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kite fatality conclusions

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longwhitecloud
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kite fatality conclusions

Postby longwhitecloud » Tue Oct 29, 2013 12:31 am

Took some time to look at fatalities /critical injuries i remember off teh top of my head without much googling at all. Non English speaking countries are hard to search without the language skills - i had a quick try - even google translate makes it hard.

Hope it is useful to learn from it - best single simple message is probably " keep a safe buffer zone when launching landing and riding."

Conclusion (already knew this but did stats to back it up)

Launching and landing by far most dangerous time

Vast majority of fatalities and up due to impact with solid object on land

________________________

Continually updated and corrected open source data:

critical
us - paralyzed hit rocks
us - paralyzed
uk , southend- critically injured 2012/13

uk , bournmouth - critically injured 2012/13

uk , bournmouth - critically injured 2012/13


Fatal
NZ - experienced - thorn into caravan at landing ?-?-07?
France, Bidart. - unknown - thrown into parking lot 28-4- 09
France - unknown - thrown into building@dragged from sea lot 8-9- 10
New Caledonia - Beginner - stuck in deathloop - drowned - unconfirmed

France - Beginner - kiter stuck under teaching boat during lesson drowned ?-?-?

France - Beginner - hit road and building@launch - 14-7-2011
Japan - ?- hit trees
US,Maui - experienced - Kiter found dragged by kite - drowned - ?-?-?

Canada - Several years experience - stuck in deathloop - drowned 14-5-13

Canada - Few Years experience - hit rocks 11-8-13

Australia - 10 years experience - hit a tree@landing 23-9-13

US NYC - Not kiting long - hit rock seawall 7-10-13

Netherlands - Relative beginner - hit a wooden pole@launch ?-?13

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby matth » Tue Oct 29, 2013 12:59 am

Does wind speed seem to be a factor?. I personaly feel very safe under 20 mph. 20 to 30 a little less safe. Over 30mph not so safe, things happen real quick, my comfort level drops off. I also dislike super gusty conditions.
Thats when I prefer to windsurf.

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby bnthere » Tue Oct 29, 2013 1:09 am

thats all you got? more than one person has died kiting in my local area alone.

there are many people that get badly hurt doing this. and many many more close calls, most of which do not need to happen. they are almost always the result of careless and irresponsible kite handling, either from bad judgement or lack or knowledge. over the last few years extremely rarely can an "incident" be blamed on gear failure. (i actually can't think of any)

look at the thread on bayareakite about the recent severe injuries and close calls at third ave, look on masskite about the recent nearly really bad accident in MA, it is a lot of close calls, because people go about things in bad ways in kiteboarding. there are many example around, regularly.


i blew a self launch today: drag style, as kite turned the bridle hooked on wingtip. kite started up and into loop mode, i ditched it onto the leash, no harm no foul that shit happens sometimes. if i hadnt, i would have been in a bad way, i was clear of my car and other obvious big problems, but i would have definitely been launched and slammed into the ground. i wasnt because i know that kind of line snag can and does happen, and i am ready for it. kite is disabled and down before its 10' off the ground, i dont have to move a single foot there is no force. the kite is reset and launched and im riding a minute later.

later that day, another guy pops a self launch, same way. hooked in, no hand near release not really even paying attention as kite struggles to roll a little, he is way high of the edge of the wind, its a 13, blowing 15-22. he pops it up really hot, bar all the way out running 20+ meters hard, straight at some shit you dont want to put your forehead through, but is fine just running it out as kite climbs and reaches edge of wind and he's good to go. but if he had a line snag, he wasnt ready for it.

another guy, also today. besides being ridiculously oversheeted with essentially 0 depower relief, he had an issue of some kind, at launch, kiteloops (5 or 6) nice long drag on his ass, fortunately he did release and disable (and didnt go airborne beforehand) and luckily had a little room to spare, but his kite is down a half a line length from my car. however, if things went down on the other side of his wind window, he had massive horrible things to run into, and would have had he covered the same ground in the other direction. he could have and should have let that things go a lot sooner. he was lucky he didnt go airborn. why didnt he ditch it sooner and avoid all of that, like i did? because he didnt know. now he does. lessons learned the hard way dont always work out in this sport. passing important info, and not just telling people to fly the kite around and feel it out or whatever, is the solution.

