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A big thankyou to my rescuer Craig88

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Created by COL > 9 months ago, 24 Oct 2014
COL
NSW, 550 posts
24 Oct 2014 5:33PM
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I've been tumbled around a thousand times after falling from my board & no harm done. On this occasion a fintip had broken during my session leaving a treacherous jagged edge and this was the result, a deep puncture to my knee. You may notice the tail fin behind is showing similar stress marks to what the broken one had prior to heading out.
I was quite shaken to see my injury and there was little more I could think of but to stem the bleeding. I'm very grateful a fellow kiter was at hand and took responsibility for my situation, running for help from the lifeguards, even packing up all my gear for me and returning with my clothes as it was clear I was heading straight to emergency. I owe you one Craig, thanks heaps!
There's 2 lessons to this experience. 1)Gear maintenance, there were signs of a tired fin with many stress marks so thorough strength testing or better still, a full set replacement would have been reasonable. Of course even a fin in good condition is a risk and keeping the edge rounded & smooth is a good idea. 2) There's obvious hazards to kiting and we need to be on constant lookout for one another, even the more experienced guys can come unstuck. I know this has been covered previously, I don't think it can be repeated too many times.
Safe kiting
Col









laurie
WA, 3848 posts
24 Oct 2014 3:11PM
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Wow - thanks for sharing .. glad to all panned out ok, and good on Craig88 for helping.



Dl33ta
TAS, 461 posts
24 Oct 2014 6:12PM
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Certainly not the type of gash I look forward to seeing on the internet!

ApatheticEnd
WA, 995 posts
24 Oct 2014 3:16PM
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meaty...

gokid
QLD, 491 posts
24 Oct 2014 5:56PM
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Yeeew yuuukkk !!!!!

MrFreeze
289 posts
24 Oct 2014 5:19PM
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Hmmmmm, Surfboards are inherently dangerous. Ask Tommy Caroll. BTW nice stitch job.

waveslave
WA, 4263 posts
24 Oct 2014 5:39PM
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Select to expand quote
COL said..
On this occasion a fintip had broken during my session leaving a treacherous jagged edge and this was the result, a deep puncture to my knee.
Safe kiting
Col







No sympathy, dude.

Am I being too cruel ?

Despite knowing the fin was damaged and dangerous sometime during your session ...

(you said that, not me)

you carried on regardless riding high on stoke and broken glass,

taking your chances and testing the risk vs reward contest.

Nice neat stitches, great job.



pearl
NSW, 984 posts
24 Oct 2014 9:12PM
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Select to expand quote
waveslave said..




COL said..
On this occasion a fintip had broken during my session leaving a treacherous jagged edge and this was the result, a deep puncture to my knee.
Safe kiting
Col







No sympathy, dude.

Am I being too cruel ?

Despite knowing the fin was damaged and dangerous sometime during your session ...

(you said that, not me)

you carried on regardless riding high on stoke and broken glass,

taking your chances and testing the risk vs reward contest.

Nice neat stitches, great job.









That's a bit harsh.... He's not looking for sympathy, just trying to help. You may have found a brand new fin with no damage may have cut just as bad. I've had a few sets lately that were sharpened to pointed edge. Reminded me of the old twin fin days when you used to 'scallop' out your instep as you kicked them when you first spun around. Timely season starter reminder to check for damage &/or sharpness of your fins. Also consider a nose guard if you have a pointed nose surfboard. Leave the leg rope in the car unless you must use it! See a lot of guys lately wearing them on beach breaks, where it's just not needed.
Hope you get better quickly col, sound like you owe Craig a beer.

dafish
NSW, 1631 posts
24 Oct 2014 9:55PM
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That was a bit too harsh too, fins slice regardless...Accidents do happen no matterf how fresh the gear is. Agree too with the very fine stitching! Heal up dude, start shopping for new fins. So much to choose from regarding build and flex.

wdric
NSW, 1625 posts
25 Oct 2014 9:20AM
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Your fins are always stressed and getting tired fins Bit of back luck thrown in their too, you can fall off a hundred times and nothing happen , then one day the dice roll the wrong way.

waveslave
WA, 4263 posts
25 Oct 2014 7:28AM
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Select to expand quote
pearl said..

waveslave said..





COL said..
On this occasion a fintip had broken during my session leaving a treacherous jagged edge and this was the result, a deep puncture to my knee.
Safe kiting
Col







No sympathy, dude.

Am I being too cruel ?

Despite knowing the fin was damaged and dangerous sometime during your session ...

(you said that, not me)

you carried on regardless riding high on stoke and broken glass,

taking your chances and testing the risk vs reward contest.

Nice neat stitches, great job.










That's a bit harsh.... He's not looking for sympathy, just trying to help.


Pearl and Dafish think I'm harsh.

Well ask yourselves, if you were surfing (not kiting),

and you had damaged your fin during the session,

leaving a treacherous jagged edge,

would you continue to surf ?

