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POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

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RickI
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POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby RickI » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:26 pm

I inserted some of this info in the other POV accident thread but not sure if many folks saw it. This is a case of a guy with no training figuring things out on his own as I understand it with an excessively large kite in high gusty winds. He caught the whole thing on his GoPro camera and even did an animated reenactment of the accident. I believe he healed from the accident but resolved to not kite again.

Take adequate quality pro kiting lessons, even if you have to travel to do it. Don't experiment with a full sized kite without good lessons.



Big thanks to Clew In for posting this on fksa.org. The post from that site follows:



(Thanks for the working embedded video Acctx!)

The imagery including the animation of the rider getting pulled through the top of the tree is startling. The trouble is the branches act as pulleys so as long as the kite is powered up, the lines and rider will follow. This can also happen with current pulling your kite on the water if your lines slide under a rock or fouling on a piling. This can cause you to be pulled and held underwater. Something similar happened to a kiter eight years ago with him being pulled through the canopy of a tree resulting in him suffering paralysis in his lower legs.


Image


I am not quite sure what went wrong in this case although it seems the kiter was very inexperienced. It looks like he held on to one bar end forcing the kite into a radical looping turn. Not sure if once he was overpowered after launch he simply failed to do anything to help himself including Emergency Depowering the kite.



Image



Some comments he made on the Youtube post appear below:

"On 16 June 2011, a small group of friends went to the Vaal Dam to take advantage of the strong wind forecast. As a novice kitesurfer, I underestimated the conditions and made a series of bad judgments resulting in a very serious freak kiting accident on land."

"The worst part is that I actually did know how to eject the kite but I was not FAMILIAR enough with it for it to be a natural reaction in that very quick moment when it all went wrong. That's the importance of practice until something becomes muscle memory. It's all well and good to know your procedures when you're methodically thinking about them; a completely different story in the heat of the moment. I hope that I have been able to caution people through this."

"Thank you for your kind sentiments. I really have recovered well but I won't be kiting again due to the possibility of a repeat injury.
Truth be told, I could very easily have avoided the accident if I'd reviewed my safety procedures before hooking up. Get familiar with them, practice them, commit them to muscle memory and remember that your kite is not worth your life. Happy kiting!"
Last edited by RickI on Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby acctx » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:41 pm

Here is the video, the above link doesnt work


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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby acctx » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:47 pm

RickI wrote:I inserted some of this info in the other POV accident thread but not sure if many folks saw it. This is a case of a guy with no training figuring things out on his own as I understand it with an excessively large kite in high gusty winds. He caught the whole thing on his GoPro camera and even did an animated reenactment of the accident. I believe he healed from the accident but resolved to not kite again.

Take adequate quality pro kiting lessons, even if you have to travel to do it. Don't experiment with a full sized kite without good lessons.



Big thanks to Clew In for posting this on fksa.org. The post from that site follows:


The video (sorry can't make it embed properly on here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Am1y_m2g1Y

The imagery including the animation of the rider getting pulled through the top of the tree is startling. The trouble is the branches act as pulleys so as long as the kite is powered up, the lines and rider will follow. This can also happen with current pulling your kite on the water if your lines slide under a rock or fouling on a piling. This can cause you to be pulled and held underwater. Something similar happened to a kiter eight years ago with him being pulled through the canopy of a tree resulting in him suffering paralysis in his lower legs.


Image


I am not quite sure what went wrong in this case although it seems the kiter was very inexperienced. It looks like he held on to one bar end forcing the kite into a radical looping turn. Not sure if once he was overpowered after launch he simply failed to do anything to help himself including Emergency Depowering the kite.



Image



Some comments he made on the Youtube post appear below:

"On 16 June 2011, a small group of friends went to the Vaal Dam to take advantage of the strong wind forecast. As a novice kitesurfer, I underestimated the conditions and made a series of bad judgments resulting in a very serious freak kiting accident on land."

"The worst part is that I actually did know how to eject the kite but I was not FAMILIAR enough with it for it to be a natural reaction in that very quick moment when it all went wrong. That's the importance of practice until something becomes muscle memory. It's all well and good to know your procedures when you're methodically thinking about them; a completely different story in the heat of the moment. I hope that I have been able to caution people through this."

