assaulted on the water

[isobars]

Malicious or not, the guy deserves prosecution for leaving the scene. "$#!+ happens" voids neither the law nor morality.

[hoodvista]

[CUSalin]

[erinjeff]

I'm a frequent kiter in this area, and the description isn't ringing a bell. I was out kiting at that time, and don't recall seeing anyone meeting that description. I was kiting just above The Point from 10:15 until about 11:15 and the only other kiters I saw there were Bob (waving a green string bikini top) & I believe the other kiter was Pasquale, neither of whom fit the description. I'm a girl, no beard, so I think I'm off the hook. There were quite a few people down lower that I saw as I went back down so maybe it was one of them. I do recall that it got very gusty about that time, and I left the point because I didn't want to be upwind of windsurfers when the gusts hit. I had one gust that hit so hard that I was completely out of control, but I was thankful that I was down below the hatch by that point. I have a hard time imagining someone being stupid or malignant enough to try to hit a windsurfer. My bet is that he got hit by a gust and couldn't control where he was going. It sucks that he didn't check to see how you were, but maybe he realized what a hazard he was and wanted to get out of there? Hope you find out who it was so you can sort it out, and I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you. If I see anyone that fits description, I will definitely let you know. I try to give windsurfers as much room as possible out there, and maintain good stoke between us, and it bums me out to hear of kiters being jerks.

[PoorBoyUS22]

I was on the water, no more than 20ft downwind, and saw the whole thing. There was no "accidental contact"... Just sayin...

[uwindsurf]

I had an incident at the lower Hatch this year in June or July with a bearded kiter wearing a helmet. We were on starboard tack, he was up wind and I was unaware of him. I was not pinching and I was not of a full plane. It was not overly crowded and there was no one in the immediate vicinity.

All of the sudden the bearded helmeted kiter guy flies by me headed off the wind and crosses in front of me literally no more than 2 feet off the nose of my board. He was so close that the spray from his board hit me in the face as he was passing me at high speed. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I looked around to see if anyone witnessed the event or if the kiter had taken that line to avoid someone else. Negative on both counts.

I headed off the wind and followed the guy. A couple of reaches later I was able to make eye contact with him asked him what was up? His reply, which I though was odd was "I wasn't trying to hit you." Maybe he was just trying to get as close to me as possible? I let it go, I was having an otherwise nice session. I chalked it up to just another kook, who happens to be a kiter.

However, it appears that this person may not just be a kook, but may have hostile intentions toward windsurfers. I hope the kiting community cleans this up.

[jimoakes]

[westender]

Wonder if any pics of the Perp on inflatable boat photographers websites, maybe other days he was there too??

[hilton08]

If he is a local, there is a very good chance that Grant or Bob got a photo of him at some point over the summer.

[biffmalibu]

Someone local would be quite the fool to do something like this. I put money on somebody passing through from one distant point to another. I wonder who passes through here on a regular basis perhaps from/to California/Baja?