[ricki]

Kevin,

We wish you the best on the road back. At the same time, BizGuru captured the sentiments of quite a few in the global kiteboarding community with his comments, harsh though they may be. You were hurt and many feel the sport and community were hurt as well by what was repeatedly presented to the media.

Of course you weren't in your right mind at the time, which was all the more reason not to have been up walking around but parked in a bed somewhere recovering. At day seven I was stuck in the ICU after my kiting concussion and heading to the beach to walk around then or even two weeks later wasn't even possible. It is all history at this point. Damage has been done and worse, perceived to have been done. When I said it takes time to heal things, this is what I meant. Directing donated funds to KB4C is a step in the right direction but these things take time and consistent positive, low key action.

While you're healing, look around this site. There are hundreds of posts and articles dealing with all aspects of kiteboarding. There are a number of posts about pulley failures and breakage, preventive maintenance, preflighting, choosing weather and launches and a lot more useful input. Kiting like steering an airplane can be easy to a point, when things go wrong is when all that extra knowledge, training and preparation can really help out. More importantly, adequate preparation could readily stop things from going wrong in the first place.