Who Wants A Broken Neck/Mangled Body This Time?

[RickI]

Tropical Storm Fay on August 18, 2008 as it slowly moved on to Florida.

History can repeat itself, particularly when we help it along by ignoring painful lessons of the past. There have been numerous kiteboarders lofted worldwide in squalls over the years to support this sad conclusion. It does look like more kiters are aware of this threat and take it more seriously these days on the positive side of things. Still, some guys don't seem to have gotten word that a fun session can descend into Hell in very short order, if you set yourself up for it by ignoring good practice and common sense.



So, let's take a quick look at Tropical Storm Fay which creeped over Florida for a seven day period from August 18–24, 2008. During this time eleven people died and thousands of homes, numerous buildings and roads were damaged. Winds were recorded up to 60 mph, higher in tornados with up to 25 inches of rain in areas and flood waters up to 5 ft. deep.



How many will forget these images from the news video that flashed around the world? People worldwide concluded we, kiters collectively, were twits with a death wish. This may not have bothered you but it bothered the hell out of me. Avoidable accidents are just that. Violent squalls were obvious on the radar and in the sky. They were moving very fast, with very small, too small, holes between squalls to allow reasonably safe kiting. Guys were out anyway, not all were hurt. Only two that I heard about, one broke his neck and the other could have easily been killed as well but was merely severely mutilated by multiple impacts against a bunch of stuff.



https://vimeo.com/10551394
Here is a TV segment which provided an video overview of things, interviews, accident footage, etc. at that time.


Here is the post that went up about the accident in 2008, http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=7046

It is worth reading over to hang on to some of the hard won nuggets of knowledge to help preserve the fun and keep the ER at bay. Another kiteboarder broke his neck when he was lofted around the same time, in the same squall line about 30 miles south.


Some ideas for kiting weather planning and monitoring are in the top several sticky posts at:
https://www.kiteforum.com/viewforum.php?f=131



Getting lined up in the sights.


Some sayings from over the years ...
Stay away from squalls, they can move a mile a minute and be on you before you know it
Land & secure before wind speed temp. or direction change
If in doubt, don't go out
Live to kite another day
No session is worth the rest of your life


.

[Bille]

...


Some sayings from over the years ...
Stay away from squalls, they can move a mile a minute and be on you before you know it
Land & secure before wind speed temp. or direction change
If in doubt, don't go out
Live to kite another day
No session is worth the rest of your life

This is the important one : " Live to kite another day" ; important because
you ain't going to get any better at kiting , (if your Dead) !!

I've done some really Stupid shit , in my life ; it's never good, when
i got to depend on Luck , to get through a day. YEA -- i've done that .

Bille

[FLandOBX]

Thanks, RickI. This is a good reminder.

My permanent home was in Florida, but I was teaching kiteboarding on Hatteras Island during the summer of 2008. I wish I had a dollar for every student that year who asked me about the video of Kevin flying through the air. Scary stuff.

No matter how experienced we are, no matter how well we ride, every one of us can fall prey to a lapse in judgment from time to time. It can be weather related or otherwise. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies!

[Adventure Logs]

Thanks safety cop

[matth]

Hurricane winds suck. Before, during, and after. Now the swells are a different story.

[RickI]

You are welcome! Some people routinely take realistic precautions, some benefit from the reminder making it all worthwhile. I am conservative when it comes to violent convection having made plenty of dumb and at times painful mistakes in years past. Still, periodically taking a hard look at how badly things can go south helps even me. There are still a few others who may be deaf to it all and may be seeking a position as canon fodder in time. So it goes. I am not crazy about hurricanes either, even less so after 2004/5 in Florida with eight storms. Still, they're a fact of life in these latitudes. Good luck to all through this cyclone season, on whatever ocean they ride. At times we can use it but there is nothing like using sound judgment and good procedures to give you a solid edge out there.

This has put me in mind of a time far in the past, the night before one of those eight storms started to slam through Florida. Other than Andrew in 1993, we had few landfalling hurricanes since Cleo in1964 in the SE, a long time to largely be hurricane free. I wrote an article for The Kiteboarder Magazine about the thoughts and the sensations at the time, which is reproduced

HERE

.

[Eurus]

I'll have to admit I have rolled the dice too many times with storm winds. I had a really sketch moment not too long ago so I am done testing mother nature. She wins...always.

I stay on the beach now when totally unpredictable storm winds are on the forecast. Not worth getting injured or killed over.

[NHKitesurfer]

Good reminder- thanks for posting.

[slingshotucf]

Also a reminder with these storms. Check your gear before showing up to beach with a kite that you never use except for storms Had two people show up this morning with parts not fully working on their kites or with a kite that hasn't seen the light of day since the last big storm we had. Keep in mind if you use a beat up 16 meter kite in 12 knots of wind, it's not a big deal if your kite breaks but, a 7 meter going to shit in 35 knot winds and the ocean is going to give you a rude awakening.

[Bushflyr]

Dusting off the 7m.