Video: Overpowered, too close, dumb but VERY lucky

[ricki]

This guy may have been out in 25 to 30 mph on a 16 m C kite in the Keys. He almost had his kite down dead upwind of a nasty coral seawall when he miscontrolled and almost smashed himself like a pumpkin against the rocks. He still set his kite free.

Moral:
Don't go out overpowered.
If you still screw up and are about to get overpowered, hit your QR early and Emergency Depower. If needed, self-rescue using minimal flotation aid of your impact vest to get to shore.

DON'T stand upwind of a hard object and hope everything goes down alright. Often enough in the past, it hasn't.

Nice one. At least he pulled his QR, that's a rarity.

[kite-4-life]

That looks to be at the Islander in Islamorada. I stayed there last week and those rocks are no joke, I didn't ride there.
Be safe, not sorry...

[ricki]

Right you are, it's the Islander. I used to ride there back in 1999-2000 before the recent development. Coral Rip Rap boulder seawalls are super common in the Keys. People need to rethink the way they are used to doing things back home on larger sand beaches when in different conditions in the Keys. If you can't be smart be lucky. Still, you never know when you'll be in luck, better to try to be smart and hope for luck.