"Thank you for your kind sentiments. I really have recovered well but I won't be kiting again due to the possibility of a repeat injury.
Truth be told, I could very easily have avoided the accident if I'd reviewed my safety procedures before hooking up. Get familiar with them, practice them, commit them to muscle memory and remember that your kite is not worth your life. Happy kiting!"
His leash was attached to the wrong place. It should be attached to the chicken loop. I cant tell where it is attached, but if he had released Im not sure what would have happened.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby edt » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:35 pm

acctx wrote:His leash was attached to the wrong place. It should be attached to the chicken loop. I cant tell where it is attached, but if he had released Im not sure what would have happened.
That looks like a cabrinha 2008 crossbow with 2n1 bar if you leash onto the chicken loop, the kite flies away if you hit the QR so unless you ride unhooked where if you drop the bar it holds your kite, it's like you aren't leashed at all. You are supposed to leash onto the polyurethane tube (below the bar, lol if you leash above the bar by accident hello deathloop) if you want the kite to stay attached after the QR1 (which merely makes the bar go out to maximum). leashing high onto the mini-5th line should be effectively the same, so I think his leash placement was ok it wasn't the best design for a bar. Dude kooked it up that's his real problem he never even reached for the QR.

How many videos do we have to watch where it's the same problem every time. Kook never even reaches for the QR, learns lesson hard way. I guess that's the wonder of gopro. In the past we never knew what the problem is now we know they never even reach for the QR.

It's hard to criticize the cabrinha bar, yeah the 2009 IDS is a lot better than the 2008 2n1 since the IDS actually has a below the bar leash attachment point but if kook never reaches for the QR, it's not the bar's fault.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby UKSurf » Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:11 pm

Looks like the kite was way too big for the conditions. I am not entirely sure he knew how to control his kite :o

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby bri » Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:24 pm

feel for the guy, hope he has recovered well. got caught in a tree myself this year, always the silly things that cause chaos, proper shit myself when the kite spiralled round the tree as I knew I could of gone over it. Punched straight out. There are some classic beginner errors in that video.

too big a kite to start with, then ignore the dangers that the trees present; should of launched over the water and walked straight out.

kite at 12 and then yanking the bar in and then losing control.

Having hands at either end of the bar, thus when you try to correct small movements at the bar make the kite move huge distances.

Not punching out when it went tits up.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby nherbold » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:49 pm

I'm guessing he made it through alright at the end but boy...what a douche!

I'm all for kiter safety but if someone is dead-set on finding new and improved ways to get injured (or worse) they will figure that out...and probably before they ever learn how to kite.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby RickI » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:39 pm

I believe it was a 2008 Revolver with the 2n1 bar. If he had hit his primary QR as many, including the victim himself have said, there wouldn't have been a problem. The thing is he admits to having no clue about any of this before kiting, HUGE mistake to say the least but far from unprecedented, others have been harmed by this same mistake. That is messing around with kites, often too large for conditions with no idea how to use them, quick releases, basic procedure, etc.. A number have been killed by this simple bad choice.

I just noticed the gray crossbow in the tree, does anyone have an idea how that got up there? Perhaps it was tangled by the kiter as he went over it and was dragged up there.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby plummet » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:56 pm

To me it looks like he must let go of the bar then grab the bar when lines are twisted and its steers left instead of right.

a very silly place to learn and pratice. I would hope that the other experienced locals on the beach would have advised him not to practice right in front of trees.

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Re: POV Video Kiter Lofted Up & Thru Tree Canopy

Postby RickI » Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:35 am

There were a lot of better choices that could have been made. Common sense will take you part of the way, good training and skill development will take you the rest of the distance with lesser odds of having serious problems. Jumping into kiting without much background, choosing oversized kites, poor launch areas, not knowing about much less training in QR use, you're setting yourself up for problems perhaps very serious ones.

In some ways this accident reminds me of another one years back which resulted in a young fellow being lofted 600 ft. slamming into and knocking down multiple hard objects along the way. He was overpowered, had no real training and it was suggested didn't have much insight into QR use. He lived amazingly enough and recovered thankfully. I can still recall Photoshopping the blood off the curb photo where he ended up out of concern for his family. People can be deceived by the apparent ease and safety of teaching themselves to kite much less discerning good vs. hazardous weather conditions for their gear and experience. More about this old but still relevant accident at viewtopic.php?t=2334479

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