Top Five Kite Surfing Tips for Beginners – How to Stay Safe

Paul McWilliams    ash, kiteboardingholidays     Adventure Sports, kite surfing, kiteboarding, kitesurfing, kitesurfing holidays, Safety, Safety Tips

One of the fastest growing and most exhilarating sports in the world, kite surfing can give you a rush unlike any other. Kite surfers are capable of reaching frightening speeds and getting almost unbelievable air (check out Lewis Crathern jumping over Brighton Pier in the UK, if you don’t believe us) but it can also be pretty dangerous. So it’s vital when starting out to ensure you’re riding as safely as possible. Here are our top five tips for staying safe, making the most of your kite surfing experience and avoiding what is known as a ‘kitemare’.

Protect Yourself

Make sure you have all the necessary safety equipment. Helmets and vests can save your life. Ok, you might feel a bit restricted and let’s face it, no one looks great in a helmet, but in the event of a collision or a board leash propelling the board at your head, it might just save your life.

Know the line

Watch out for lines, and not just power lines. One of the most common causes of accidents is getting caught, tangled or hit by your own kite lines. These things can move at quite a speed and can cause ugly injuries (lost fingers anyone?) so make sure you keep an eye on them and always carry a hook safety knife to cut yourself free from tangled lines.

Communication

Always let someone know where you are going but it’s best to try and always go with a friend. Let the authorities know if any thing goes wrong, even if you have lost a board at sea. This might be a minor annoyance to you, but it could be worse if they think that a kite surfer has been lost at sea.

Be sensible

Fairly obvious we know, but follow a few simple rules and you can significantly reduce your chances of having an accident. Avoid power lines and rocks, and always make sure you keep a safe distance from others. Hitting the water might hurt but not as much as another boarder or the rocks. Always check the weather before you go and avoid offshore winds. Get caught in one of those and it’s a long swim back to the shore.

Know your limits

Kite surfing is going to be fun and it’s going to be fast, but only when you are sufficiently practiced to know what you’re doing. Winds can reach incredible speeds and they don’t have much regard for what you’re doing. It’s easy to get overpowered and out of control and then you become a danger to yourself and everyone else.

Stick to these simple principles and there’s no reason you can’t have a lifetime’s worth of adrenaline rushes from kite surfing. But whatever you do, please don’t go trying to jump over a pier. Let’s leave that to the professionals.

When is fighting a sport?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     box, Boxing, Danger, extreme sport, extreme sports, fight, fighting, fighting sports, fit, fitness, Martial Arts, mixed martial arts, Risk, Safety, skill, Sports

We’ve long accepted fighting as sport. It’s established in so many forms, disciplines and cultures that it’s rarely criticised. Most recently we’ve seen the extreme sports of fighting, Mixed Martial Arts, move further toward the mainstream.

Pitting one style against another is always interesting. However, there is a line past which extreme fighting becomes more about violence than skill. So, where do we draw the line?

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Shark Diving: Should we be afraid?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Africa, cape town, Danger, kitesurfing, ocean sports, Risk, Safety, Scuba Diving, shark, shark dive, shark diving, sharks, south africa, Surf, Surfing, water sports, watersports

Another Shark Week has concluded on one of the major networks. No matter how many times it’s explained that sharks rarely attack, there’s always a moment, a worry that passes over watersports fans as we paddle out into the waters.

Sharks: even the smallest look intimidating. But is this because we are conditioned to fear them, or based on a genuine threat? Surely kitesurfers are safe? Or are they?

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Are headphones putting your senses on pause?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure Sports, Adventure Sports Equipment, Danger, extreme sports, Music, Safety, Safety Tips

We’ve only five senses. Unless you can draw on a sixth, it seems foolish to interfere with them during extreme sports or adventure sports activities.

It’s difficult to separate your music from your sport. Golfers may find it easier to leave their mp3 players back in the clubhouse, but that’s because their sport has no soundtrack, whereas extreme sports is powered by music, ‘amped’ in fact. read more

Holiday in a war zone: extreme enough for you?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Adventure, Adventure Travel, Afghanistan, Albania, Biking, Bosnia, conflict, conflict countries, Cyprus, Danger, driving, Europe, extreme travel, Georgia, Helmand, Holiday, Holidays, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Risk, Safety, Safety Tips, Skiing, Travel, Turkey, War, war zone

Danger is exciting. But how much can you flirt with it before you get hurt? There really isn’t anyway of telling, no logic or probability to consider. But putting yourself in the path of armed conflict, even onto the damaged ground of a country recently scarred by war is ill advised. Or are we missing something? Is war zone tourism extreme enough for you?

I’m sure you have some answers, but for us it’s a matter of definition: What is a war zone? What is too dangerous? And ultimately, who decides?

Let’s start with definitions: If a war zone is a place where war is happening right now, then it’s too dangerous to visit. But just because you’re told a country is a war zone, don’t be scared off visiting, just start investigating further. Perhaps find out if the whole country/region is affected, then establish which areas are safe and what is the true risk, not just the perceived risk.

There are people climbing in parts of Afghanistan right now, without body armour. And Georgia, a place of ongoing fighting between the Russian army and Chechen rebels, is not off the adventure travel map either. So would you still go?

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Keeping Extreme Sports Safe

Ian K    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     Accident, Adventure Sports, Danger, equipment, extreme sports, gear, Injury, Protection, Protective clothing, Risk, Safety, Safety Tips, Skateboarding, Sport Safety

It’s not been a good month for skateboarding. There have been a number of accidents that have made the press, and inevitably questions are being asked about the safety of extreme sports.

So, it seems only right we set the record straight, and make four points on safety and risk: read more