Hey guys,
I heard this story through Gaul but I thought I should share it with everyone. The guy might sound familiar to anyone who was at the SS demo in the fall and watch a guy get flung into a car.

Gaul was at Ponce Inlet and witnessed it all happen.

Gaul was riding in offshore winds with a 15m and skimboard keeping on the inside of the break. For those of you who dont know Gaul hes 240lb and if hes on a 15 an average person would be on a 10m or so. Back to the story, A guy came up to him and asked if it was any good to go out and what size to rig and Gaul told him that he was "powered up". The guy though didn't listen to Gaul because he didnt feel any wind on shore. Gaul agreed to launch the guy's kite. The guy then went into the water and did a power stroke to start off and inside went airborne. Instead of stopping and attempting to come in the guy tried another power stoke. Gaul and a few of the local surfers watched as the guy kept doing powerstrokes at he headed out to sea. Unfortunately he this wasnt part of a plan to head to the Bahamas. At this point Gaul called the lifeguards as the guy was still pumping the kite. The lifeguards were able to reach the guy with a jetski and help him back to land.

Gaul talked to one of the lifeguards recently and learned that the guy had been dragged out about 5 miles. He also resisted being helped because he was going to "swim it in".

I dont mean to rag on Gaul but really in FL you should never kite in offshore winds unless its inside an inlet such as Ponce or Matanzas and only when theres an incoming tide. I know both guys involved and I'm pretty sure this guy would have gone with or without Gauls help and/or advice. Also try not to give the lifeguards crap when they rescue you.

Hes the french dude from the slingshot demo that got flung into a car while he was "teaching" a few other guys how to launch. Fortunatly hes in europe for the next month. Gaul and myself along with the rest of the crew will be giving him a little talk when he returns.

Generally the kite community is a good group of people but in my trips in FL have exposed me to a few jerks and morons, who just dont get it and are unwilling to take a little positive advice even from the locals/experienced guys. I've also watched everyone of these guys get thrown around by their kites. They're the guys who don't take a lesson, don't bother flying the trainer first and then ignore the locals until its too late. The real problem about this type of kiter is they don't respect the locals or experienced riders and are the ones who endanger our spots. The last thing we need is a ban or regulation from the beach patrol/cops if we could self police ourselves it would save one hell of a headache. Its just to bad these types of guys don't listen until its past that point.

edit/ and yea that picture is pretty close to what he looks like.

Dude, we had a guy do that here in Sarasota a few months ago! Smart Guy shows up, mouths off when the most experienced rider in town mentions that it's a bad idea to launch in the middle of the public beach where we never ride, particularly given that the wind is dead offshore. Smart Guy self launches and then starts getting dragged out by the 15 to 20 mph offshore wind and ends up watching his kite go to the horizon, never to return. Good, that's one less kite he'll have to crash on the mayor's head.

The only solution is to yell at these guys and run them off of the beach if they don't listen. I'm not into localism, but we can deal with our local newbies and teach them to be solid members of the crew and ambassadors for the sport. The kook without any local connection (or any care about the local scene) is going to be the person who has a yard sale right into 500 people on the beach and thus gets us thrown off of our local beaches.

Damn I was laughing my ass off when Gall called me up and told me the story (which took him a while bc he was dying too). This retard is a prime example of people that refuse to get lessons. It was a great story to hear and seeing someone else post a pic of him and say was this him haha that is the icing on the cake. Anyone who hasnt heard the story from Gall you need to ask him about it, about how this person kept doing power strokes even tho he was passing the tip of the jetty and cruisin a few miles off shore HAHAHA God someone take his kites from him and send him home.