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Old 04-01-2008, 09:11 AM
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Default Incredible Lofting Story From The Great Lakes



SAFETY MEETING – Fall Riding
From SBC Kiteboard Magazine
By Rick Iossi
Fksa.org

In October 2006 three guys went kiting in the Great Lakes and encountered severe weather. One rider was almost killed after being lofted into water but thanks to the capable intercession of his friends, he pulled through and recovered.

Unusual lake effect snow was predicted and 50 mph winds were forecast a few days before. Gusty, shifting winds averaging around 18 mph heralded an approaching cold front. Air and water temperatures were both about 40 F. Some experienced riders had decided to pass on riding that day due to concern over conditions.

The wind was offshore at the normal spot so they took an inflatable boat ride about ½ mile across a channel to an exposed sand bar to setup around 2:30 pm. Paul was very experienced, while Jason and another rider we’ll call Ralph had a season or so of kiting. Paul and Ralph rigged 5th line “C” 12 m kites (black and yellow kites respectively) while Jason rigged a 4 line red “C” 12 m kite.


Actual winds may have been higher than shown above.

A. Patterson, another kiter was mulling over whether to launch or not. Instead he chose to grab a digital SLR with 300 mm telephoto lens to shoot the three guys riding about ½ mile on the far side of the channel.

A “Dry” cold front or one lacking a leading edge squall line was inbound. No thunder, lightning or notable precipitation was reported with the arrival of this front. There were dark clouds and a drop in light and temperature. Strong frontal winds and frequent 90 degree direction shift can arrive with cold fronts. These factors cost the life of a Connecticut kiterboarder. More about Weather, Fronts and Kiteboarding in Spring 2005 SBC Kiteboard magazine, reproduced at: http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=470

The three kiters were riding by around 3:30 pm. Thanks to A. Patterson’s excellent photography there is a detailed, time stamped record of what transpired. At 4:31:06 pm the wind gusted lofting Paul and causing Ralph to slam his kite into the water. Clouds darkened and white caps and waves appeared. A 40 mph gust was recorded a few miles away but due to local effects it could have been into the 50 mph+ range due to local conditions at the launch.

[img][/img]

Jason had ridden about 600 ft. upwind. He may have lost his board in the early gusts and was dragging with his kite near the zenith. Paul successfully released his QR in mid loft, activated his 5th line and depowered his kite for most of the incident. Reportedly Ralph couldn’t release his QR but in time activated his 5th line as well. As his kite was near the water unlike the other two riders he was dragged and not lofted.



At 4:32:05 pm while Paul was dealing with his depowered kite in the shallows and Ralph was dragged downwind, Jason was lofted into the photo frame. Jason was approximately 40 ft. off the water, traveling up at a 35 degrees holding the control bar. The sky is dark and heavy vapor is being ripped by gusting winds from the lake’s surface. It is estimated Jason was lofted at approximately 4:32:03 pm (referred to as “Time” or “T” ).



At T+4 seconds (4:32:07 pm) Jason slams forward into the water and detonating a massive splash, 50 ft. long and 25 ft. high. He was likely knocked unconscious at this point. Jason was lofted horizontally about 200 ft.+, 40 ft.+ high and was traveling over 30 mph at time of impact with the water. He wore a Protec helmet that apparently flew off following water impact likely after cushioning some of the impact. He was wearing an impact vest which may have minimized other injury.

After Jason splashed in, he was repeated yanked up and hurled at high speed and force against the water by the strong gusts. His upper body appears to be held out of the water by the overpowered conditions and high angle of kite. Ralph was dragging nearby with his kite on the 5th line.



At about T+27 seconds (4:32:32 pm), winds lightened and the sky cleared slightly. Jason’s kite slowly rises and passes through the zenith lifting him four feet above the water like a rag doll apparently unconscious. The kite continues to arc shoreward and slowly drags Jason there. The lighter force from the kite allows Jason’s head to submerge beneath the water. As he had no reported fluid in his lungs he likely wasn’t breathing prior to this time. Eventually his kite went over the beach and lodged low in the trees. Jason had been dragged ashore with his head on the sand and his feet in the water. The exact time the kite went ashore is unknown from the photos but at T+9 minutes 43 seconds (4:41:46 pm) you can see Paul’s boat beached near Jason and with Paul apparently administering CPR. Jason had traveled a substantial distance down the shore, perhaps 3000 ft. before beaching. Ralph was still dealing with his own problems and eventually drifted by Jason as he was being dragged into the beach. It is impressive that Paul made it to Jason less than 10 minutes after the gusts hit the riders. Ralph ran up and rushed off to go to his boat near the launch to call for help.



