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Towing to Oblivion ...

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Fri Aug 30, 2002 12:06 pm

Can kites be towed aloft, yes. Will riders be occasionally injured, sometimes severely, YES again. If you are very moderate in tow height and line tensions you MAY not have accidents or incidents as you have reported.
The gear is still greatly under designed in terms of strength, factor of safety, safety gear, etc. Others have not shown your restaint and have been kicked badly for their experimentation.

I have been boat and truck tow hang gliding for almost ten years. Many out there have been doing it a lot longer than that. To tow up properly there is a lot of safety gear, training, proper harnessing that just doesn't exist in kiteboarding today. Things like reserve parachutes, ballistic and otherwise, weak tow links, adjustable line/break pressure on the winch to control tension and ascent rate, a proper harness, helmets, PFDs, hook knives, proper high strength purpose designed towlines, custom configured towboats and more.

Currently we are grappling with irresponsible rider issues threatening kiteboarding access on beaches at widespread locations around the world. So, you mean to tell me that the same riders that refuse to stay away from bathers and the beach are going to stay at safe altitudes, tow tensions and far enough offshore to avoid threatening others. This in the absence of any training, safety conventions or guidance. That among other reasons is why I say it is not responsible to promote this sport.

Please get one kite manufacturer to state in writing that their kite gear is suitable for towing. Failing that, enjoy your towing, stay safe, but please don't encourage others to pursue this high risk, ill advised activity. It is equivalent to saying it is ok to pop jumps within 30 ft. upwind of a crowded beach in gusty onshore conditions. Do people get away with it, yes, will it result in injuries and losses to this sport, inevitably. Also, kite towing looks like an excellent opportunity for the civil aviation authorities to jump in and regulate after some flyers drift into some powerlines, traffic, buildings, beachgoers, etc. You get the idea.

Rick Iossi

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Postby Guest » Mon Sep 02, 2002 1:50 pm

yes i get the idea. do it rick iossi's way or best just do it no way at all. i can not to buy into that game. i am all about advocating safety but im not about living like i live in a communist country or something.

rick does alot for safety, i give you that. most of rick's comments are not ill advised and are well meaning. i can see this and am not set up against rick. i am set against rick telling me what i can and can't do with my kite and i am against rick TELLING me not try to get others to participate in an extremely fun and releatively safe activity that i partake in.(not that i was trying to promote the activity in the first place, i was just sharing my experience) what gives you the right or authority to do this? what makes you so much better than me that you seem to feel that it's ok for you to cast judgement upon me? i only accept judgements from god himself. well, and the court of law, but those aren't by choice!

sorry if you do not like what i do with my kite, but alot of what i do and alot fo what is considered by kitesurfers as bad things to do has been being done by me and other with traction kites for years(17years in my case) sorry if I happen to do it on your beach one day. i'm sorry you wish to judge people and categorize them as you do. i feel sorry for you when the real judgement day cometh. sorry you had a life threatening kitemare, and believe it or not, i'm really happy for you that you made it through it. but damn, don't over do it so much! i wish i had some way to recover all the time i have spent reading what you have written. the countless hours i have wasted trying to follow what you say. you say the same thing about the same topics so much that i rarely ever read it much anymore, and when i do, i never finish it. i find myself falling asleep from reading the same thing over and over and over. i understand that you have a hard time getting the hard heads to listen and take heed to your words, but i dont think that repeating it all hundreds of times are going to get those type of people listening to you either.

i try to respond to your input and thoughts regardiing anything that i participate in,such as pulling a kite. can you answer question for me? i'm curios as hell about a couple of things, and i am sure that several other people here are curious about some of them as well. i will start a new topic for you. questions for rick.

KC

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Johnny TBKS
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Postby Johnny TBKS » Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:42 pm

KC
I wouldn't invest much or any time in argueing your points. You are going to come out looking like an ass if you persist. So you tow safe, so you havent had any incidents, so all is going well for you thus far. Good, we wish you luck. Keep it safe and thanks for your input on how you do it and keep it safe for you. I still will probably never try it. Too many other things to do when their is no wind.

