**** thats bad, You wonder if the safety gear is pulled quick enough to get any of us out the **** when all goes bad. Or is it instink to hang on?
Great to see such informed reporting from the Age:
'Kitesurfers use a high sail on wires to catch the wind and pull them along at high speed with their feet on a surfboard.'
With a description like this the poor guy could have been attached to a kite from the middle ages!
^ LMFAO
Those poor print media reporters just don't get paid enough anymore.
Feel sorry for the poor dude, but what kind of winds were going on, I wonder.
Its sad, seems to be a lot of it going around atm to.
Girl in Brazil to. kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2367348
I live and kitesurf in the Northern Basque Country where this happened.
The guys were riding 12sqm kites yesterday, one got caught by a gust and did not pull the safety.
Winds are very treacherous here.
Show some respect fellas. This guy is dead. His family may end up reading this.
Kitesurfing is a dangerous sport, and things can happen quickly. Even the most skilled / cautious / experienced kiter is at the mercy of equipment faliures and freak weather circumstances.
Lets not have have this turn into another thread where people get on their "safety" high horses.
R.I.P
Lets also bare in mind that the wind was strong enough to take him over an 9 story building. Thats a whole heap of wind.
Deepest sympothy to the guys family. Not a way to have an accident doing something you enjoy.
The thing to gauge here is the the winds in france and Spain don't blow like here. Not seabreeze and they can gust all of a sudden. Not always predictable.
The saddest thing is that the guys over in Europe often kite near buildings. If you ever look closely at wind distortion around buildings then you can see that if you get too close to a building the wind changes to an updraft dragging you over the top of the building. Must be at least 4 deaths I know of where this has happened.
Just kite in open space where wind can stay clean.
My condolences to both. Looks like the Brazil one even with a helmet would be the same.
Hm, I really like Peli point but a lot of obstacles as well. Can happen to anyone.
I saw absolute classic in Poole Harbour Dorset UK,
Theres a big harbour there and a small beach to launch from.
Around the outside of the harbour and beach runs a road that is serviced by pommie double decker buses.
A guy was coming in from sailing and was lofted by a gust straight into the path of the bus!!
He was lucky enough to miss the front of the bus, but rolled along the entire length of the bus from front to back, like a car wash roller!!
The guy was fine and the bus, at least on one side….. was slightly cleaner.