i see this everyday.

this is why i post the kinds of things i post on this forum. i dont need to talk about the backmobe i can finally stick about 50% (holding onto the bar a lot longer before making the pass was the key), or how i had a nice wave session this morning. none of that shit matters.

people getting hurt, or hurting or endangering others, closes beaches. i believe many of the instances can be reduced by better educating people about how things actually work in kiteboarding. that is why i teach lessons. (and for the chicks, obviously)

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby markchatwin » Tue Oct 29, 2013 1:24 am

Out the other day holding on to a friend's 9m Best Waroo when weather changed from about 13 mph to gusts to 30mph. Clouds were dark, pelting rain, even sun in the distance. Weather was very unstable however the weather forecast did not call for this instability or squall. I thought it was just going to rain. I was trying to depower frantically when simply put I was lofted right up in the air 10-15 feet and flew through the air maybe 25 feet and landed feet followed by ass in a foot of water. Another 50 feet was the parking lot, cars, trees and houses... I instinctively held on to the bar which helped the lift. I was thinking this was gonna be a little "pick up" until I kept going...

Lesson learned is the post above. Safe distance - get way out in deep water. Quite frankly I could not even back out far enough before I knew I was in trouble. So I tried to depower on the Slingshot bar on which this Waroo was attached to and it was impossible to move. Up I went. I could have been a statistic. Looking back hitting the safety may have been the thing to do the moment I felt the wind get crazy. Or maybe steer it to the side of the window and release it there. Instead of wasting time trying to depower I should have done something to dump the kite...

I will learn from this...

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby matth » Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:09 am

That sounds scary, glad to hear you survived. I never have my kite at 12 , its always low and towards the water. The second I sense anything wrong I will punch out. You really do need to program your brain to punch out . Whenever I rig up I always practice grabbing my saftey and pretending to release. Even when I am out riding I often look down and will repeat safety , safety , safety. I believe the more you practice, visualize, and say safety the more likely you are to reach for it when it is needed. I remember one of my instructors saying to me "if you have to think where your saftey is its probably to late".
And know your limits . I see lots of begginers out in conditions they should not be in. I watched a beginner get tossed around in 35mph gust the other day. He was on a 13.5m. I was on a 9m and feeling overpoweed at times. I spoke with him later on that day he told me that was his only kite.
If you dont have the right kite or the skill please take the day off.

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby Toby » Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:13 am

up to 20 knots all easy. 20-25 pretty easy, but...
25-30 bad things can happen, 30+ knots: you play with your life.

Just heard from a nearly fatal situation today...the rider could luckily just release in the very last moment. Well, gusts up to 100 knots in Germany. What do people think? "I can handle this". Not hardcore, just plain stupid, sorry. :roll:

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby matth » Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:20 am

toby wrote
[quote="Toby"]up to 20 knots all easy. 20-25 pretty easy, but...
25-30 bad things can happen, 30+ knots: you play with your life.




I thought i was just being a pussy. Glab to see someone of your skill level feels the same.

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby Kamikuza » Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:10 am

We get our cleanest winds from 10 to 20 knots. Over that, the gusts get increasingly harsh...

All this week, we've had typhoons passing by and I've had 4 days on a 10m (with times I wish I was on a smaller kite) and one day on a 13... 5 days in a week! Record :)

The most brutal day, we had 20-25 knots with gusts to 30-ish, then a bomb came in blowing 40+ :o
Luckily, I had kept my distance from shore all day so I just rode it out, floating in the water... the other guys headed for shore to land their kites but had a hairy time getting them under control.

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby bnthere » Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:22 am

matth wrote:That sounds scary, glad to hear you survived. I never have my kite at 12 , its always low and towards the water.
this is a important and fundamental difference in kite handling from the past that many now (accurately) recognize as a smarter and safer way to fly kites.

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Re: kite fatality conclusions

Postby tautologies » Tue Oct 29, 2013 6:32 am

RICKI has done a fantastic / huge job of collecting information about fatalities through the years.

I think the data is mostly qualitative reports that needs encoding but the data is there.

We all owe him for that as I think it will eventually make us a bit safer...


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