I have heard about eleven kiting fatalities in the Netherlands since 2001. Six involved lofting and/or dragging into hard objects. Squalls and dikes factored in a number of these. One involved a board leash impact and skull fracture without a helmet. One resulted in drowning after a line tangle. There were the two high speed steep wave impacts in IJmuiden in 2004/05 resulting in neck fractures without helmets. Strong gusty side offshore winds and steep waves perhaps related to tidal bores seem to have been common factors. There was one low speed dragging in a class in 2005 in shallow water reported in 10 kts. (3 Bfs) with a 6 m kite that resulted in spinal fracture, paralysis and subsequent death the next day. This last person was reportedly wearing some form of helmet unlike the other ten losses I have heard about.

Thanks Rickl.

Just a few posts ago, Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:15 am: " I was put off by a friend impacting and getting temporary paralysis after back of helmet stuck spine in neck"

I remember someone in this thread describing that his helmet caused a problem.
Maybe a bad-fitting helmet.

RickI always stresses that a helmet should have an excellent fit.
I doubt if that always prevents bucketing.

RickI mentioned 2 broken necks, I believe.
And those were without helmets. I suspect deep water fatalities will increase with widespread helmet use, as ofcourse land crash fatalities will decrease with helmet use. The question for me is: how will the balance be?
I think most land crashes occur during the first 3 years or 100 sessions of kiteboarding. Depending on the circumstances of the location (see other post) a helmet might be advisable in that period.
After that time, depending on riding style, one might want to avoid extra load on the neck in the numerous water crashes.
Why is it that no kiteboarding pro wears a helmet, while various wakeboarding pro's do?

Where can I find your lists?

"In last years fatality the victim reportedly made a low but very fast jump and crashed against a wave, which broke his neck." is a citation from this forum.

Even if it were hypothetical, it would be a valid question, as can be seen from scientific studies I cited, about the damage a helmet might cause.

(Also to me still a question, not a certainty, because I don't know if the absorbing/delay of impact a helmet may have makes up for the bigger force because of the added volume)

http://www.hanglos.nl/news/29101/kitesu ... iden-.html
autopsie liet weten dat marcels zijn doodsoorzaak een gebroken nek is geweest, hoogstwaarschijnlijk door een te harde landing / crash na een sprong , hij was op slag overleden.
"Autopsy showed that Marcel's cause of death was a broken neck, most likely by a too hard landing / crash after a jump, he died instantly."

So we have several broken necks in deep water.
Maybe more, I'll search on.
If you don't find that substantial, 2 deaths out of 11, let me rephrase it:
Any death is worth investigating and discussing what can be learnt from it.
If it is 18 percent of the death toll, ignoring it makes me suspect you are closed-minded and blindly following helmet propaganda.

Most fatalities come from land accidents, but in the water fatalities there's either the drowning because of line tangle or death loop, or the broken neck.

I suspect deep water fatalities will increase with widespread helmet use, as ofcourse land crash fatalities will decrease with helmet use. The question for me is: how will the balance be?

Can you explain the whiplash?
I don't understand.

I agree.
And let's hope the speculations are wrong.



No I won't, thank you.
Human progress stems from being ahead of facts.

This is important new information for me, thanks.
Your post is one of the most informative in this thread.



So you crash harder in boots?

What do you think: do wakeboarders usually crash in a rotation, because the board AND BOOTS dig and the body keeps moving? So they crash the side of head, or face, or back of the head? They don't crash head first, like in the kiteloops-into-wave where the necks were broken?
Their crashes would be completely different if without boots?
What is the average forward speed in a wakeboarding crash? The rotation adds a lot to that.



A correlation is not a cause.
After concussions > wearing helmets > reduction
might be
After concussions > bell ringers > being more careful and wearing helmets > reduction because of being more careful, not because of helmets



I don't understand what you mean, the wakeboarders say a helmet helps?

How many are they?
Why don't these doctors wear helmets?

The traumatologist that I taught, feared for his neck, but that was in an all-water lesson.
I've seen other doctors kitesurf, but never bothered to ask them why they don't wear helmets.
I'll ask them next time.
This would be the ONLY information that's on-topic!
(Doctors on helmets)
But maybe we should change the topic to Doctors without helmets.

You're possibly looking for a rational answer where there isn't one. I know a couple of doctors who smoke. They're aware of the risks, but smoke because they like to.

Likewise, I suspect that most non-helmet wearing, kiting doctors don't wear helmets because it's more comfortable to go without (until you go head first into something hard, or get smacked in the head with a board) and helmets don't look cool... not because they've carried out a full assessment of the relative risks of kiting with or without head protection.

You don't want to wear a helmet. We get it.