A VORTEX & A 100 FOOT LOOP LANDS ME IN A FARMER’S FIELD

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This #WipeoutWednesday, we’re going to Canada, where Lockey Price had a terrifyingly close call over a farmers field. He made a Herculean effort to stay calm and in control. See how it panned out in this video, and scroll down to read about his experience and watch the video analysis. Thanks to Lockey for sharing this story and reflection on the incident. We can all learn by openly communicating what happens when things go wrong! What would you have done?

Lockey Price – Dalemead, AB, Canada – August 1, 2021
“The wind forecast was supposed to be a smooth ESE 14knots. I showed up and kites were falling out of the sky. The only one able to stay out and upwind was Daren, who was out on his 19m Chrono V1. I rigged and launched my 15m wanting to go out on my Twin Tip.
There wasn’t enough wind. I pulled out the foil and foiled for about half an hour, before feeling that it had picked up a bit and grabbed my Twintip for the second time. Not much wind, jumps were small and didn’t provide a ton of pop. I got some Front Rolls to Blind, which I’m loving right now, but everything else felt kind of meh.
That is until I got lifted during a simple transition near shore.
The consensus is that it was from some wind getting churned up by the vehicles on the highway upwind from us, perhaps a thermal, perhaps a combo, but it lifted me up probably 25-30m (11′) and carried me just shy of 200m or (600′).
It started with a simple turn, a gust up when I looked down, I felt like I was above my kite and had to make a quick decision and kept the turn going, drifted into another spin then got it straight and floated it out. So scary. I walked away without a scratch. I brought it down just like I would in the snow and immediately pulled the safety to flag the kite out.
I heard Daren and Byron yelling at me, to see if I was okay, and I was able to get my crap together enough to give them a wave. I was freaking out, adrenaline was so high, I was shaking, but it was all back slaps and swearing afterwards, but I’m so lucky, and thankful that this turned out the way that it did.
Thanks to everyone who was out at Dalemead that day, Daren, Byron, Byron’s wife, Cullen, Paul, Allan, and thanks for all the support from the Alberta Kite Crew. This was a near miss. It could have been really really bad. In retrospect, I could have tried to keep it on the water. I’m left foot forwards, so it was more natural to me to bring it around to the left and fly it to the left. The only thing I kept telling myself was to keep it above me and it was going to be ok, as long as I kept it above me. It would have been so epic, to pull this back onto the water and ride away, but sticking the landing in the farmer’s field was the next best thing.

A longer video with a debrief after the incident: