Authors: Ben Ruhe, John Holzhall
Date Submitted: May 31, 2005
Article Type: Journal

Following is a partly serious, partly tongue-in-cheek take on kiteboarding perils. It applies particularly to Hawaii.

Divers. Free diving with speargun in the early morning to catch fish is to the tropics what picking apples is to Washington state. A visiting Frenchman discovered the guy with the spear has the right of way in Maui when he collided with a free diver whose speargun accidentally speared the visitor’s testicles. The old diver commented laconically, “The more I shoot, the luckier I get.”

Telling this story in his book Kiteboarding’s Simple Plan, author John Holzhall says: “No one launches kiteboarding kites before 11 a.m. in Hawaii.” Kelp and seaweed. Varied ocean plants can entangle a kiteboarder’s lines. A “swamp-thing”—-a patch of seaweed 10 meters long and 100 kilos in weight—-has been recorded. Snarling kite lines in such a green monster should be avoided.

PDF Link: Journal Issue