Any facts or statistics

[Marley]

Calling on a little help from my friends: Anyone know of kiting statistics that might help the progression of the sport through facts and statistics. Anything to do with growth, safety, people's involvement or anything to do with the positive aspects of kiting. Negative statistics are also welcome for their "reality" of the dangers as well.

[Johnny TBKS]

Rick Iossi...FKA
Should have pleanty statistics for you, just ask.

Late's mates,
Johnny

[RickI]

Hello Marley,

There were or perhaps still are two surveys going on in Europe. One of them is under the University of Hamburg:

phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=1356&forum=1

I don't recall the identity of the other survery organization. I haven't seen results from the University of Hamburg
but hope to when it is released.

There seems to be a lack of completed statistic studies and compiled data out there currently. The Kiteboarding Safety Information (KSI) resource* could form a component of such a study but hardly constitutes a work with that intent. The primary objective of the KSI is to present, analyze kiteboarding accidents and incidents and proivide recommendations on how to try to avoid repetitions. An important goal of the KSI is to increase the level of hazard awareness and possible approaches to safer kiteboarding among riders everywhere.

*KSI:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/ ... EFERENCES/

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

[Marley]

Rick you help when you can and that is all any one can ask. Beers on me when we ever meet. You da shit keep it real.

[michel]

Hi Rick,
might be of interest to you............

I´ve just read a 2001 study about kitesurfing-related injuries in Germany (but it is NOT the ongoing prospective study we are all awaiting) :

W. Petersen, U. Hansen, O. Zernial, C. Nickel, M. Prymka. 2001. Mechanisms and Prevention of Kitesurfing Injuries. In: Sportverletzung-Sportschaden (eds. Scharf et al.), Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, New York)

The abstract:
Aim of this study was to analyse the mechanisms of kitesurfing injuries. For this purpose we performed a survey among 72 kitesurfers in the north of Germany. 31 accidents have been registrated among all 72 athletes during the 2001 season. 3 additional accidents occurred where a windsurfer got injured. 5 athletes had medium injuries such as fractures, all remaining athletes presented with minor injuries, that did not require medical treatment. The incidence of medium kite injuries was 1/1000 hours; the incidence of minor kite injuries was 5/1000 hours. The most common injury mechanism was a direct trauma against things such as stones and boats lying on the beach.
The most common situation in which the injury occurred was the lost of control about the kite on the beach or close to the beach due to technical mistakes of the surfer, oversized kites, or the wind conditions (onshore wind, overpower). Further injuries occurred due to collisions with windsurfers or sailing boats. Kitesurfing is a new rapidly growing sport. To date the risk potential of this new sport is unclear. The analysis of the injury mechanisms allows conclusion regarding the prevention of kitesurfing injuries.

Oliver Zernial, a coauthor, is also conducting the above mentioned prospective study (and a kiteboarder) and he is running perhaps the biggest German kiteforum (http://www.kitesurfing-kiel.de).
Ask him for a full version if you can´t get it via:
http://www.thieme-connect.de/BASScgi/4/ ... 1035881923
bye mic

[RickI]

Thanks for passing this along Mic. I will contact Oliver Zernial per your suggestion. It looks like an interesting study.

Thanks again,
Rick Iossi