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GENERAL SAFETY GUIDELINES

1. Readily help other riders with launching and landing using reliable communication techniques. Whether you are starting out or are almost a pro, your help may avoid a serious incident/accident and possible restrictions. Get involved with your local association or club and with area riders to try to preserve access to kiteboard. Riders are solely responsible for their safety and that of effected bystanders. If you are new to an area or visiting, seek out local kiteboarders, shops and/or associations for local guidelines and rules BEFORE riding. Don't ruin things for the local riders.

2. All kiteboarders, particularly beginners should seek adequate professional instruction. Beginners must avoid crowded areas as most bystanders aren't aware the potential hazards and kite control will be uncertain early on. Beginners should body drag out at least 300 ft. (60m) from shore prior to water starting and should always stay out of guarded or restricted beach areas.

3. Know your equipments limitations as well as your own. If you aren't 100% healthy OR IN DOUBT, DON'T FLY! Always maintain an energy reserve while out kiteboarding. Hydrate regularly and wear adequate exposure clothing (wetsuit/dry suit), to deal with extended time in the water. Don't kiteboard alone or further from shore than you are readily able to swim in from.

4. Make sure you have proper safety equipment, i.e. a tested, well maintained kite depowering leash attached to your body, a good well fitting helmet, impact vest, gloves, whistle and hook knife. Regularly test and maintain a reliable chicken loop release . Relying upon manual unhooking alone is unwise based upon the accident experience. The rider needs to understand and accept that in an emergency, this quick release MAY NOT be accessible or function correctly. It is up to the rider to avoid the emergency in the first place and to aid proper function of the release through practice and maintenance.

5. Give way to the public on the beach and in the water at ALL TIMES. Be courteous and polite to bystanders. Complaints have frequently led to bans and restrictions on kiteboarding in some areas. NEVER launch, ride or land upwind of nearby bystanders.

6. Is the weather acceptable, free of storm clouds and excessive gusty winds? New kiters should practice in lighter, side or side onshore winds. Onshore winds have a much higher injury rate even among experienced riders. Offshore winds should be avoided along with excessively gusty winds caused by recent passage over land. If storm clouds are moving in, land and disable your kite well in advance of any change in wind or temperature, if necessary solo and while still away from shore. Learn about unstable weather in your area. Consider organizing an alert air horn and flag signal for your launch as a warning to riders of pending unstable weather. Are seas and wind condition within your experience, ability and appropriate for your gear? Offshore and onshore winds should be avoided. REMEMBER: TWICE THE WIND, FOUR TIMES THE POWER!

7. If despite all precautions you are lofted AND have time to react, depower your kite as soon as you land. Depowering should occur before being lofted and still offshore and away from hard objects. Multiple gusts can hit over a short period and you may be lofted a second or third time, so ACT to depower your kite as soon as you can. DO NOT ASSUME that you will have a lull between loftings, sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. It would be wise to accept that YOU CAN BE LOFTED AT ANYTIME you have a kite in the air. To pretend otherwise is to invite injury one of these days. Riders should work to stay unhooked while on and near landing and to get well offshore at the earliest opportunity.

PREFLIGHT CHECKLIST

1. Make sure your launch is open, FREE OF DOWNWIND BYSTANDERS, hard objects, nearby power lines, buildings and walls, within at least 200 ft. (60 m), and preferably more. Some riders have needed in excess of 500 ft. (170 m), to regain control in violent dragging or loftings. Avoid kiteboarding near airports and in low flight path areas, complaints have led to restricted access in some areas.

2. Check to see what size kite other kiteboarders are rigging and get their input on conditions. Do not rig too large a kite for conditions and carefully consider advice of more experienced riders. Failure to act on prudent advice has cost some riders severe injury.

3. Check your kite for tears or leaky bladders. If you have leaky bladders or tears in your kite, repair them before flying.

4. Check ALL kite, harness, control bar lines, webbing, pigtails, bridles, the chicken loop and leaders for knots, wear or abrasions. If the line sheathing shows any breaks, replace them. The pigtails should be replaced no less frequently than every 6 months on inflatable kites. Inspect and test your quick release.

