So i'm out having a sail with a friend at Shearwater on Saturday. We come to the beach to have a chat because i had just split the nose of my board from the front of my boom hitting it after trying a very ungraceful jybe. I am relatively novice. I'm not in the best of moods now because of the board thing. We are in thigh deep water and there is some people out there learning to kite surf. This guy is teaching his missus to kite surf which is all good except for the fact they are UP wind of the whole of Shearwater. So this lady looses control when she does get up out of the water and comes straight for us in the water but obviously hasn't been taught how to steer the kite properly. Her board goes straight across the top of my sail which is only 4 days old. It puts a mark on one of the batten pockets and scuffs it up a bit and puts a gouge in some of the reinforced area of the mono film which was that close to going through it's not funny. I tried to move the sail but couldn't do it in time. So now i'm even more pissed off. The guy says sorry she is only learning. I understand the whole learning thing as i'm doing it myself. So to the amazement of both my friend and I he drags her back UP wind again and tries again. WHY WHY WHY would you teach some one UP wind from every single person there that day. Come on common sense has to prevail sometimes doesn't it. Why should i have to put up with my brand new sail being damaged by a lack of common sense. If he had a brand new car and i was teaching my daughter to drive on her L plates and she made a mistake and put a dent in his car and scratched it would he still think that it was OK and then get her drive in exactly the same manner again and again, i think not. I know it's not quite the same but it's similar. Please bear others in mind and use common sense when you are teaching or learning. We all need to use the area together it's not a bowling alley where everybody else in the water are the pins, nobody wants themselves or their gear to be hit by an out of control board, kite or windsurfer. I don't know why they call it COMMON SENSE because if it was common everyone would have it.
Yep,common sense is lost on alot of people.
Your best bet would have been to have a friendly chat to the chick and point out the problem she is causing.
Most people will thankyou for the advice,,,problem solved,,you might of saved someone from getting hurt.
Having a spit on a forum that they dont read will get you nowhere.
You must be new here, he was using his common sense so its OK, nobody need follow rules cause everyone can just use their common sense and nothing will go wrong.
Or maybe its only genetically superior windsurfers gifted with the enigma that is common sense..
Also I can't understand how you would get upset about dinging the nose of your board, I trash my gear all the time, never bothers me...
I find many kiters teach from the upwind-most position. Including schools sometimes.
I suppose they simply want more room should they lose it and don't care about people.
I usually sail close to their beam line and get in the way. Sometimes they move, but some are really, really thick.
You try and get in the way?????of someone learning who dosent have alot of skills yet?????
Then you will complain when you get hit...
common scence????
Who dosent care about people???
Who is really really thick again??
Just give learners ,kite or pole, a bit of room to move,not get in the way.... That would be common scence.
Yep I would have been asking for $ to fix the gear or replace it..Hope things improve..
I wasn't in front of her she headed straight on shore and traveled probably 30 to 40 metres and hit my sail and almost got dragged to the beach. We were well clear. I don't blame her at all i put more blame on the person instructing because they are the ones that would have the greater experience in saying that i suppose BLAME isn't the right word, i know non of this was intentional and he did say sorry. Like i said i understand the learning thing but while people are learning wouldn't be better and safer to be down wind a bit of the other dozen or more people in the area. She didn't know how to steer the kite which again is not her fault at all. There was 3 other people there including a young boy being taught and they spent nearly all there time learning how the kite re-acts and how to steer it before they even got on the board and caused nobody any issues whatsoever. i just believe she should have been taught to fly the kite better before being thrown on the board. I could be wrong and maybe she had been taught and panicked a bit or something but if that's the case down wind a little would have been safer in my opinion for all concerned including her. Genetically superior? looks like some people are taking this personally. I just think that we should be taking others into consideration. The last thing any of us need is the nanny state coming into play more and restricting areas and activities due to injuries and so forth. It's already happening with other sports and activities. I'm not trying to inflame anyone just venting my opinion. I may be off the mark but i'm sure someone will be more than happy to let me know if i am it seems
The right thing for the kiters to do is to aplogise profusely, ask about your gear and offer to pay for repairs etc. Which you would graciously decline if the damage was no more than wear and tear.
Some people are inconsiderate through ignorance or accident. Some people actively try to be arseholes. Decent people try not to be the former and are never the latter.
kiters are as dumb as dog **** tell them to practice in a park on the monkey bars
Firiebob you get me. Yes i care about my gear and make no apologies for that, it costs a lot of money. I don't know of anyone that would be happy about having a 4 day old sail that can cost anything up to $1000+ damaged or a kite for that matter. I don't and never did want it to become an us and them mentality. I like it when there is a heap of people out enjoying themselves all i was trying to say was as these sports become more and more popular therefore more and more people we need to consider the people around us and try to make sure we don't impact other people in a negative way. A little bit of thought, common sense and consideration will go a long way towards EVERYBODY having a good day. Just for the record i have spoken to a few "kiters" and one of them said he was an instructor. His exact comment on what happened after seeing first hand was "if we did what they are doing while teaching someone we would be shot". If we have kiters and windsurfers crashing into each other and others swimmers or beach goers there will start to be exclusion zones set up if the fun police are brought into play lets try and avoid that sort of thing by policing ourselves. Oh crap i just jybed right off my soapbox and split my board again. Oh it doesn't matter i'm not supposed to care it's only money. Ooopps can you say sarcasm.
Did you ask him to pay for the damage as you would have done if it had been your car?
No? Then you have nothing to grumble about, honestly if I found myself stood in shallow water just "chatting" and notice kiters upwind, especially learners, I would have picked mg gear up and got out of the water. Just a thought, but would stand under the payload of a trainee crane operator?
Barn, you must be gen y, all this " cool I don't care if I trash my gear" ..
bummer. Getting a board trashed is upsetting, having a sail trashed by someeslse is very upsetting, some people have the means to replace broken gear straight away, others don't.
Dr J you must be very happy a cashed up bogan is captain of the aust cricket team
Part of me empathises, we have lots of tea tray learners at my local spot, they are forever dropping their kites directly across the run.
Part of my thinks why the hell are you stood around in the water with a dinged board that will be taking on water!!!! 
Someone with common sense would get it out of the water ASAP
it's the popular "L Plater" kiter spot - if you haven't had a kite land on your head, or watched someone fly their kite with only 3 lines, or watched a kiter go for a drag up the beach and into the shrubs on their guts and then mumble "it's all good" with a mouth full of grass and dirt, you haven't fully experienced the joys of the shearwater 
while i find the last posts more amusing then enlightening I really wonder where all this animosity towards kiters comes from. I do not have experienced that, being a novice pole dancer myself, but surely they are not all bad. I reckon we just have to make repeated efforts at communication and all will be fine.
And I would have asked for some money too if the sail is damaged.
And I'm guilty of sailing damaged boards because I only have one and if it's windy I'm gonna use it.
But i still take care of the things since I also do not have any money to just replace things willynilly.
ah well let's all have some fun
Firstly I have to congratulate qldnacra. He has reason to be annoyed but he's kept his tone reasonable the whole time.
Sometimes peoples actions and best intensions do go wrong for some reason, inexperience, ignorance ect.
Hopefully a lesson learnt, if you dont want your gear damaged by other people stay far enough away so they hopefully dont come near you.
Noboy likes there gear damaged, espeacially by other people when you have spent thousands of dollars.
