Kiter hit by a car in San Francisco

jingebritsen · Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3371

headline of thread should read???

kiter strikes car on highway. i am sure the driver was just driving along....

WutUpWitU · Joined: 21 May 2000 Posts: 52

it's nice that you are all so sure about things you know so little about.

it is not what you don't know that gets you in trouble,
it's what you are sure about that is wrong.

Kiting is no more dangerous that windsurfing,
most kiters, however, are. See the difference?

just saying'....

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

dvCali · Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 1314

ctuna · Joined: 27 Jun 1995 Posts: 1125 Location: Santa Cruz Ca

Crash windsurfing sail powers down and equipment separates crash kiting maybe. Or maybe it drags you wherever physics dictates.
I don't think this has anything to do with experience as it seems
to happen to anybody caught in a big gust.
This is just physics.
Also very little in the way of flotation if the wind dies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJW3Juic7pM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR_1hNrtL8U

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

Kitesurfing is safe.
Only about 100 people have died kiteboarding, most of them before 2010, and most of them experts or competitors at actual events.
That's maybe about par with being a cab driver at night in Detroit. Pretty safe, I'd say.

WutUpWitU · Joined: 21 May 2000 Posts: 52

Like I said, you guys know so little about how kites actually work these days it 's kind of funny and kind of scary.
Um, yes if you just let go of the bar every bad thing stops quickly. You are not "hooked in all the time" any more than you are windsurfing. Tell me you have never been slammed into the mast while going over the nose hooked in and I call bull. You still have to unhook on a windsurfer and you can "unhook" on a kite as well but if you pay a bit of attention you almost never have to, you just let go and things stop. If they do not it is because you were not paying attention earlier. All the bad acc idents you hear about are from launching/landing in ugly conditions when you probably should not have gone out or because someone would not let go of the bar. Not the kite, the kiter is the problem. As for jumping around in a parking lot, you were just being childish right? Who in there right mind would launch akite in an area with hard objects downwind? Again, that's the kiter, not the kite. You add young, adrenaline and testosterone and you get trouble, gear is almost irrelevant.
I know you do not want to believe any of this. You would rather just think that"kiting is dangerous" and kiting is dangerous but no more so than dirt bikes fast or tree skiiing fast or windsurfing fast and not paying attention to your gear or environment.
It ain't the arrow, it's the Indian.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Then why and how do careful, expert kiters get killed hitting telephone poles or others expert kiters in the same race? When's the last time a WSer was taken 400 feet into the air? How often do kiters, vs WSers, smash pelvises and femurs while just playing (lots, according to my orthopedic surgeon)?

Injuries from hitting booms and masts are easily preventable with armor; not so much hitting cars, jetties, and high-rises. OTOH, I agree 100% with your "Who in there right mind would launch a kite in an area with hard objects downwind?"

Not hooked in alla time? My expert kiting buddies say they are. Wassamatter that you're not? Smile

And nobody was comparing kiting to "dirt bikes fast or tree skiiing fast or windsurfing fast and not paying attention to your gear or environment". The comparison is between high-horsepower toys with throttles subject to gusts, one of which if you let go the engine shuts off, while the other stays running and is clearly subject to operator error.

If the only safe way to play is to avoid crashes, why bother? If I just want transportation I'll hire a chauffeur. Hell, even in volleyball I'd dive flat out prone onto the gym floor or sprint into the bleachers going for a save. A physical game with no risk is more a time-killer than a sport.

DAVIBO · Joined: 04 Jun 1996 Posts: 52

has anybody heard how he/she is doing?

hemmy007 · Joined: 10 May 2002 Posts: 101

note: I hope this guy makes a full recovery
& do not wish him or his family any ill.

but that does not prevent people from talking about this
incident to help people in the future from not suffering
a similar fate, i.e. tahoe guy who died at OB in 2010,
in same issue, OPed on too big kite for conditions.

this gentleman was on a 9m when many were out on 7 or 5m.

it sounds like form the form posts that it was a SERIOUS
impact with road divider & SUV without helmet.