WHAT WENT WRONG? - Summary Of Ft. Lauderdale Lofting & Videos

[KiteworldUSA]

Originally Posted by 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?

Man, I've been battling the press since this happened! Seems the overall vibe from the media is that he shouldn't have been out there.....all except for FOX News which all but condemned the sport itself!!! Sometimes we get lucky and are able to keep these stories out of the main media thanks to insiders most of the time, but this one was being broadcast in hawaii at the end of the day. We are all pulling for Kevin's speedy recovery but just remember in big conditions comes big attention. Next time I want to see a positive piece on this to counter the negative.

Fly safe,

Brian

[davewolfs]

As important as weather conditions are, In reading this I'm finding that people continually blame this accident on the weather. The harsh reality is that yes this accident could have been avoided if proper precautions were taken, but even experienced riders sometimes have complications. You cannot bank solely on being safe based on your weather conditions, especially since it is something that is completely out of our control.

Great efforts have been made on the equipment front in order to improve safety of the sport and I'm sure there is still room for improvement.

For those who are experienced, if you were faced with question "Is there room for improvement with respect to making your gear safer, i.e. a better release system" do you really feel that all riders would say that the current system in place is perfect.

Self awareness of your surroundings is extremely important and in my opinion something that all trainers should spend a great deal of time in emphasizing. I also feel that people need to start thinking a little bit deeper from an equipment stand point on areas that can be improved upon i.e. guaranteeing your release when in a position where you have been immobilized - something like this could potentially prevent injuries while adding value to the sport.

[ricki]

Good point Dave, accidents are almost always the result of a series of choices and related events. In this case however, the most overwhelming factors exceeding all others included the state of the weather and where the rider was located, how and when he responded to those changes.

The weather issue cannot be emphasized enough as I sense a good percentage of kiteboarders out there don't see all that much wrong with exposing themselves to squalls. There has been too many accidents and losses involving guys going out in violent weather to support such a practice. Consider the global attention and potential negative sentiment bonded to our sport in public perception from this one accident. Whether kiteboarders want to go out in unsafe conditions or not, public perception and perhaps policy will be influenced by how things go.

Folks looking to consider some of the factors involved in having a good session, with lower chance of incidents, accidents and threats to access might read over the following draft document. It is in revision to try to encompass all the changes brought on by flat kites vs. traditional C kites. Still, there is a lot of relevant content there. Some of those other issues you were referring to might be found there as well Dave.

http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=2781

These guidelines were derived from the evaluation of hundreds of incidents, accidents and losses and have been revised numerous times over many years. They seem detailed but in reality this is just a portion of what is good to know. As I said, it is still being updated and is provided for informational purposes only.

You can examine quite a few other cases which have been pulled together along with some general articles with the goal of reducing accident/incident repetition and building the safety of the sport at:

http://fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=29
and
http://fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=12

All kiters need to know almost without thought how to Emergency Depower whatever kite they happen to be using at the time. They also need to be familiar with what it takes to release their kite entirely in a true crisis when Emergency Depowering fails to work. New kite? Then you need to work on this early. Quite a few guys have been in incidents involving new and not real familiar gear.

For years we used to say not rely upon quick releases in a crisis as they might not work as intended. Today, releases may be more reliable but our reactions may not have changed all that much. Often we have only seconds to act but fail to do so for a variety of reasons. The goal needs to be to avoid the emergency/crisis in the first place. Have your kite well secured and on the beach before there is any change in wind speed, direction or temperature related to the squall. If conditions are too stormy (as in a good portion of TS Fay), the holes too small or honestly exceeding your current experience and skill, blow off the session, live to kite another day.