[ricki]

So, it's ok for aircraft to fly through cumulonimbus clouds, the FAA is all wet requiring avoidance, for pilots to skip weather briefings, or oceanliners to steam into hurricanes instead of away from them, how about to send people into wild fire zones instead of the opposite direction to safety, why not go cross country hang gliding with no clue about intervening weather conditions, or towup hang gliding at noon in the Everglades when incredibly violent thermals cook off, or go kiteboarding when you know microburst are inbound, grounding 747's but it's ok to go kiting, or undertake a ski mountaineering without an idea for what weather is inbound or here's a good one, why not blow off weather information from all areas except the immediate vicinity? If there is a hurricane inbound, we'll worry about it when it arrives, advanced warning and precautions are for chumps. Who needs to take sensible precautions born of harsh knowledge gained from so many needless accidents.

A man has been hurt grievously and thankfully is recovering. Another man two days before was also lofted in another squall, he also hit buildings and pavement. Luck was not with him that day and the world is a poorer place for the loss of a neurosurgeon, someone's husband and father. Let's not blow off the harsh lessons for this and so many other hazardous weather related accidents and fatalities. Weather related kiteboarding accidents are FAR from random and almost always predictable and avoidable to varying degrees. I would ask that we not discount what these men went through and so many others saying, ignore this stuff and take your chances. You never know what sort of winds a squall will kick out to pretend otherwise is ill advised in the extreme. Knowing our environment and competently excelling in it should be a goal and source of pride in our sport. Not something to close our eyes to and say, I feel lucky today, do you?