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Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "industry"

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john a
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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby john a » Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:36 am

Tiago1973 wrote:safety?

i share a more mundane view

Kitesurf was in the Olympics ´cause the Council, that group of persons in their suits and their ties, was a bit too much carried away by that friendly, tanned, young crowd that was with Sir Branson. They were enthusiastically speaking for a new class of windsurf, just with a spinnaker.

And how could we blame them to fall into the hype - it´s not really everyday you got Sir Branson suggesting what to do and for a moment everybody in that room had something to aspire to

Image

Next following day there was lots of very furious and hungry people. Not ´that kid called me a bad name´ furious, but ´I am unemployed, financial hurt and it´s your fault´ kind of thing. And they were all windsurfers. Uppps - that spinnaker makes a difference?

This crew is around for some time, they know where the MNA is in town, they know people. And they did what any unemployed person would do - spoke their minds to the right folks, the kind of folks that could make a difference in November´s AGM.

In the meantime at Neil Pryde HQ the layer department was summarizing ISAF sponsoring contracts in powerpoint presentation with USD figures. After all done Mr. Pryde probably give a gentlemen call to Mr. Petersson - a man job is a man job, like driving, plumbing, changing a lamp or saving a multi-million dollar business.

So that little April´s mise-en-scene was properly fixed in November. And they all live happy forever.


^^^^based on a true story
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :thumb:
Awesome post! Funny stuff! :rollgrin: :rollgrin: :rollgrin:

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby moo » Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:51 am

You guys just don't get it.

The final vote came down to individual votes by MNAs (individual countries) not the council. Many of these countries had a lot invested in windsurfing and particulary in youth devlopment that they didn't want to go to waste. (You could argue that these kids would go to kites but the probability was that they wouldn't).
Saftey (amongts other issues eg costs) was an issue for many MNAs (countries) eg NZ. Sailing clubs I'm involved with were terrified of the safety issues and have heaved a sigh of relief that the kites are now out.
Essentially ISAF was hoodwinked by the first report and many countries felt this way and then took the unprecedented step of pushing for a vote at the general assembly - not the council. They knew that this would be an embarassment for ISAF but they took this risk for something they felt very strongly about.

The kite community need to address many issues if they want to turn these countries perceptions around.

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby polarstorm » Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:32 am

I agree to an extent with the original poster, risk can and should be mitigated where possible, e.g. crane jumping is just nutty and kookish, e.g. kiting dangerously close upwind of innocent bystanders on a beach is even worse, and irresponsible, because they don't understand what can happen to them if a line breaks or the kiter messes up.

I was under the impression that for the olympics, all safety measures would be put in place, helmet, lifevest, etc.

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby tautologies » Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:43 am

plummet wrote:
but argueing like a 10 year old puts a smile on my face!

PS. You poo your pants
lol yeah well I know someone who are stronger than you..and also. I think maybe we should band together and fight the stupididty of people knocking it before trying it...racing that is. Oh well. :-)

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby KYLakeKiter » Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:39 am

For the serious side of this post, I understand how Fred feels about seeing the consequences of risky behavior. When you see the results of a serious injury on a person, and their family, you can't help but weigh the risks differently. Bad experiences, both our own and others, can make us more risk averse.

I do not, however, believe you can dictate safety in an extreme sport where the goal is to push the limit and try new things. Also, all safety is not necessarily engineereed. More of the safety in this sport is skill based. On the first day, just strapping a 16m kite to yourself is dangerous. What is now risky for me is just a day at the office to Toby. We all mitigate our own risks based on skill level and experience.

On a much less serious note, who gives a Rat's Ass about the Olympics :lol: . Kitesurfing is the best sport ever, and putting it in the same venue that brings us curling and badmitton makes me want to puke.

My condolences to the kite racers who wanted to be in the Olympics, but you guys are too awsome for that. My hope is that you get some really cool Red Bull sponsored event and make a ton of money and get the recognition you deserve. :thumb:

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby FredBGG » Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:13 am

KYLakeKiter wrote:
I do not, however, believe you can dictate safety in an extreme sport where the goal is to push the limit and try new things.
I agree, but I'm not talking about pushing the limits and truly advanced skills. I'm talking about those lame show off shots charging around kicking up a rooster tail in inches of water or pointlessly buzzing a beach or jumping a few feet in the air over rocks.

Kite company videos are full of this rubbish and kids tent to emulate what the companies put out.

On top of that this type of rubbish is also what often leads to beach closures. The sport isn't going anywhere when it gets banned at more and more beaches.

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby jakemoore » Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:59 am

john a wrote:

Anyway a helmet won´t help you from braking you neck, skiers and snowboarders over here do it every year, with a helmet...
:thumb:

I am a fan of exercising good judgement to prevent traumatic brain and spinal injuries. Fred's suggestion of not glorifying Evil Knievel type stunts is relevant. Nice of those guys to auction a board even though it is a small gesture compared to the actual human cost.

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby DirkGently » Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:27 am

FredBGG wrote:
KYLakeKiter wrote:
I do not, however, believe you can dictate safety in an extreme sport where the goal is to push the limit and try new things.
I agree, but I'm not talking about pushing the limits and truly advanced skills. I'm talking about those lame show off shots charging around kicking up a rooster tail in inches of water or pointlessly buzzing a beach or jumping a few feet in the air over rocks.

Kite company videos are full of this rubbish and kids tent to emulate what the companies put out.

On top of that this type of rubbish is also what often leads to beach closures. The sport isn't going anywhere when it gets banned at more and more beaches.
Sorry I'm definitely not going to stop riding like that, thats part of pushing the limits, jumping over hard things and riding in the shallows is too much fun.

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby Thor SFBay » Wed Nov 14, 2012 4:28 am

FredBGG wrote: I agree, but I'm not talking about pushing the limits and truly advanced skills. I'm talking about those lame show off shots charging around kicking up a rooster tail in inches of water or pointlessly buzzing a beach or jumping a few feet in the air over rocks.

Kite company videos are full of this rubbish and kids tent to emulate what the companies put out.

On top of that this type of rubbish is also what often leads to beach closures. The sport isn't going anywhere when it gets banned at more and more beaches.
By your logic we would ban most mountain biking videos and events like the Red Bull Rampage, all big wave surf competitions, most kiteboarding videos, Warren Miller ski films, that 60 Minutes episode featuring Alex Honnold free solo climbing, etc, etc. After all, the kids might try to emulate what they see on the internet or elsewhere.

Are there really kids in Hawaii trying to copy the more dangerous kiteboarding stunts? What about other parts of the world? I never even see kids kiting here in the Bay Area of California. Heck, very few people around here even try to do any freestyle moves. The only problem we have around here are kooks, not kids. So we do our best to stop the kooks from screwing up so they don't hurt themselves or innocent bystanders. It has NOTHING to do with kite videos or competitions.

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Re: Olympics say no to kitesurfing.. a lesson for the "indus

Postby Flyboy » Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:39 am

First off, I really don't care that much one way or the other whether kiteboard racing is in the olympics. Having said that the introduction of kiting in the place of windsurfing seems to have been achieved by a kind of coup.

Windsurfing makes more sense to me as an olympic sport, because it is closer to other sailing disciplines & now is actually a pretty established sport with significant worldwide participation, whereas, even though kiteboarding is a growing sport, actual kiteboardracing has hardly any participation & is extremely marginal to the sport of a kiteboarding as a whole. This might change over time, at which point it would make more sense to introduce kiteboard racing as an olympic discipline.

I'm sure the change of decision has little or nothing to do with safety concerns or the image of the sport as a whole, & as with the original decision, everything to do with politics.


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