Kiters will have the response that you have to die of something so it may as well be something you like.

Same response smokers have.

Whats the deal with the connection between the kiter and his kite? Do they use a harness like windsurfers and can hook in and out reasonably easily or are they more firmly linked to their kite and its a big deal to disconnect?

Mobydisc said...

Whats the deal with the connection between the kiter and his kite? Do they use a harness like windsurfers and can hook in and out reasonably easily or are they more firmly linked to their kite and its a big deal to disconnect?

Yes kitesurfers do use a harness though with several safety release mechanisms. In my case though, I was dragged under/thru the water at speed towards rocks so couldn't release myself and was only saved by my kite hitting the beach and de-powering before I hit the rocks.

Very easy to get head injuries kiting, or be suddenly lofted 30 feet in the air before you have a chance to do anything and then you get dropped on a concrete ablution block or hit powerlines etc. My cousin is an OT and sees heaps of kiters with bad ankle/leg/back injuries etc.

nitai said...

Bloody gnarly picture man! love it

A friend took a whole sequence of photos of this particular "incident". You'll find the first here:

www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=8734

-Mart

Kitesurfers = 65 dead. Windsurfing fatalities?

I found about 30 with google. 17 since 2004 and 5 last year and of course that surely is not complete.

So wear a helmet, watch out for powerboats and sail with a buddy.

am not surprised at all no pun intended for kitersi learned by teaching myself with a trusty mate to launch and retrieve kite. all i ever learned from an instructor friend was 30mins. of body dragging and that was it..to top it all am a hard headed nitwit who practiced near rocky oyster beds and lots of kids..sure i did learn slowly and a lot of bruises to knees and nipsbut with hard work i finally made it to a smaller board and tackled hiwinds..learned to jump by instinctively pulling bar opposite to where i was going or it was thorny bushes..now as i became better i kite even closer to shore and am calling it luck on my side one single mistake and i become part of the coco nuts..but i've become more responsible doing everything opposite..i give allowances by 3lenghths no matter what and with the latest in punch out depower still if you stumble and skip like a stone it sure is hard to push forward to depower and even if you've done that there's still a few meters of pull..so i guess the point am trying to make is part of the stats are from self-taught and non-iko instructed guys form half of the fatalities, just my guess

yoyo said...

Kitesurfers = 65 dead. Windsurfing fatalities?

I found about 30 with google. 17 since 2004 and 5 last year and of course that surely is not complete.

That's more than I thought would be the case. However, apparently the estimated total number of windsurfers worldwide is 20 million so I guess that's not bad considering the estimated number of kitesurfers is somewhere around the 200,000 mark, or about 1% the number of windsurfers:

answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=747323

Assuming a pretty generous doubling in kitesurfer numbers since 2006 and if both fatality totals are anywhere near the ballpark, the 47 kitesurf fataliites since 2004 would make kitesurfing deaths possibly 100 x greater per capita than windsurfing.

Of course it's pretty hard to make any really reliable estimations with these rubbery figures but I guess it gives us some very rough ballparks to go with.

-Mart

A lot more people die from Bee stings and Asthma in Australia.

At least these poor buggers went out doing what they were enjoying a couple of seconds previously.

65 around the world is minor even giving the small number of people who kite vs population, most likely more people die driving to the beach world wide.

the figures could also be very subjective, all depends on how it is measured.

I mean, have they included people that were killed in a car on the way to kitesurfing, what about the difference between rigging and actually having the kite in the air, Land vs water based. And what about those that drowned that had very little to do with the fact they were kiting and the same thing could have happened no matter what the activity.

Most statistics can be swayed to make what ever point you want, the devil is in the details.

You're not gonna be unexpectedly slammed into the ground from 30 feet up.

No, but 30% of windsurfers died after being hit/run down/chopped up by power boats, unexpectedly I presume.

Time for some lateral thinking... surely kite strings pose just a big a danger to jetskiers as to anyone else?

All we have to do is pit the kiters and jetskiers against each other, and with a little luck they'll wipe each other out.

And VOILA! Clear, safe waterways once again!

yoyo said...

You're not gonna be unexpectedly slammed into the ground from 30 feet up.

No, but 30% of windsurfers died after being hit/run down/chopped up by power boats, unexpectedly I presume.

After having to dodge the ignorant pr1cks in their monstrous big cruisers on the weekend

I can believe it, they just didn't give a sh1t how close they got to you just as long as they didn't have to touch the throttle or change their line.

yoyo said...

total number of windsurfers worldwide is 20 million

I find that hard to believe. I'm sure Auswind would say the numbers are even or kiting has the edge. Certainly at most beaches there are more kites than windsurfers

Not at Safety Bay or at Lucky Bay or Corronations (if I recall) from what I've seen. However, there are certainly more at Woodmans Point. What have others found? I think it probably varies a lot depending on the location. Because the kites take up so much more room they do seem to swamp the smaller windsurfers, but when you actually count the numbers I've usually found it's not as large a number as I first thought.

so where do you get the idea that there are 100x more windsurfers than kiters? Maybe you are thinking of the boom years of the late 70s.

