Injury today at 3rd ave

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keithdkd
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Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by keithdkd » Sun Apr 22, 2018 8:22 pm

tl;dr The guy has a broken arm, a gash on his hand, and a concussion, but AFAIK he should recover.

Today there was a gnarly incident at 3rd upper launch, sometime around 4pm. Here's what happened.

This kiter (name omitted for his privacy) was coming in from the water, walking into the cove. Witnesses told me that he slipped on the mud, and instinctively grabbed at the end of his bar. This sent his kite up and to the right, which launched him. I saw him get thrown into the air, and dragged headfirst into the rocks. At that point, everyone ran over to help him, and someone called 911. It was around 10-15 minutes before paramedics arrived (they had trouble finding the beach at first) and they took him to the hospital.

Here are some takeaways:

* He was wearing a helmet. If he had not worn a helmet, he would be dead for sure.
* His girlfriend said they were relatively new, and had learned at La Ventana. Perhaps we should have signage warning kiters new to the spot how dangerous the rocks are, and encouraging them to ask locals for guidance. Also telling them that the mud is slippery.
* He was in the middle of the cove, instead of sticking to the west side, as far away from the rocks as possible.
* He weighed 195lbs and on a 14M kite in approximately 20mph winds. A tad overpowered IMO. Don't hesitate to speak up, if you see someone going out on a kite that looks to big for them.

Please followup here if you hear anything about the victim's status.

Be safe everyone.

kd

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ozreiuosn
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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by ozreiuosn » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:17 am

I had started watching him when I saw his kite go down after he attempted a jump just a little north of the flag. He had spent time time trying to get it back up but he eventually succeeded. I couldve sworn it was a 12m. After he got his kite back up he made his way back to the launch.

While the mud was definitely slippery, what I saw him doing was running/being pulled by his kite further inland, and then he mustve slipped from the mud, lopping the kite, sending him into the rocks.

He didn't moved for about a minute, which was fucking scary. I had ended up walking towards him while on the phone with 911 to give them more information. When I saw him he was awake and grabbing his bloody arm/wrist. Didn't recognize him.

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le noun
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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by le noun » Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:36 pm

14m kite by 20mph wind for a 200lbs guy is not THAT much overpowered especially if he was in a TT. Not the best but not like riding a 12m by 30mph.
Mud is slippery and beginners don't always put their hand where they should when things get hectic: they don't have the reflexes yet.
Frankly, for once, I'm not sure anything could have been done differently. He just fell at the wrong spot and had the wrong reflex.
Yes we need to police and keep an eye out for beginners, I agree, BUT I would have gave him a launch if the wind wasn't super up and down and gusty.
We just need to stop to sell 3rd as a beginner spot. It was a beginner spot years ago when we had more beach. But now it's just mudland 20 feet away from the path/rocks.
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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by edented » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:19 pm

Glad to hear the helmet saved him from serious injury/death, and he'll hopefully be back riding soon.

We recently learned that calling 911 often routes you to Vallejo, so they often have no idea of the location we try to describe. If you do call 911:

Key things to say for clarity of location...

Calling from FOSTER CITY (think of how many 3rd avenues there are!)
'BAYWINDS PARK', (that's the name they know it as)
'EAST 3RD AVENUE and LAKESIDE DRIVE' (they always want a cross street)
'WEST of Mariners Point Golf Course'

(E 3rd and Lakeside is lower launch, but that is the entrance that gets an ambulance onto the path. Dispatch have no idea what 'upper launch' means, and there isn't access from the golf course parking lot. Upper launch is West, not North as we tend to think of 'up').

There is a direct number to the local Foster City emergency/rescue on the information sign at lower launch. (can someone post that here? It's the number we should all have in our phones for this purpose). It's a good response to call 911, but if you have the mind to call to the local dispatch directly, they'll have a better understanding of where we're talking about.


I didn't know there was a fast looping 14m...

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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by shred_da_gorge » Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:32 pm

Best comment I've ever read here. I hope he is OK with full recovery soon.

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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by jjm » Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:20 pm

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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by muh » Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:32 pm

Hey Guys!

This is David. I'm the Kiter that got injured on Sunday.
I just wanted let you know that I'm ok. I got released from Stanford medical yesterday evening.
In summary I got a dislocated elbow and thumb. A brocken toe and bruises all over my body. Plus a nasty fleshwound on my hand that I haven't seen yet. But apart from that I'm alright. My neck and spine are ok, my head too. I have loss of memory of the last 24h and the last 72h are super fuzzy.

A big shoutout and thank you to all the people that jumped to my help!
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I guess I underestimated how tricky the slippery mud can be. I'll be better and I'll be back. Guess I have to revisit safety protocols a little and be quicker on the release.

It's good this (re)triggers the discussions about helmets.
But in fact it should not be a discussion in the first place.
Just do it. Just wear a freaking helmet!
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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by alexglebov » Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:56 pm

Hi David, I am so happy that you are doing OK! Wish you the speedy recovery and I hope too meet you at 3rd. This is my 3rd year kiteboarding and I still wear a helmet and intent to keep wearing it even if it makes me look like a total beginner! The other side benefit of a helmet, people around you are super nice and give you extra room on the water :)


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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by alexglebov » Tue Apr 24, 2018 1:01 pm

David, one more question for you: did you depower the kite before starting to walk on the mud? This really helps with reducing how much kite pulls and make the walk a little bit easier.


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Re: Injury today at 3rd ave

Post by dgrissom » Tue Apr 24, 2018 1:23 pm

I agree with a couple earlier posts!
I was surprised to go back to third ave (after a few years) to find almost beach left and in my opinion a sketchy launch if you don't know about the slippery mud and rocks just below the shallow water's surface. I remember a much larger and sandy beach years ago?? Erosion?? As the first poster suggested, SIGNS would definitely help.
Glad to hear David is ok and recovering.

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