The rules for kitesurfing are mainly based on sailing and windsurfing.
Coming from windsurfing, the term "starboard tack" is quite known around the world. This is the same as "right hand in front".
It means, if you are riding and someone rides towards you, with the exact upwind course as yours, someone has to give the right of way. In this case, the starboard or right hand in front rule gets used by the majority of the kitesurfers worldwide.
If you are riding towards someone, and you have your right hand in front on your bar, you have the right of way. The rider coming towards you, then has his right hand at the back part of his bar, and his left hand in front.The rider with the left hand in front, should give the right of way to the rider with the right hand in front.
Practically, the rider with the right hand in front, should fly his kite further up and stay on his course. The rider with the left hand in front, should ride downwind and fly his kite low, so both kites and riders can pass without any problems.
Now if a rider is more upwind of you, and even if you have the right hand in front, you should lower your kite, and let the other rider keep riding on his course, since you will not make as much upwind to be facing him, and you shouldn't even try. Meanwhile the other rider should fly his kite further up, to avoid any collisions.
Use your common sense to judge the situation correctly. Don't insist on your right, even if you know the other rider is more upwind than you. Understand, that beginners have no ideas of the rules, so once you ride towards someone, analyze their skills quickly and judge accordingly. You can also give signals, that you will insist on your right of way. Sometimes the other rider cannot change course due to other riders or hazards, this you should anticipate and then act accordingly.
To avoid collisions, anticipate, and do a turn before problems may arise or just stop in the water with your kite high up and wait, until a dangerous situation gets solved.
Never do a sudden change of course directly before the other, this can lead to very bad accidents.
PASSINNG OTHERS RIDERS
Inexperienced riders are stressed by passing other riders, or getting passed by experienced riders who fly their kite very close to your own. That is normally no problem, if you act accordingly and don't do anything no one would anticipate. This is key when passing some and their kites.
Never steer your kite quickly in a way, no one anticipates it. This can lead to very dangerous situations.
Make sure to know the rules of Right of Way when you go riding. This already explains how you should behave if a rider comes towards you on the same upwind course.
Two riders can pass each other without any problems. Both just need to know what exactly to do.
The normal rules are:
- the kiter further upwind flies his kite high and stays on his course
- the kiter further downwind flies the kite low and corrects his course a bit downwind if needed to avoid any collision
It is important, that once you fly your kite high or low, you try to keep that kite position, so both kites can pass. If you suddenly move your kite, you can cause many problems.
If you see, that the kites are coming close, you can slowly steer it away from the other kite, but make sure to keep riding and not steer it to another direction.
STANDING RIDERS
It happens quiet often, that kiters are standing still with their kite high up in the sky.
These are:
- beginners who are learning
- someone with a gear failure
- someone recovering from a crash
- someone relaxing
When you approach a kite high up in the sky, you should know before you pass the kite, what kind of rider the one in the water is.
Ride slowly towards the rider and make sure you have enough distance to pass the other one's kite.
Be aware, that when you fly your kite above someone else's kite, you will need to fly it high, and this way you cannot edge anymore and you will ride downwind, which may lead to a crash with the standing rider.
The standing rider should keep his kite on one position, or slowly fly the kite to one side, so the moving rider can easily pass without getting into danger.
Make sure that you pass no beginners downwind, since it can happen easily, that they crash their kite on you. Before passing a beginner downwind, you should either wait until he is up and riding again, but the best is to do a turn and go to the other direction and try to go further upwind to pass the beginner with more distance, upwind of him.
RELAUNCHING OR UPWIND
BODYDRAGGING
Relaunching
Riders with a dropped kite want their kite up as fast as possible.
Never get close to a kite, that is about to relaunch, nor fly your kite close to the dropped kite.
You should pass a dropped kite and the rider only upwind, or with good distance you can do it also downwind. But keep an eye on the kite, so you can act, if something goes wrong.
Pass upwind with a kite that flies pretty high, and don't ride too close to the rider.
Good riders should always keep an eye on the relaunch situation of the rider's kite, and if it looks like trouble to relaunch, ask the rider if he needs any help, then try to flip his kite or untangle bridles etc.
Bodydragging
Since no one should use a board leash, people need to bodydrag back to their board.
Normally anyone who bodydrags flies their kite on the same position and slowly turns it if they want to go to the other direction.
Always give a bodydragging rider the right of way, so they can quickly recover their board.
Many times it is good, when you see someone bodydragging for their board, and the distance is big, to just bring the rider the board, so they can get on it faster and be out of the way.
