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Old 08-19-2008, 04:33 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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The kiteboarder is amazingly lucky to be alive. Looking at the high velocity of his lofting and head first flight, likely impact against pavement and/or the building it is miraculous that he isn't far more grievously injured than reported. He wore no safety gear reportedly such as a helmet or impact vest that might ease the trauma of limited impacts. Such simple aids have made the difference in survival and lessening injuries in some kiteboarding loftings in the past. Despite this the, use of this simple safety gear is far from the norm currently. Helmets never were used at one time in football, these things take time unfortunately.

Responsible kiteboarders would not have been out in an area of such violent, abundant and closely spaced squalls. Unfortunately, in these early days of the sport not all participants acknowledge the severity of these hazards yet. They discount the hazard if they even consider it at all and every once in a while one is injured or sometimes even killed as a penalty for this indifference.

Such meteorological hazards are fairly easily avoided through proper Weather Planning and Monitoring. The odds of being surprised by powerful gusty wind is substantially diminished with such procedures. Risk isn't removed but when is that the case in life? Not doing proper Weather Planning and Monitoring in the face of changing weather is foolish in the extreme. It is akin to flying cross state in summer through major thunderstorms and never bothering to look at forecasts or radar. People just don't do it.

The goal is to AVOID the crisis and not attempt to correctly react once you are buried in the thick of it. Avoiding such weather crises is fairly easy to do. Reacting in the face of an emergency always has an uncertain outcome. AN IMPORTANT new free reference in Kiteboarding Weather Planning & Monitoring is ONLINE NOW H E R E. I encourage everyone to read over it carefully and strive to avoid weather problems.

People also need to make Emergency procedures second nature in this sport. The time to try (and likely fail) to figure out what to do in an emergency is not while it is underway. Simple procedures exist, have been designed into gear and proper kiteboarding instruction. Kiteboarders need to thoroughly acquaint themselves with these procedures, visualize various emergency scenarios and practice them both physically and mentally until they are burned into your awareness. Holding on to your control bar in shocked amazement as you are blown across the sky and into the landscape at high speed is not a viable option. It is the response of fools and victims, core kiteboarders should not identify with these roles, right? They should know what to do and DO IT early.

Responsible kiteboarders ride for MILLIONS OF HOURS each year without incident or injury. We all need to pursue this as a hard goal. The days of yarding ourselves into harsh collisions with reality due to obvious squalls needs to vanish with a vengeance.

Best wishes for a rapid, complete recovery to this kiteboarder.

Text Copyright 2008 FKA, Inc.
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transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

Last edited by ricki; 08-19-2008 at 11:16 PM.
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