Nasty accident at 3rd Ave upper today - guy got airlifted

[reyrivera]

Did somebody figure out if the car left behind the parking belong to the guy?

Maybe let the tow truck driver/police officer/golf course attendant know the car left overnight might belong to the poor dude?

[jayjay]

Yup i went to the golf course office and talked to them about it yesterday Rey so they wont tow his car.

[dz]

I hope he is safe and will be alright.
3rd regulars are awesome, they prevent a lot of these type of things from happening.

[cleepa]

Ok, if you haven't been at upper launch when it happened then you can talk all day about should've could've. The conditions were very treacherous and misleading. I can see why the guy that got injured misjudged the situation.

I was there from 1PM, I kited on my 12m until 1:45. Then wind died a bit so I landed and took a break. Then the wind started acting erratic, insane gusts for like 1-2 min then calm for another 1-2. By 2:15pm I was considering going out for another sess on my 12, so no, I'm not a beginner and I evaluated the situation. As I launched, fully depowered, and rigged on last low-power knots, I felt the kite in the air, unstable, pulling too much, then lulling and I decided I will land it and wait it out. Which I did.

Those few burst periods of calm are VERY misleading, I can see why the guy launched in a short calm period thinking all is ok, to lul the kite and then have a blast hitting you. Plus the wind was shifting WSW then WNW.

Again, you can bash all you want at the OP (me) or whomever launched him, you haven't been there, I don't completely blame the kiter for his mis-judgement, at 2:30-3PM w/o checking the wind sensors, you could not realistically appreciate what was going on especially if you just arrived at the beach and pumped up and were ready and excited to go.

If you look at my picture I posted, you will see the wind suddenly calmed down around 2:45 which seemed ok, but blasted back up 5-10 min later.

By 3PM it was obvious to anyone the wind was gusting over 30Kts and none went in with things larger than 9m.

His downfall was mis-launching in gusty wind shifting conditions and not ejecting when he got dragged for 30 ft to the rocks. I can associate this to same symptom of first snowfall in northeast cities and amounts of crashes, people are not used to appreciate the conditions at the beginning of the season.

As guidoz said, advanced conditions. biba's account above is one example of why storm wind can be so dangerous. Winter wind here requires extra caution. The better you understand things that affect surface wind at your spot and the wind conditions for the day, the more you will be able to make sensible decisions. There have been many winter days that I have shown up at the beach and not kited because the conditions I observed all felt too sketchy. I'd rather miss a few sessions that could have been OK than get hurt.

[biba]

Sadly, nobody knows about his condition. Apparently his car is still parked at the Golf lot 3 days after, definitely not a good sign. Pablo called Stanford trauma center, they don't have anyone admitted on Friday in that condition. If you have ways to ask the Foster City EMR at least so we stop worrying knowing he is all accounted for.

[steve]

Mills-Peninsula in Burlingame also has a Heli-port...or at least they used to
steve

[shred_da_gorge]

...they prevent a lot of these type of things from happening.

Or at least they try to. Like guidoz said, then you come off as the jerk. One of the last times I kited at Third I almost got into a fight with a guy who was doing some pretty boneheaded things at the upper launch. (It's one of the main reasons I don't kite there anymore).

Every spring we go through this. The comments you see lashing out are regulars who have said the same thing time after time. In the summer we have steadier winds from the weather setup, but in spring and fall the wind comes from frontal conditions (low pressure systems). In the spring especially they can whip the wind speed up 15+ MPH in a matter of minutes, and the weather forecasts all over the news showed the front moving through and said "gusty winds." A good sign that the winds will be dangerously inconsistent is when the weatherpeople say "cells" and "possible thunderstorms."

Nobody wishes harm on people for their inexperience, but it's frustrating to see repeatedly - especially when the injuries seem to be getting worse and worse. I hope for the best for this poor guy.

[Xor]

Ok, I called the mills and they do not have heliport anymore, so as far as nursing supervisor knows it is either Standford or john Muir, I'll try to call to john muir

[Xor]

And at john Muir they didn't want to talk without patient name, but after some arguing nurse supervisor asked for the type of injury and after said they do not have anyone who fits this description, but that could be untrue.

[Xor]

I talked to random ER people I've met on a street and they suggested if somebody remembers heli company to call and ask what hospital they took him to.
Anybody?