No, not if you're smart.

I'm guessing that you would take the next wave to the beach,

so that you could remove the danger from the board by replacing the fin.

And if you found you didn't have a replacement,

you would towel-off and call it a day, right ?

Some kiters have sh1t for brains.

lol.

lukekiter
WA, 96 posts
25 Oct 2014 7:46AM
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That's right, some have sh1t for brains while others are just plain old trolls, lol

dafish
NSW, 1631 posts
25 Oct 2014 10:53AM
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Slave, while I enjoy your banter and thoughts on some things, sometimes you are just mean. Here is my take on surfing with a kite. If I was out somewhere with no backup fin and it was damaged as above, I would keep going. Whether or not the fin is jagged doesn't really matter. Fins cut either way. It would not effect the ride as much as if you were purely surfing and didn't have the kite as power. If I had a spare in the van I would swap it out. But if the waves and wind were good I would keep going. I would hardly call that foolish. Your mileage may vary.

waveslave
WA, 4263 posts
25 Oct 2014 8:43AM
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Select to expand quote
dafish said..
If I had a spare in the van I would swap it out. But if the waves and wind were good I would keep going. I would hardly call that foolish.


Hmmm,

so poor Col wants to warn the masses about unsafe practises,

and you say forget about the treacherous, jagged broken glass,

cause there's wind and waves out there , dude.

lol.

You know, there is a safer option.

If you didn't have a replacement fin handy,

you could remove the two outside fins and turn the board into a funky twinzer.

Or am I being over-cautious ?

By the way, how's that munted finger of yours ?

Mending I hope.

wdric
NSW, 1625 posts
25 Oct 2014 12:08PM
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Select to expand quote
waveslave said..

















Some kiters have sh1t for brains.

lol.


Way off the mark here buddy

waveslave
WA, 4263 posts
25 Oct 2014 9:13AM
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Select to expand quote
wdric said..

waveslave said..




















Some kiters have sh1t for brains.

lol.



Way off the mark here buddy


Yeah, how so ? ^^^

kitebored
NSW, 552 posts
25 Oct 2014 2:10PM
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Thanks for sharing COL, all the best for a speedy recovery.

Sh!t happens when kiting and in life in general, we all take risks and in hindsight some of the decisions we make are better than others.

If you were to treat this like a paid job and fill out a risk assessment/JSA/take 5 you'd still end up kiting.

The children on seabreeze are being a little bit hypercritical on this one, I guess we all need something to do when not kiting

dafish
NSW, 1631 posts
25 Oct 2014 3:12PM
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Finger is doing great Slave, thanks for asking :)
I know you think about safety a lot, and that is a VERY good thing. My point is this, if you land on that fin whether it is jagged or not, it's going to cut. In saying that, I do like the twin fin idea of riding the board without two of the fins. Small mushy day and it would be quite fun I imagine.
Carry on....

COL
NSW, 550 posts
25 Oct 2014 6:02PM
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Thanks for the well wishes. It's good to have the conversation. I just want to clear up one important point as some may have misunderstood. Perhaps my fault.
If you look at the tail fin you will see it's stressed condition. How many of you will discard their fin at that point. I myself wouldn't have. Until now.
That was the condition of the thruster, as far as I knew.
The 1st I knew that the fin was actually broken was as I was fumbling around on the beach, after the event, a bit dazed and confused.
cheers
Col

Craig66
NSW, 2435 posts
25 Oct 2014 9:02PM
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I was just reading a few topics and Wow a topic in my name, well that’s a first but Col, its 66, not 88, i dont think i could handle being 22 years younger

It was a no brainer that you needed a little help, its what we do. It was all in the timing, 5 minutes earlier I wasn’t there, 5 minutes later i would have launched and been on the water. (Which i was 10 minutes later)
As for me "running" well it was at best a slow jog.

And as for the blood, man for a little guy we could have painted the Pasha Bulker with the flow

Glad your on the mend Col, for an old guy you rip on the waves so hope to see you back out there soon.

Oh, just 1 quick question re the knee photos, pre and post stiches, did you get a stand in model or a quick leg tan at the hospital?

techtonic
WA, 72 posts
25 Oct 2014 11:05PM
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I don't think i would be as concerned about kiting along side someone with a fatigued fin as i would someone that doesn't wear a leash

wishy
WA, 1501 posts
26 Oct 2014 7:22AM
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That is an awesome gouge! Reminds me of some of the injuries in the hunger games movie I watched yesterday.

Blackbeard
WA, 103 posts
26 Oct 2014 12:18PM
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techtonic said..
I don't think i would be as concerned about kiting along side someone with a fatigued fin as i would someone that doesn't wear a leash


Spot on, the safety of others obviously doesn't matter as long as I'm safe lol!



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"A big thankyou to my rescuer Craig88" started by COL