As far as questions for Rick, maybe you should just setup some sort of a private interview with him and ask him about your posting it in a public place. That will be much more productive than asking things here that may not be of a public nature. And again, you will come out looking like an ass.

It's Labor Day, time to shut off the PC's and goto the beach. Give them and us a break.

Pea's Out
Johnny

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Postby jever98 » Mon Sep 02, 2002 3:01 pm

Good point,

njoy your kiting! It's another 5 days till I can go again.....

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Postby Toby » Mon Sep 02, 2002 4:23 pm

everyone can do what they want to and how they want to, as long as they don't endanger others.

So KC, go ahead of what you are doing, but take care so nothing happens to you.

But for others, who didn't made the experience themselves yet, it is good to get some more infos about it and be warned about the consequences.

Enjoy your day.
Image
Toby

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Tue Sep 03, 2002 3:03 pm

Just got back into town after being out of touch for a few days. I had intended on providing some response to the other thread as it seemed almost credible but it didn't stay that way for long. If anyone wants to examine some of these issues further and in a productive fashion, send me a private email at: flkitesurfer@hotmail.com. Anonymous inquiries will be discarded.

Rick Iossi

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Postby MissionMan » Tue Sep 03, 2002 4:07 pm

I wouldn't have bothered with it either.

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Postby Guest » Tue Sep 03, 2002 8:03 pm

Rick,
I happen to think the work you do is excellent. Ignoring the silly crap is taking the high road. Other forums have deteriorated into flame fests. This one seems to stay pretty upbeat. Stay the course, you may personnaly be responsible for saving somebody from disaster. I sure pay attentio when you post.
Gary K.
Director, Environmental Health and Safety
Big Company, USA

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Postby Royce » Tue Sep 03, 2002 8:59 pm

Atta boy.

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Postby Guest » Wed Sep 04, 2002 3:40 am

On 2002-09-02 15:42, Johnny TBKS wrote:
KC
I wouldn't invest much or any time in argueing your points. You are going to come out looking like an ass if you persist. So you tow safe, so you havent had any incidents, so all is going well for you thus far. Good, we wish you luck. Keep it safe and thanks for your input on how you do it and keep it safe for you. I still will probably never try it. Too many other things to do when their is no wind.

As far as questions for Rick, maybe you should just setup some sort of a private interview with him and ask him about your posting it in a public place. That will be much more productive than asking things here that may not be of a public nature. And again, you will come out looking like an ass.

It's Labor Day, time to shut off the PC's and goto the beach. Give them and us a break.

Pea's Out
Johnny
guess you were right. i only wish i had seen your post prior to posting the quastions for rick. it appears that i am begining to look like an ass to some over it. whats done is done. thank you for your advice though. i will know better next time and try to re read what i write and edit it. had i re read the questionair, i would have omitted a question or two and maybe reworded some of tem too. oh well. i think i have seen rick and a few others make you come out looking like an ass yourself too in the past when i myself didnt think you were trying to be an ass. so are we like ass bro's now or something? (no, i aint gay) maybe it's just some peoples style.

on the internet, attitude and tone are assumed way too much. we cant tell how the other person is saying what he is, and sometimes it does sound harsh when i think it wasnt meant to be. lots of different people here from differen places speaking different tongues and slangs. americans in general seem to be pretty senitive to about anything that you write to them that has a vague chance of being interpreted in more than one way. seems like everyone always assumes the worst of ya.

someone told me that rather than bitch about rules, laws and regulations that i should get up off of my ass and do something about them. well, i am. it's just not what the majority are doing or thinking at this moment. because of this, it makes me look bad and come across like the ass. sorry for not being a conformist. i dont follow the pack. the majority of the pack is most always headed in the wrong direction as history has shown us. lemmings. i prefer to try to maybe lead the pack, or at least pave the way for another highway besides the fka and other ka laws and rules road we are headed down now. wouldnt you like to see several different approaches to the same issues so that we can better learn from them?
more than one way to skin a cat!

KC


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