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Kiter Killed
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pzwinakis



Joined: 03 Aug 2000
Posts: 42
Location: Santa Cruz

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like most people are dieing from pre-existing medical conditions or just plain bad judgment. I don't know what you'd recommend the kiting/windsurfing industries could do to stop those things from occurring...
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rhpaul



Joined: 31 Mar 2001
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

maybe it's some kind of karmic thing. from what i've heard, kiters have been hassling windsurfers at scott's.
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pzwinakis



Joined: 03 Aug 2000
Posts: 42
Location: Santa Cruz

PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lucky for all of us that Karma doesn't exist. Neither does voodoo or other spiritual crap. People usually get hurt because they did something stupid, somebody else did some stupid to them or something happened for which there really wasn't anything that could have been done to prevent it. The only thing we can do is help steer people away from their naturally stupid tendencies and watch out for each other.
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beallmd



Joined: 10 May 1998
Posts: 1154

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with PZ, many times stupidity is at the heart of these catastrophes. I remember they almost closed Morgan lake in New Mexico(the heated lake) after someone drowned there. His story goes like this; Drunk, goes out to middle of lake on an inner tube, during thunderstorm, and can't swim! Count the things wrong in this picture-But they almost closed the lake! There is a saying; there is no such thing as foolproof.
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magpie1



Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had four friends who were pioneers in kiteboarding about 5 or 6 years ago. Two of them had incidents that, had it not been for someone else bravely saving them, and them thinking of a solution at the last minute, would have died. Both involved getting caught in the lines and then having the kite fill with wind and tighten the lines, dragging them under and downwind in a hurry. Between these stories, and my experience of launching a kite, having it lift me off the edge of the water, into the air, and head-first onto the beach, I decided I'd stick with windsurfing. Lord knows between snowboarding, mt. biking, car racing and windsurfing I do enough risky stuff already.
In particular those taking up kiteboarding should should know all the risks about it before deciding to do it. I think it is in a different league of danger than windsurfing.
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poulton0



Joined: 21 Apr 2000
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I blame the fear of lawsuits that causes almost every product to come with a warning label saying how dangerous it is ("Improper use of this couch may cause serious injury or death.") How many liability disclaimers have we all signed? How many stupid warnings have we grinned at?

When every product comes with such a warning, how can kite manufacturers tell people what they face? "This product is actually dangerous. We mean it. Seriously. Dude, we're not making this up."

There is a second problem which is intrinsic to kitesurfing - the cost of instruction. I always recommend that people thinking of learning take lessons, if only for the safety content, but most people have a hard time stomaching the cost of equipment and choke on $500 more for lessons. But kitesurfing lessons are hard to do with more than one (maybe two) students per instructor, so they are naturally expensive, so we have a built-in problem with affordability of necessary instruction.

Ken


"What we have here is a failure to communicate." -- "Cool Hand Luke"
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