Kite surfer critically injured at Altona

My thoughts and feelings go out to the friends and family of Nic.

I believe these communications are about supporting Nic and family but are also about constructive comments aimed at prevention.

Prevention is the key.
For whats it's worth- I hope these points help future learners;

Advanced kiters need to politely interfere and give advice to novices... Even at the risk of bruising an ego.
Make sure the kite size matches body weight, and wind gust strength.
Above 20kts, learners should not be on a kite size that launches them up for their body weight
Novices should keep at least 25m's away(line length) from anything hard downwind- including sandbanks and the shore.
If you're a novice and you only have one kite size- know the wind range limit, usually above 20kts you need a smaller kite
If you're instructing - teach safety first, back rolls and jumps second
Practice releasing your kite, often.

For those who are interested, here is the latest on Nic from his family blog...

"Morning Folks

Sorry for the delay, we have been understandably busy…

I have mostly medical stuff to tell you today, firstly Nic was stable throughout the night. The pressure in his head has decreased which is a great sign, the bleeding is still present but the pressure is receding which is wonderful.

For those who don't know Nic has been 'cooled' whilst in the induced coma, with his body temperature lowered to 33 degrees odd and monitored. Later this evening around 5pm or so they will start the slow process of warming him back up to his normal body temperature, which is around 36-37 I think. They warm him up by half a degree every four hours so it is quite a slow process.

If at any stage his body shows any reaction to being warmed up they will reverse the process and cool him back down and wait again before trying to warm him.

This is the first step in the long process in the awakening process, and at several points throughout the Great Awakening if they are worried Nic's body is not yet ready they will reverse the process and allow him longer to heal under sedation.

The meditation tomorrow will be timed wonderfully to assist and we have many people coming from all over Australia so hope to see you there and we look forward to taking over Nic's Garden as such.

I know this is neither here nor there, but yesterday, everyone who sat with Nic was left with a really strong, uplifting feeling of hope and positivity. He looks strong, and maintains a wonderful sense of energy and presence, even in the hospital support stockings.

And somehow the stockings just don't look that odd on Nic…

His family is with him this morning and I hope to drop by this afternoon and will blog again later to let you know how the process is going (so will be a later blog around 9.30pm / 10pm unless something happens).

I am interested to see if Andrew our beloved Nurse has copied Nic's haircut.

Will keep you updated, much love and keep up the healing goodness

over and out

Vettyx"

Cheers keep us all posted, we are all hoping for the best...

Guys, Is this Nick B that was a champion Windsurfer in his heyday?

I'm very glad that help was on hand very quickly when Nic was injured and it sounds like he is getting the best of care, so I'm wishing for the very best outcome for him and a full recovery.

Interesting first post, but I won't go into that. People have already posted the problems higher up, but here goes again.

Great in theory except:

1. Launch and landing at Altona has no margin for error. The beach is less than 30m long. Majority of incident we've seen at Altona happen when launching or landing. (kites in trees, power lines, riders hitting the concrete wall) Majority of launch and land incidents are beginners. I.e. kite falls back in the window, beginner can't recover, things go pear shaped.
2. Hidden sand banks. The issue is not whether it gets shallower, its what happens when things go wrong. Majority of problems occur for beginners when something goes wrong, not when everything is perfect. Surprisingly enough it's not not normally due to gusts, it's losing control of a kite due to something unexpected happening. I.e. picking up too much speed, hit a sandbank, riders gets knocked into a rotation and doesn't know how to recover. Even advanced riders take a little while to recover from these situations. beginners often don't pull the correct side of their bar and may do something worse like pull it into a kite loop.
3. Wind is direct onshore majority of the time at Altona. If something goes wrong, there is only one place for the rider to go and that's the shore. Most beginners don't have the understanding of the kite to recover quickly or adopt what is commonly referred to as the grip of death. I.e. they panic and hold on instead of just letting the bar go or pulling their QR when they are in trouble.
4. How far will the rider walk out into waist deep water? 10m? Have you tried walking upwind in waist deep water with waves hitting you (the waist deep water is where the wave start) and with a powered kite when you are barely able to control your kite without looking at it? How about when you are tired and its the 5th time? I suggest you try and come back and tell me again whether you think its a good idea. Reality check! The reality is most beginners will walk until they get to waist deep water and walk back up wind when they get too close to the beach or when they hit a sandbank which is too late. What beginners should do and what they actually do are two separate things.
5. Is it really a smart idea for anyone to ride downwind (what you are suggesting) of a beginner? I.e. beginners upwind in deep water and advanced downwind in shallow water? How long before a beginner loses control and takes out an advanced rider?

The big problem with Altona is that beginners think its great because it's easy to walk back to their board without bodydragging and it's nice and flat so they don't understand the consequences of the conditions. They think about what makes it easy to ride their rather than what makes it dangerous to ride there.

Your comment on learning to bodydrag upwind is also off. Bodydragging upwind is one of the first skills you should know before even getting on a board.

