Kiter hit by a car in San Francisco

[airwave]

@ WATUPWITU

I kited and I windsurf. Gave up kiting at least for a while.
And NO, it is not safe. At least not as safe as windsurfing. I believe the event being discussed here is just one example that proves the point.

Newer kites can be released, if you have the presence of mind at the moment in time, when things go wrong. And no the release mechanisms are not perfect. They can snag, they can break, they can become tangled with other objects like any other sports equipment. But when they do the results can be far more damaging.

One of the reasons I took a break from kiting is due to these possibilities, not from fear but from the lack of the thrill. Kiting simply does not offer the thrill factor that many other board sports offer. The fun factor in kiting must include being careful, holding back, and managing everything while still doing tricks, speed, or surfing. Windsurfing on the other hand is more of a let it rip sport with far less concern for being careful or holding back.

Ask any kiter. They can all tell you about things gone wrong, even on todays new equipment.

[kevinkan]

not making a judgment on the guy who got hurt, but just saying that it's the person that's dangerous not the sport ignores the inherent risks for each sport.

i.e. it's way less dangerous to be careless with a stick than with a gun.

for those of you not familiar with the area and who haven't read some of the comments on the bay area kiteboarding forum, it sounds like the kiter was near the water's edge, and getting lofted/dragged that far is quite a shock... it's probably in the neighborhood of 500ft and up a ~20ft cliff/embankment.

I drove by the scene that evening on my way home and noticed all the news trucks and a fire truck hosing down the concrete center divider. it was very windy that day, and my first thought that maybe a kiter had rigged in the parking lot and lost control (a situation that probably makes zero sense) but I really could not fathom a guy getting dragged all the way up from the beach.

[dllee]

All this archer's not bow talk......
Hanggliding used to kill 7 a year, now much less. Less participants.
Creek boating, or kayaking down river's, used to kill 10 a year in USA. Guess what? Almost the same nowadaze.
No chance for release once flung into the air, the fall almost as bad as the full ride.
Downwind solid objects most dangerous, so South of France is the only safe kiteboarding spot? San Pedro LA?
EVERY kiter has had Supermans. No biggie in the water, biggie on land.
As for whether or not the kiter was actually dragged 200 feet up the beach, then up a gradual 40% dirt slope? I"m a kiter, at least for 100 days. I'd launch on the beach down by the water. Will we ever find out?

[isobars]

[WutUpWitU]

my but you folks do get sidetracked and get confused fairly easily, eh?
all of the "examples" above are exactly what I was saying,
bad choice and judgment by kiters who then get hurt.

Can I make kiting more dangerous? of course.
Can I make it less dangerous? of course
can I make windsurfing more dangerous? of course
Can I make windsurfing more dangerous than kiting? of course

it all proves nothing, certain people, at certain times, in certain places have different levels of acceptable safety factors and choose to participate or not.

One sport is not more dangerous that the other,
some people make one more dangerous than the other.

it is not that a stick is more dangerous that a gun,
it is that an untrained, oblivious person can make a gun more dangerous. Left to themselves, neither is dangerous to anyone. Until some fool picks one up or until someone with proper training and awareness picks one up.
They are just tools, for better or worse.
IMO, YMMV carry on.....

[isobars]

You're claiming that only avoidable operator error can make a kite hurt someone. That's silly.

[Goodwind]

[kevinkan]

[andydavis]

As a newbie kiter, I am only starting to appreciate the potential hazards. Of course, there are the normal, quotidian dangers of kiting, already discussed here, but the most heinous is the dreaded death loop. Usually it happens from a front line getting caught on a wingtip. There is no way to control it and the kite starts to loop. As the kite loops, it sweeps out a larger area of the sky, effectively harvesting more power. Also, a kite develops thrust in proportion to the apparent wind speed squared, so when the kite starts to spin around...it's over. The only possible action is to eject and hope the thing doesn't kill a kid or get sucked into an airplane engine.

[kpsounis]

I have been windsurfing till I was 10 and kiting till I was 25, I am now 40.

Kiting is more dangerous than windsurfing, period. This is because a beginner to intermediate kiter can get injured easier than a beginner to intermediate windsurfer, due to basic physics. And, everybody starts as a beginner.

When it comes to advanced kiters/sailors though, there is no difference in how dangerous the two sports are. This is for two reasons: First, an advanced windsurfer rides head++ waves, forward loops, tries to land a backward loop, and he can easily break his body doing so. Second, an advanced kitesurfer, runs all the risks of an advanced windsurfer while doing the above, but no more, because at this level letting go off the bar and even pulling the kite release has become second nature, like a driver breaking when heading to a cement wall. As a matter of fact, for really advanced waterman looking for mast high ++ waves, kiting is safer, because the main issue becomes how to go through the critical section, and it is much safer to do it with a kite, than slogging through 15 feet sets on a windsurf board.

The real question for us (us being parents with kids) is: what do we teach our kids to do, windsurfing of kitesurfing? My answer is whatever they prefer, but when teaching them how to kitesurf, we will have to insist more on safety and monitor them closely for a longer period of time, till they pass the point of being beginners/intermediates.

Last, everybody in this thread has to realize that even kitesurfing for beginners/intermediates (which is more dangerous than windsurfing for beginners/intermediates) is still less dangerous (based on official statistics about accidents per population practicing a sport) than pretty much any other sports that we do and let our kids do (football, soccer, ski/snowboard, biking, to name a few). Thus, it is quite ridiculous and indicative of the state of mind of some windsurfing folks towards kitesurfing, how hard they are trying to demotivate friends and family from learning how to kitesurf (per their own words in this thread).