Paul said Jason’s face was very blue, was not breathing, had no pulse and was essentially dead. Paul kicked into emergency mode and started CPR and gave it his all to near exhaustion. He had to shift to using his knee for compressions near the end he was so tired. Jason revived after at least 10 minutes of intense CPR. Jason response was miraculous given the poor reported survival rate for similar victims. Way to go Paul, truly a life saver!!!

Help arrived by boat thanks to Ralph’s efforts. Reportedly, Jason “flat lined” twice more on the way to the hospital. The ambulance staff gave the impression that Jason wouldn’t make it, but he did. He was 43 and in excellent shape. Still you can’t keep someone like Jason down for long and with time and a lot of effort he has worked his way back. There was lots of support from local kiteboarders with 20 or more in his hospital room many times.

I recently spoke to Jason. He is a very positive, intelligent guy loving life and happy to be back. He had his first kiteboarding session since the accident in early July 2007 and is anxious to get more time on the water. Jason lost memory of about a month of his life around the accident. He suffered four broken ribs, a collapsed lung, Diffuse Axonal brain injury and was in the hospital for a month. Diffuse axonal injury can be a particularly severe and debilitating type of brain injury. He was in a coma for the first day in the hospital. He lost some vision in his left eye. He was bed ridden and couldn’t walk for the first month. He had to learn to walk again.

After about three weeks he realized he had no short term memory (sort of like in the movie “50 First Dates”). Remember “Hi, my name is Tom” from the movie? Jason actually did that at times introducing people around the room and then going to start over. It took him months to get his energy back. He had to sleep for 18 hours a day for three months. He started to suffer panic attacks even though he had a history of handling stress very well. He has a lot of responsibilities, running a company, has a family, is a concert level pianist, professional magician. He was worried that he might not be able to still play the piano but discovered that gift was intact shortly after leaving the hospital.

It took about seven months for Jason’s life to get back to normal, emotionally, mentally and physically. He felt getting back out to kiteboarding made his recovery complete. His sessons just keep getting better. Jason loves kiteboarding so much, nothing else comes close. “When the wind is perfect, the sun is setting, you’re in a flock of birds and you’re ripping along, there is nothing quite as sweet.”

How to try to avoid something like this?

A. WEATHER, be thoroughly knowledgeable about strong & excessively gusty weather in your area. Check reliable forecasts, weather maps, color radar/satellite images and real time winds upweather (only takes minutes). At the launch, watch for changing conditions and react well in advance of substantial temperature, wind speed or direction alterations. Work to anticipate and avoid hazardous weather. Experience has shown reacting in the face of weather hazards is a bad idea. These guys ran out of time to react. If unusual or violent conditions are forecast, blow off riding. More about this at the FKSA.org link above.

B. EMERGENCY KITE DEPOWERING, make it second nature with whatever kite you are using. Rehearse in your head and practice, “if this happens I’ll do this … EARLY“, regularly. Anyone can freeze in the shock of a lofting, regular practice may help you to act instead of locking up. Learning how to jump may also help your reactions.

C. WATER CAN HURT TOO, just because you are well away from land doesn’t mean you can’t be injured. Some think by avoiding land they can weather most storms, wrong. Guys have been lofted substantial distances into land and even hitting water can seriously mess you up.

D. SAFETY GEAR, wear a good helmet, impact vest and carry reasonable safety gear. Jason’s trauma might have been even worse without a helmet and vest. Have reliable emergency communication, by pay phone, cell, marine radio.

E. RIDE WITH FRIENDS, kite with people who know you and your habits. The capable team response of Paul and Ralph was a critical factor in Jason’s survival. Knowing CPR and first aid is a good thing for everyone and made the difference between life and death in this case.
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Old 08-25-2009, 08:38 AM
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Wanted to bring this incredible story back up to the top. Lots of hard won lessons in this one, not the least of which is the importance of knowing how to properly perform CPR.
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Old 08-11-2011, 08:31 AM
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This story doesn't involve kiting but a drowning of a young boy and thankfully the successful efforts to revive him. It has this in common with the kiting accident described above.




" Last Friday afternoon a large church youth group from Spanaway was visiting the beach off the Cranberry Beach approach in Long Beach, WA.

