24 Mar 2012 - bye bye kite

Wind had picked up to 25 to 30 so I headed in and grabbed my 7m.  Had a fantastic time riding waves, backing off the kite, going toeside and trying to stay on the wave.  Lots of fun as the amount of chop had died off and the surf became cleaner.  I was getting pretty knackered after around 3 hours of riding, and decided to get on a pretty big wave.  Unfortunately I left it a bit late and went over the falls.  The tension went out of the lines and scared me as they were floating around, I didn't want to tug on the kite in case I got something caught on them.  After quite a long hold down I came back up to see the kite on the water, missing one of the centre sections - totally blown out.  It relaunched, and folded in a strange way before - bang - the thing exploded.  A happy end to an average kite that helped me have a few big adventures.
It was handy to have the 7 - I will definitely seek a new one.  I think this is part of going out in the surf though - it is fun, but the risk to your gear is high.