All I can do is go by the statistics from these sources (who knows how correct they are (they are certainly all over the shop!), but I do admit I was surprised by the 20 million figure):

Number of windsurfers worldwide from an article published Sept. 2004

20 million windsurfers
"Windsurfing is a growing sport with over 20 million windsurfers
worldwide mostly aged between 15 and 40 years old."
Westcountrynow.com: September 2004
www.westcountrynow.com/?r=0.15720977&ref=417&month=9&year=2004

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Boardsailing/Windsurfing participants (U.S.) 2000

Boardsailing/Windsurfing 655,000

Date: 08/22/01
Author: SGMA Press Release
www.wakeworld.com/news/2001/SGMA.asp

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Boardsailing/Windsurfing participants (U.S.) 2003

Boardsailing/Windsurfing 779,000

Parks & Recreation, Oct, 2004
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1145/is_10_39/ai_n6335474

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Boardsailing/Windsurfing participants (U.S.) 2004

Boardsailing/Windsurfing 418,000
(participated at least once in 2004)

Ski Press Media : June 6, 2005
www.skipressworld.com/us/en/daily_news/2005/06/extreme_sgma_says_inline_skating_still_rules.html?cat=Snowlife

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of windsurfers in the U.S. from a 2002 article

"Windsurfing Industry.250,000 participants" (page 8)

US windsurfing News Newsletter
January February 2002
www.uswindsurfing.org/usw_library/newsletter/jan_feb02.pdf

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of kitesurfers worldwide 2006

"The population of kitesurfers is growing rapidly to around 150,000 to
200,000 kitesurfers world wide in 2006."
kitesurfingschool.org/faqs.htm#What%20is%20kitesurfing%20or%20kiteskiing%20or%20flysurfing

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of kitesurfers worldwide 2004

100,000 and 250,000 kite surfers worldwide.
userinnovation.mit.edu/papers/Working_Paper.pdf

"There are an estimated 200,000 kitesurfers worldwide."

Times Online: October 15, 2005
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1826946,00.html
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1826946,00.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of kitesurfers in the U.S. from a 2006 article.

U.S. more than 35,000

Number of kitesurfers in the UK from a 2006 article

UK 7,000 kite surfers

"Kite Surfing is the fastest growing water sport in the world. It is
not wind surfing, it is not wakeboarding, it is not surfing; it is not
kite flying. It is the fusion of these disciplines with other
influences to create the wildest new water sport for years.
Popularized by French and Hawaian stars in early 1999, The UK scene
now has approximately 7,000 kite surfers. The U.S. has more than five
times the number of kite surfers."

June 4, 2006 72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:tAhlmOzA24sJ:www.theopenpress.com/index.php%3Fa%3Dpress%26id%3D9999+%225000..300000+kite+surfers+%22&hl=en&gl=cl&ct=clnk&cd=3

As they say, lies, damned lies and statistics.

-Mart

elmo said...


After having to dodge the ignorant pr1cks in their monstrous big cruisers on the weekend

I can believe it, they just didn't give a sh1t how close they got to you just as long as they didn't have to touch the throttle or change their line.

Time to fix an armour piercing tip to your board, puncture their hull below the waterline and sink the bastards

elmo said...

yoyo said...

You're not gonna be unexpectedly slammed into the ground from 30 feet up.

No, but 30% of windsurfers died after being hit/run down/chopped up by power boats, unexpectedly I presume.

After having to dodge the ignorant pr1cks in their monstrous big cruisers on the weekend

I can believe it, they just didn't give a sh1t how close they got to you just as long as they didn't have to touch the throttle or change their line.

Yeah agreed, some of them have even been on a collision course with me with nobody at the helm. The things are on auto-pilot in a tight channel! Then they wave to you from the back deck.

I think, on the Gold Coast at least, there are a lot of twats with more money than sense. The fact that you'd buy a $500K, 50ft, 20gallon/mile sports cruiser to go for short day trips kinda proves the point. His and hers matching jet-skis complete the picture.

BUT..., and I only learnt this recently, be aware that in a restricted channel YOU have to give way to THEM.

"Responsibilities between vessels

A vessel under power gives way to:
• blah blah blah...
• A sailing vessel (but see below).

A sailing vessel must keep clear of:
• A vessel not under command (evlPanda: open to debate or what?)
• A vessel unable to manoeuvre easily (including large vessels navigating in or near a channel or fairway)
• blah blah blah...

If I wanted big air that much, I'd just go hang gliding or skydiving. I often wonder whether they look at kiters and windsurfers, and our "massive" 30 feet high jumps, and go - what the hell are they getting so excited about?

Sure, the sports are very different, but if big air is what it's all about - which is what some kiters seem to say when they say that's kiting's advantage over windsurfing - then why not get 25,000 feet of air instead of 30?