That's 3 ...

[Guest]

That's 3 people who died in one week.
Belgium - France - Italy
Please guys be carefull and help each other ...

[Toby]

France?
what happend there?

[Guest]

cheque

http://www.flysurf.com

Renseignements pris auprès de nos collègues d’Europe2 à La Rochelle, voici les quelques éléments complémentaires que l’on connaît aujourd’hui sur ce terrible accident…

Un jeune homme d'une vingtaine d'années s'est tué jeudi après-midi avec son matériel de flysurf sur la plage de Chatelaillon près de La Rochelle (17).

Surpris par une montée soudaine du vent, il a été emporté par sa voile sur plusieurs centaines de mètres. Il s'est immobilisé contre un poteau après avoir heurté plusieurs obstacles et avoir été traîné sur plusieurs mètres sur la chaussée derrière la plage.

Transporté à l'hôpital de La Rochelle, il n'a pas survécu à ses blessures.

[RickI]

A rough Internet translation follows:

Pieces of information take with our colleagues d’Europe2 to The Rochelle, here the some supplementary elements that l’on knows aujourd’hui on this terrible accident…

A young man of a group of twenty of years killed themselves Thursday afternoon with his equipment of flysurf on the beach of Chatelaillon close to The Rochelle (17).

Surprise by a climbed sudden of the wind, it was taken by his sail on several hundreds of meters. It immobilized himself against a post after to have bumped several obstacles and to have been led on several meters on the roadway behind the beach.

Transported to the hospital of The Rochelle, it did not survive its injuries.

and the original in French:

Renseignements pris auprès de nos collègues d’Europe2 à La Rochelle, voici les quelques éléments complémentaires que l’on connaît aujourd’hui sur ce terrible accident…

Un jeune homme d'une vingtaine d'années s'est tué jeudi après-midi avec son matériel de flysurf sur la plage de Chatelaillon près de La Rochelle (17).

Surpris par une montée soudaine du vent, il a été emporté par sa voile sur plusieurs centaines de mètres. Il s'est immobilisé contre un poteau après avoir heurté plusieurs obstacles et avoir été traîné sur plusieurs mètres sur la chaussée derrière la plage.

Transporté à l'hôpital de La Rochelle, il n'a pas survécu à ses blessures.


This is very bad news. I hope his friends and family get through this time of serious trial as best they can. My thoughts and condolenses are with them.

The series of fatalities is starting to get out of control. I have been impressed for so long on how lucky we have been to avoid more fatalities in kiteboarding. It seems those days have ended, at least for now. We really need to start to take the sudden power possible and the threat of unstable weather in this sport far more seriously.

If anyone has additional details regarding this sad accident it would be helpful to learn more.

Thanks,
Rick Iossi

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RickI on 2002-11-25 17:56 ]</font>

[randykato]

i'm curious about how much of this may be due to the season. i know that in many places in the northern hemisphere the winds start to get pretty squirrely around this time of year. in summer it's usually some nice thermal action, but in winter the winds tend to be more storm/front-related and much less stable. do you think this is relevant?

[Mr Jo Macdonald]

Hi Randy, I do, yesterday was scirocco all over Italy and southern europe. In the summer the scirocco is normally a pretty constant wind and a great 8-15 afternoon thermal for us here. yesterday it was 15-20 most places, but it was mixed with the libeccio which is a very gusty (0-50 knot) wind that blows out of africa and which no one goes out in on this coast because its uncontrollabel, changing directiona and strength all the time and mostly straight offshore.
You can sometimes get the scirroco at sea level and the libeccio going in more or less the opposite direction (you can see the clouds moving that way) higher up.
Kiting in the autumn and winter here is pretty much obligatory stormy conditions and what happened to Michele is frightening because he was walking along the beach when a gust hit the kite.
Everyone walks back along the beach, maybe past an area which wasn't the safe area where you lanched from either, and the only way I can see of avoiding something like that is either not kiting in winter or only doing it if you have a big wide open beach that stays that way for miles downwind.
Another thing though, is that in conditions like this the wind can change its strength and direction anytime and if it does that, what you were considering as a safe downwind area may no longer be downwind and the not so safe up wind area can now be more or less downwind with the wind gusting to a lot more than it was.

[sq225917]

yeh i'm fully expecting the wind to vary by 10knots over an average day and gust up and down by the same amount almost instantaneously.

all of you guys in your first season, after a summer of light wind. remember that winter is a totally different animal. unless you are totally comfortable with your safety and releases and skill level. rather than just having big balls, always err on the side of smaller kites.

[BLOWN AWAY]

Yep the winters bring the fun. Alot of it depends on what's upwind from you too. Offshore winds are a no no for me apart from this great spot that I know of... So far no fatallities here in NZ (although 'aklbob' got close).

BLOWN AWAY

[sq225917]

none in the uk, from riders, only people wlking dogs infront of 70mph wind powered lawnmowers