The rider bodydragging should always move their kite out of the way of moving riders, and the best is to keep it low over the water level, to block as little room as possible.
Be aware, that once a bodydragging rider reached his board, or shortly before, steers his kite into the zenith.
ON THE BEACH..The beach is alway a place with many dangers.
- kites launching
- kites landing
- people rigging their gear
- people walking by
- other water sports users
- beach goers
- obstacles
- gusty winds
- little space
Always follow local rules, be sure to know them before you start to rig your gear.
Accept the designated rigging, launching and landing zones.
Never endanger other people.
The rules is to use a little space as possible, specially if you are having a break, roll up your lines and move your kite out of the way.
You should always launch with a launch helper, if one is around. It is no problem to ask someone to give a quick assistance. Make sure to give the same assistance back if you get asked.
Control your setup and gear before the launch, while you launch, and then quickly go into the water.
It is strongly advised to launch and land your kite standing in the water, that will give you an extra space to avoid any accident.
Once you come back to land your kite, observe the beach and how packed it is. Wait until there is enough space to safely land your kite and get the attention from a assistance on the beach.
Do not come to the shore and wait for space. This can be very dangerous for many people, including yourself. Wait on the water with enough distance.
Let the riders come off the beach first, then come to the beach to land your gear.
If you are about to launch your kite, and someone comes in and wants to land, get his kite down first, then launch your kite.
COMING TO OR LEAVING THE SHORE
COMING TO OR LEAVING THE SHORE
Depending on the different beaches, some conditions may need different rules for the right of way.
Some launches are dangerous, therefore people shouldn't be waiting for another rider to slowly come to shore and land his kite, while the other rider is waiting to get out onto the water, being in a gusty wind in front of obstacles.
Always ask locals before you rig your gear, if there are any local rules regarding the right of way of an incoming or outgoing rider.
Some locations require a rider to come in quickly, without getting onto the beach to land the kite.
Some beaches have very strong shore breaks, which makes it hard to leave the beach, therefore the outgoing rider should always have right of way.
ONE THE WAVE
The rider in the wave should always be given the right of way.
You should not interfere any wave riding session of any board sports, like windsurfing, surfing, wave kiter. They are concentrating on the wave and nothing else around, knowing they have the right of way in the wave.
Look out for someone dropping into a wave and then either let the rider pass or ride to the direction.
The one who drops in first into a wave, has the right of way as well.
BEGINNERS
Beginners or "Newbees" should always keep a big distance to anyone else.
Don't get in the way of experienced riders, just stay clearly away.
Don't ride in the best parts of an area, specially where good riders are jumping or riding waves. Normally beginners cannot appreciate the excellent conditions to train tricks, once they are up to that level. But they can spoil a good session of good riders.
A kite can get quickly out of control, and no one wants to get hurt, so always make sure you keep the according distance.
Good riders will also not give right of way, since they fear riding downwind of a beginner, to get a kite dropped on their head. Always keep this in mind when you come into a situation like this. If you are not sure what to do as a beginner, simply stop, fly your kite high and wait until you have space again.
A beginner should never try to ride more upwind when facing a good rider, just to keep their rights of way, just give it to the better rider, and you will prevent accidents.
Experienced riders should not ride or jump too close to beginners, since they don't know that experienced riders have a pretty good kite control.
EXPERIENCED RIDERS
Experienced riders are very likely to have a good kite control.
This should always be used to avoid any problems on the water or land.
Always keep enough distance to anything else, and try to anticipate any possible problem that could happen.
Normally experienced riders went through a lot of different situations, and heard/read a lot about dangerous situations.
An experienced rider should always be more cautious and leave enough room for others, as well as being ready to help others in an emergency situation
SWIMMERS
Many locations have marked swimmer zones. Not all swimmer zones exist throughout the year. Make sure before you rig your gear, you know where these are. Normally they are well marked with buoys or signs.
In some areas violating and ignoring those zones will lead to bans of the sport or expensive fines by the officials.
In areas without swimmer zones, common sense is needed. You will find areas with many swimmers, but no official swimmer zones. Here common sense comes into play, staying as far away as possible.
You should also not be riding upwind of swimmer zones or swimmers, since if something happens, you will be dragged into those zones and endanger the swimmers.
Never be too close to swimmers. If you leave or enter a beach, always ride slow, specially when swimmers are close, so they don't get hurt.
Observe the swimmers before you go out or come in, since sometimes swimmers play in the shore break or dive, so you won't see them.
Normally, swimmers are very scared by kitesurfers, so don't scare them even more. And they don't know your skills, control, and where you can go/fly. Keep this in mind.