Perfect conditions for a beginner:

1. Wide beach for launching and landing (not at Altona)
2. Cross shore wind (not at Altona)
3. At least waist deep water (only if you walk out far enough and stay there which is unlikely)

P.s if you don't have enough experience to understand what constitutes a beginner beach, it's not a good idea to state a particular beach is a beginners beach.

Perfect conditions for a beginner:

1. Wide beach for launching and landing (not at Altona)
2. Cross shore wind (not at Altona)
3. At least waist deep water (only if you walk out far enough and stay there which is unlikely)

that makes Brighton beach to the best beginners beach in melbourne, right saffer???

A further meeting took place today with the Alfred hospital intensive care team and Nic's family. Nic remains in a stable condition and there has been no change from three days ago.  On a positive note he had an MRI scan which has revealed no significant spinal injury. The intensive care doctors again explained that with head injuries such as these it really is a matter of waiting and it could be weeks before there is any improvement in his condition. Visitors remain restricted to family members during this critical stage.

Just an update thoughts are with his friends and family

Thanks for the update, were still thinking about nic. And hope he has a full recovery.

That is an amazing website which has been put together for us about Nic. http://www.nicssorehead.com/2012/04/

I broke my neck in a kiting mishap 7 years ago which inspired me to became active in promoting awareness and safety, particularly for newby's. In my opinion any accident should be published with full details and open discussion to help build awareness of the risks.

My heartfelt wishes go out to Nic, his amazing friends and family.

Graeme Speak

It is good to hear Nic is going in the right direction.

All this talk of Altona not being a beginners beach and what constitutes a "beginners" beach seems a bit crazy.

i would put it to you that it is the support and assistance from fellow kiters that makes a beach a 'Beginners' beach.

Maybe you should be looking at what you personally, could have done and will do to make your beach a 'Beginners beach'.

unless of course you, having been through the beginners process with help from others, have decided there should be no more beginners so you can have the beach to yourself.

I am reading this and seeing 5 incidents per year. 2 with beginners.

so banning beginners won't solve the problem.

Helping them by launching them further out and pointing out he shallow hazzards and landing them out and being there to assist rather than standing in a group saying "this could end up bad (chuckle)".

Yes there are friendly helpful kiters at Altona, focus on ways to expediate the connection of these with the beginners.

think positive.

RAL INN... Getting people further out and landing them further out are you kidding me. YOu should teach beginners in side shore. Altona is generally side on or onshore thats why Saffer is right, Hey beginners need to know what a good beach to learn on and Altona is not that beach. I have seen someone teaching a guy way out at Altona the guy got slammed and dragged for 200m to the beach I jumped on him and 2 other guys jumped on the kite. I pulled the safety (he ended up about 10 mtrs to the rock wall) and we retrieved stuffed kite funnily enough slammed into the side of his mates car. The guy was freaking out and his mate was as well it was lucky that 3 locals could see what was going to happen. I was not going to wade out there and tell them it could end in disaster his mate should of been aware. Funny enough we were pretty cool about it it was only 15 - 18knts and he was on a 9mtr. So PLEASE get a kite instructor t teach on an appropriate place... Inverloch is a great weekend away and many instructors are at safe kite beaches not Altona....

Stop arguing guys, if youve read the blog his friends want positive vibes not negative vibes, respect their wishes.

Update - Some good news from Nics blog

" Dear Waiters

We at the headquarters are cautiously pleased to offer you some good news. The first in what seems a very long time.

In the last week Nic has shown his first baby steps in the right direction. We have been holding our breath to see whether he could sustain this progress, or to see if he went backwards instead of forwards . However, (furiously knocking on wood) all would appear stable.

The progress? Nic has started opening his eyes at different times and is focusing on objects / people and tracking. The nursing staff have even begun to sit him in a chair. Incredible.

But there is a little bit of a dampener to the good news, you see (and this was really hard for us to get our heads around), even though Nic is opening his eyes he is still by all medical definitions in a coma. So that's a bit of a curly one to get our heads around.

To us at the headquarters we see what could be the start to real responses to various stimuli, reactions to certain photographs, certain people – but the medical team are far more cautious in their joy and are hardly rolling in fields of flowers in ecstasy. Well not yet anyway… though they do appear pleased he is moving in the right direction.

It would appear to us non-medical people that Nic is starting to climb back through the levels of consciousness. However our understanding is that celebrations will be postponed until Nic can consistently obey commands such as squeezing his hand / blinking his eyes etc (this amongst other things will indicate the end of the coma period and the start of rehabilitation).

The expectation has been set by the medical team that the next miracle of movement forward could be weeks away, or even months away, not days. However, we at the headquarters naturally hope it comes sooner rather then later. As now stated many, many times there is still many other hurdles and complications that could arise and pose new challenges for Nic in his recovery. In the mean time the nursing / medical team are giving wonderful care and we continue to proceed with additional therapies on top of the excellent care already received. "

Glad Nic is coming around, To everyone bashing the Altona spot- Start another thread, I come to this thread to check on how Nic's doing not read your arguments.