair chance it would end like this:
Most surfers are very aware of the pecking order in the lineup based on skill level. As soon as you approach the water you are scanning the crew, trying to work out who to hassle and who to leave alone. So in that instant moment you drop in, you pick up the dude in your peripheral take a mili sec to make the judgement on the guy, he does the same and the lesser flicks off.
Two guys of equal rank, especially at the higher end, would prob hold ground and it ends in tears. A noob would prob do the same and cop a earful as they do in the surf.
But at 20m apart on take off, with most people running 23m+ lines, they would be rooted already...
Are they both local's
If they are good mates and know each others riding it could be possible for the rider going left to do a drawn out bottom turn around twisted bowel dude with kite very low. The twisted bowel dude can put kite high and once the pass has been made should be able to ride the right without to much problem.
Best and safest option would be to let the rider who's up wind have the wave. Much easier for the downwind rider to swing his kite across the window uninterupted and head back out for the next wave.
I say they hold their lines, they collide they end up in a mess.
They untangle and exchange abuses on the beach
One guy speaks only spanish, the other a local.
The local then comes to this forum and complains bitterly about Euros not knowing the rules.
The Euro goes home to Spain and complains bitterly about localism.
Do i win?
I say:
Thanks to the lack of death leash, the kiter with the smallest balls ejects at the chicken loop and High five the upcoming kitesurfer as they cross over safely while his loose kite goes trawling the nearby beach for fresh children
Option 1
person going right stays high
person going left stays low
or vice versa
Option 2
loudest ooii wins
Option 3
guy going right yells - starboard - and has right of way
puts in a protest
why was there no mention of the waves breaking point? closest to that has right of way. simple.
Most likely that one will fall off before they even get close to a collision.
Are either in the tube ? as you never mess with another mans barrell unless he is just riding pigdog style.
However as greenpat asked depending on wind direction ie" cross off from the left or right ? " I reckon the guy upwind should be giving way to the guy downwind "
I assumed its a big peak and wall both left and right and they are both taking off behind the peak trying to backdoor it?
If it is 20 m distance, and the upwind rider is carving a bottom turn, zooming downwind, her/his kite is low... she has not a lot of options
The downwind kiter edging upwind has the option to bail out (bottom turn). He is the only one who can do something about clearing the air.
Thanks for asking WS.
It truly is a hypothetical. - Since when does a cross onshore wind have gnarly right and left walls. - Normally the cross onshore, closes the break out.
wow now I see why kiters are hated in the surf. tgladman and poida are the only ones following surfers rules. But as a kiter It doesn't matter where the peak is like it does when your surfing so you don't have to read the wave like when your surfing, so I spose you could say we are not really surfing and sailing rules apply. I have seen this senario before at graveyards ( the sandbank not the reef) and of coarse it was one of you tourists trying to surf up wind
. Luckily there is plenty of waves to go round and the sandbank is only a crumbling wave anyway.
ok waveslave is from w.a.
so the wind is south west.
the coast faces west.
the surfers are headed toward each other,
the right is a good wave coz the southerly holds the barrel open a bit,
the left is section heaven,
but they are too close at the peak and are fcd, maybe...., so maybe the other hypothetical is they are a bit further apart and heading for a close out....which one slave?,
I have noticed when i paddle surf metro i can bottom turn between lids, snap before mals, tube ride over bailers and air into a pack of duck diving hoots, and there is no rule for crossovers on a a close out except maybe he/ her who intends to go bigger gets write, or they who compromise, but thats not a clear rule.
but when i paddle surf country i would fade more and err to caution.
kites hmm starboard has write is also down wind so goes right...upwind in this case..hmm
I dont know..lucky i cant wave ride yet eh?
In the city...know how to party...keep it rockin, keep it rockin.
ps hilly that avatar looks pretty familiar no problems with you tourists surfing that into the wind.
I'm surprised that there's any discussion?
Upwind rider has right of way, provided he hasn't snaked someone already on the swell. I thought it was the same everywhere?
No wonder I have difficulty with kiters when wavesailing 
Upwind guy has right of way if both get on swell/wave at the same time. No argument needed, it has always been like this for wavsailors and kiters. Why would someone ride upwind if they could be riding downwind? Strange question.
^^ thats ok if it is a predominantly left hand wave but if it was a predominantly right hand wave, say west coast and sw wind, the upwind rider wont be getting nuthin from me, cause I take the deepest inside as having priority
Not a fan because the rider tends to use a lot of kite power instead of actually riding the wave. Some people can do it ok but mostly looks (and feels) like riding in front of the wave. Depending on the exact direction of course but at least here In WA to ride a right hander basically the only way to stay on the wave is to hold your edge and straight line it, can't really do turns the same as riding downwind on a wave.