5. Make sure your flying lines are equal as they will stretch unevenly with use. If they have knots that can't be easily untied, replace your flight lines.

6. Solo launching and landing are NOT recommended and should be avoided in stronger winds. If solo launching make sure your kite is properly anchored with a substantial quantity of sand and is draped downwind to avoid premature launch. Rig your kite for solo launch at the last minute and launch without delay AFTER CAREFUL PREFLIGHTING as serious accidents have happened in only minutes during this stage. If you leave the kite unattended, wrap up your lines, deflate the kites leading edge and roll it up. It is best to place the kite in a bag to avoid UV and wind damage.

7. Walk down your lines and examine them carefully. Just before launch pick your bar up and carefully look down the lines for twists and tangles that could cause the kite to be dangerously uncontrollable. While you are holding your bar up look down the lines, shake your bar to make sure the center lines are connected to the leading edge of the kite. Be particularly careful, slow and methodical in high winds. Multiple, careful preflighting in higher winds is strongly advised.

LAUNCHING AND GETTING UNDERWAY

1. Avoid hooking or snap shackling in while onshore or near hard objects. Practice LAUNCHING AND LANDING "UNHOOKED" or not connected to your chicken loop. Pull in your trim strap or rope entirely or to a point that will allow stable kite flight with existing wind conditions, to properly depower the kite before launching and so that you can readily hold the bar and release it if necessary. Always maintain minimum clear downwind bufferzones, particularly while flying unhooked. Physically and mentally rehearse managing emergency situations including just "letting go" of your bar.

2. Announce your intention to launch and then launch promptly. In many cases the kite should be launched towards or preferably from the water. Assisted launches are always preferred.

3. To try to avoid lofting or involuntary lifting. DO NOT BRING YOUR KITE much above 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 m), above the surface, within 200 ft. (60 m) of ANY HARD OBJECT (on water or land). NEVER BRING YOUR KITE TO THE VERTICAL WITHIN THIS 200 ft., preferably more, of hard objects. DO NOT FLY YOUR KITE CLOSE TO AND UPWIND OF HARD OBJECTS. This careless practice has killed and maimed riders. DO NOT fly your kite near vertical or sloped surfaces that can cause uplift (walls, buildings, hills, tree lines, etc,).

4. Go offshore at least 300 ft. WITHOUT DELAY after launch. Stay beyond 300 ft. until time to come in. If there are substantial waves where you need to put on your board consider body dragging outside the breaker zone first. Be aware of and properly react in advance of low flying aircraft coming into your area.

5. Yield the right of way to all others in the water. Riders must yield to others when jumping, maneuvering, or riding on port tack (left hand forward). Kiteboarders should not jump within a buffer zone of at least two hundred feet (60 m) of others and objects that are downwind. Incoming riders give way to those launching.

6. All kiteboarders are encouraged to master body dragging to facilitate board recovery. Use of a board leash may prove to be hazardous to the rider due to board rebound. Wearing a helmet is always advised but a helmet may not provide adequate projection against board impact as the boards can and have violently hit any part of the rider.

7. If you are in the water for an extended period of time, frequently signal that you are "OK" to the shore by placing one hand on your head, palm down for ten or more seconds every 15 to 20 minutes to try to avoid an unnecessary rescue attempt.

LANDING

1. Approach the shore slowly with caution. Take care to avoid causing an accidental jump in well powered conditions by slowing suddenly while approaching the shore. Keep your kite low (ideally within 20 ft. of the surface), to try avoid lofting.

2. Arrange for assisted landings at least 200 ft. (60 m) from bystanders, power lines and vertical surfaces. Do not use non-kiteboarders for assisted launches or landings. Use mutually understood, hand and voice signals to improve launch and landing safety. IF IN ANY DOUBT, ALWAYS SAFELY SOLO DEPOWER your kite in the shallows well away from shore, bystanders and swim in.

3. ALL riders should be comfortable with depowering their kite immediately even in deep water to avoid being lofted or dragged in sudden gusting winds.

4. Properly anchor your kite, disconnect and wind up your kite lines. The kite should be placed in a safe area well out of bystander and vehicular traffic.

BE SAFE!