kite horror.

[tama]

yesterday at almanarre, south of france;
a fellow took of a 16m² in the worst condition for this beach: N NE (ground wind) prety gusty 10 to 40 knts.
nobody to stop him, beacause the locals have so much trouble to advice people. new comers are very agressive when some one want to explain them that the condition are not good for kite.

So the fact are.
Huge horizontal jump
crash landing on a women and kid. eating on the car park close the camping car
The mum still in the coma today between live and death
The kid is ok with somes teeth left
The kiter didn't feel his legs.
Almanarre council should ban kite

conclusion
RESPECT THE LOCAL ADVICE.
if they ride the spot, it's not sure you can

all my minds for the familly of both.

[Dax]

Is this real? Jesus thats bad.... its one thing to endanger yourself, but the minute we start taking out innocent bystanders, this sport is over.

[RickI]

I am very saddened to hear of the injury suffered by the mother and child. The stupidity and senseless arrogance of people to commit such acts,even by "accident," sickens me.

These risks have been written about extensively over the years. Common sense would cause many prudent people to not to rig up under those conditions. Still all too many people might not stop to even think things over.

After all this is an extreme sport for bad ass fearless men that just do it! This marketing cliche' is so old and counter productive for sustainable kiteboarding, it makes me want to hurl.

A few years ago I felt horrific accidents like this might be fairly common. Thank God I was wrong.

Still poor technique, buffer zones, etc. are fairly common. We need to take this stuff more seriously than we have been. We have been lucky, but luck doesn't last forever.

WE need to work to sharply reduce careless practices and to lead by example for the good of this sport. We have no business promoting poor practices by example or otherwise.

FKA, Inc.

[soflakiter]

I hope that this isn't true, and if it is, I'm sorry to hear about it. Although many people do stupid things and hurt other people, that is never an excuse.

There is no reason to go out in conditions that aren't safe. We've all got years of kiting ahead of us (as long as we keep ourselves and everyone else as safe as possible.)

[Rossall]

The trouble is some people will not listen to advise. I had this the other day in Tarifa, I was on a R5 12 maxed and theres a guy rigging a 16 on the beach !!!! I went over and told him in my best broken Spanish that it was too windy for a 16, he looked at me as if I was a mental patient and continued to rig up and go out. Lofted splash, lofted splash etc etc release kite to safety, at least that worked. The guy was a dick and as our sport reaches the main stream there will be so many more. We had a similar event at home where a 15 year old lad under the supervision of his father got lofted towards a concrete sea wall. If it wasn't for a forward thinking local kiter who grabbed him just b4 impact the young lad would of been DEAD.

As a member of our local club I landed my kite and went over to talk to his father, he just didn't get it at all. He didn't see the risk at all, I couldn't believe it and told him that the local had probably just saved his sons life. Still he didn't get it.

What to do ???????????

it will only get worse I'm afraid

[latino]

hi to all.
ricki to day i saw something incredable.
a retailer sold a full quiver for to guys with no lessons
he is a old budy of youres.
i start talking to these guys and they told me they dont need lesson
if those guys have an acident how is responseble?

[Tom183]

If this can be corroborated, it would be the first documented case of an injury to a bystander, correct?

[loeuftok]

similar accident with women and kid already occured in south of france 2 years ago

[RickI]

If this can be corroborated, it would be the first documented case of an injury to a bystander, correct?

There have been others. This is one of the more serious ones, aside from the one loeuftok mentioned. If it is the one I heard some fragments about, it was quite bad as well.


What to try to do about this sort of thing?


Voluntary compliance

1. Build awareness of what can go wrong and how to try to avoid it.

2. Peer pressure

3. Industry initiatives (promote responsible kiteboarding in ads and by team riders, retailer education, advance caliber of instruction and course content, etc.)


Manditory compliance

1. Bans, you guys are done.

2. Required Certification

3. Conditional restored access through negotitiation.


Do nothing

1. This is where most people seem to be the most comfortable. It requires little exertion, innovation or effort. If things go well, it is a winning strategy. If not, it amounts to tacit approval of loss of access and other public perception problems.

2. This appears to be the predominant strategy in play these days.

[lezo]

Unfortunately, this accident is real, a major local newspaper (Var-Matin) had it on the front page yesterday. It seems that the kiter was overpowered and had problems controlling his kite in gusty onshore winds.
An almost similar accident happened at the same spot three years ago, fortunately in this case the family of another kiter was BEHIND the van. The impressive photos of the impact that the lofted kiter made on the van are here:
http://www.chez.com/kitesurfing/accident.htm
The kiter, not wearing security gear, was extremely lucky to get away with two minor fractures.
After the fatal La Bergerie accident last fall just a couple of hundred meters away, the future of kitesurfing on this great but dangerous spot (strong onshore winds, narrow beach, lot of people, mostly windsurfers with their families from all over Europe this time of the year) needs some serious luck. More education/rule enforcement by fellow kiters would be vital but this is not an easy task in a latin country like France.
Take care,
Lezo