Shannon Kissel and his daughter Nicole were boogie-boarding nearby when they saw two boys were in need of help. While they were able to retrieve one boy, they were not able to rescue Dale Ostrander, who was caught in a rip tide. It was about 10 minutes until the surf rescue team was on scene.

Twenty-plus kids from the youth group sobbed uncontrollably and prayed on the sand during the search, a truly heart-wrenching sound. It was then at least another 15 minutes or so before rescue swimmer Eduardo Mendez spotted Ostrander, and he and swimmer Will Green were able to grab him and pull him aboard a jet ski.


Seconds later at the shore, Doug Knutzen carried him up to where paramedics were waiting to treat him. They were on the beach for another 10 minutes trying to revive him. I think it's safe to say that everyone was certain Ostrander was dead. But the crew continued to work on him, and apparently once they got to the hospital they were able to get a weak pulse and get him breathing again.

Ostrander was air-lifted to Portland for treatment. After he was put in an induced coma for a couple days, he woke up.

And today (Aug. 9) they removed his breathing tube. Not only did Ostrander breath on his own, but he spoke complete sentences. Amazing. This boy was dead for upward of 20 minutes, easily.

From the blog prayersfordale.blogspot.com: At 4:11 pm today "The doctors just removed Dale's breathing tube and he is now breathing on his own. Also, because of possible damage to the brain, they were unsure if he would be able to speak. Minutes after the tube was removed, the doctors told him to cough. Not only did Dale talk back to the doctors, he responded in a full sentence saying, “I don't have to.”

Dale continues to get better by the minute, and the doctors are more and more amazed!""

Continued at: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...ked-out-to-sea
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Old 10-08-2013, 08:31 AM
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I see and hear of kiters still heading out into squalls. Most don't experience much, some are becalmed, sent offshore with a wind shift and some are maimed or killed. You never know how things will workout in advance, what the wind will do, speed and direction changes. One thing is certain, some will react too late to help themselves and chance will sort things out after. Some say to go away from shore with an incoming squall as opposed to landing early, emergency depowering and packing in, etc.. Here is a case where a guy came close to being killed by water or being lofted up and blown into water at high speed. Bottom line, stay away from squalls (thunderstorms).
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Old 11-16-2020, 12:40 PM
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Rest in peace Jason Maloney. We never met but I do recall speaking with you after your squall lofting accident and 3000 ft dragging while unconscious in 2006. It was miraculous you survived that horrific accident including responding to CPR which has a relatively low success rate. It is impressive that you were able to rehabilitate from those injuries so successfully. From what I’ve heard you were a charger and a record big booster, hard at it all the time. The thing is some storms can undo the best among us. The second storm was simply too much and Luck wasn’t on board this time. The storm was well forecast but apparently arrived a bit sooner than folks expected. It caused wide devastation through the area. Anyway, rest in peace, strength to your family and friends and for the rest of us, stay out of squalls. You never know just how strong they will be until they are upon you.
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Old 11-16-2020, 12:41 PM
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From Facebook:

My dear friend Jason Maloney (nickname ghostrider in the community),
I will never forget you, your passion for kiteboarding was through the roof, I have never met someone who kite as much as you per year, you had the world record actually, this was so amazing!!!!
I have never seen you with a sad face, never! And always saw you with a huge smile and spiking eyes when you were around one of those windy lakes in Ontario 🇨🇦.
You were this king of the air, a legend who registered 1301 sessions on the #woo WOO Kite, beating all records, 180 hours in the air, jumping over 20m high...
Your lovely windy sport took you today, gone, gone forever. The wind that you loved so much and lived for took him away from us forever, so so so sad, but you will never be forgotten!!!
RIP Jason.
I will miss you a lot buddy!
Love you.

Pascal Laplace

Please feel free to donate if you can to help out in this very difficult time, thank you 💕
https://everloved.com/life-of/jason-...8B8z5-oovnHEws

https://www.cp24.com/mobile/news/man...each-1.5189971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_fJzRG06wk

#kiteboarding #kitesurf #kitelife #kite #kiteaddicted #canada #lake #ontario #ozonekites Ozone Kites FLYSURFER Kiteboarding AlpineFoil #flysurfer #alpinefoil #flyingman
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Old 11-16-2020, 07:46 PM
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A video from the scene showing the violent storm posted by Pascal. Caution: this may show part of the lofting.

This may be a gust front or strait line winds from a microburst associated with the cold front squall line.




https://vimeo.com/480101102
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