RickI wrote:
Roberto, why would you continue teach and promote kiteboarding in good conscience if you actually believed it is that dangerous an activity as described in these posts? Have you resigned from kiteboarding instruction as a result of your convictions?
RickI -
I still teach and ride with kites over 150 days/year. It's not necessarily counter-intuitive that I would not be 100% behind the recent Olympic decision about kitesurfing. Kiting is a fairly risky activity and I try to promote safety as much as possible and inform people of the dangers before I even take a deposit for lessons.
Safety is the #1 priority for my instruction and I have yet to have a student report an injury or situation they were unable to deal with in a seamanlike manner. So I don't have trouble sleeping at night. Probably one of the most important cardinal rules is "distance is your friend"...and that could be said of anything on or below the surface of the water or land. I'm sure everyone will agree with that. So, it might be more counter-intuitive for me to promote something that might lead t increase hazards for kiteboarders...and all of this might just be speculation.
So, perhaps from a slightly selfish point of view I am worried that the Olympic kiteboarding phenomenon might produce a population boom of kites at beaches - and potentially lead to more bans and increase dangers from overcrowded riding spots. Do I have any right to control that or deny people access to the sport? Of course not. But I am worried that the fallout may not be positive for kiting in the long run.
On an optimistic level I expect there will be advancements in safety/technology/skills as well, so it's a bit of a double-edged sword in my opinion. I had already mentioned some of these perspectives before - and these are my personal opinions and I don't expect everyone to agree. Can I predict that "the sky is falling"? No, and I certainly hope it will not - but as people know...the more kiters at certain beaches the more likelihood of bans or regulation. The folks in FL know this better than most people.
So please do not interpret my opinion about this issue -
I have nothing against racing with kites and I am not really focused on the issue of "danger" that (IMO) may have skewed this Olympic Games discussion from the beginning - intentionally or unintentionally - by Nevin's letter. As a matter of fact I'll happily cheer the competition on if/when the kites hit the race course in 2016, for the sheer sportsmanship of it.
I do however feel that there are lots of other reasons that the introduction of kiting at the expense of windsurfing is a poorly thought out action. Actually the general vote in the overall sailing categories seems to be flawed and questionable from what I know and this should be addressed - more in the interest of being "ethical" than anything..
Other than the fact that I believe windsurfing should remain in the Olympics it concerns me that the process by which decisions were made, criteria presented that were possibly misleading, were questionable. I think I would feel the same way if you replaced the words "kitesurfing or windsurfing" with any other legitimate sport being cancelled for the wrong reasons.
As for the posting of rather graphic detail of injuries resulting from a kitesurfing accident 6 years ago - I am surprised that you of all people would be critical, since you churn many stories over and over for many years trying to get YOUR point across...or am I wrong? Maybe it's human nature to spin anything we see on the internet to support our own point of view.
RickI wrote:
If you care about windsurfing and still have any care for kiting at this point, I would suggest you tone down the attacks. Harm could come to both activities easily through this Olympic campaign as it is currently being pursued by some.
Attacks??? Because the opinions in letters written by others, or my opinion are contrary to yours? C'mon, I'm not sure if I can dignify that remark with a response.
Maybe this Olympic decision is a "done deal" but I fully support the idea of revisiting this by the Olympic officials - or at very least getting some better explanations of what went down with this voting process. And as I said before it would be a win-win if both sports could be included.
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