Ocean Beach kiteboarding accident

[Kyle]

if you don't want to wear a helmet that's your choice, but suggesting to others that it serves no purpose and will not provide any benefits is just ignorant. Maybe you're so good in the waves you've never been maytagged and taken a board to the head. And you must not foil or have learned to foil where you have many sharp objects at high speed gunning after you even after you've crashed. I've broken ribs even with impact vests so does that mean I should stop wearing it? I would wear armor if I could find something comfortable. This sport is dangerous as hell. Sounds like the dude has serious head trauma... while a helmet might not have prevented his injuries there's at least a chance it could have helped. For me that's enough of a reason to wear a helmet.

[Tony Soprano]

Be aware you all are on thin ice with childish behavior. There was another kite accident in the bay this week, that is not in the news this person also had a head injury and 911 response, his helmet probably saved his life.

[sloughslut]

i always use mine

[ino]

Before we do all that, Do we know our Brother who had a Misshap , "That could have happened to any of us on the Atlantic coast or anywhere".
Do we know his name and how we can be service?

[behindThePeak]

No helmet, his small kite had a problem, he went out on a 9m in wind gusting 50.

So how did not wearing a helmet contribute to the accident? Would a helmet have prevented the bad judgement? Would it keep your lines straight and fly the kite for you? Would it prevent you from being lofted? Would it release the bar and hit the QR for you? Heck, would it even protect you from serious injury when you are hit by a car?

Of course, if we all put on helmets then the people who keep harping on them would move on to body armor, after all, almost every one of the people who got seriously injured in the last few years broke ribs or damaged internal organs.

Sorry for the rant, but I get so sick of the helmet BS. They only do one thing (absorb a small amount of impact energy if you land on your head) and they don't even do that as well as everyone thinks they do. They don't prevent you from hitting a tree when snowboarding, they don't stop cars from hitting you on your bicycle, and they certainly don't pick the right kite size for the wind speed.

https://youtu.be/b5KcotFqAg0?t=26

https://youtu.be/b5KcotFqAg0?t=26[/video]

[mighty]

So how did not wearing a helmet contribute to the accident? Would a helmet have prevented the bad judgement? Would it keep your lines straight and fly the kite for you? Would it prevent you from being lofted? Would it release the bar and hit the QR for you? Heck, would it even protect you from serious injury when you are hit by a car?

Of course, if we all put on helmets then the people who keep harping on them would move on to body armor, after all, almost every one of the people who got seriously injured in the last few years broke ribs or damaged internal organs.

Sorry for the rant, but I get so sick of the helmet BS. They only do one thing (absorb a small amount of impact energy if you land on your head) and they don't even do that as well as everyone thinks they do. They don't prevent you from hitting a tree when snowboarding, they don't stop cars from hitting you on your bicycle, and they certainly don't pick the right kite size for the wind speed.

https://screen.yahoo.com/bad-idea-jeans-000000942.html

[friggin old guy]

I was out of the area when the accident happened, but I was kind of expecting some update would be posted here as to the id of the guy involved and an update on his status. I know that privacy matters sometimes dictate that this info is not available, but if anybody knows and feels comfortable posting, I think a lot of us would like to know how he's doing, and we're hoping for the best.

I don't think this should devolve into a debate about whether personal protection is mandated, but it should serve as a wake-up call that as we each weigh the risk-reward equation for ourselves, we need to be penciling ourselves into the calculation. Don't think it can't happen to you.

Info and details (above what is available in the non-informed press) not merely morbid curiosity, but rather how to avoid such things happening to you or your buddy. Knowing the spot where it happened so well, it is difficult for me to imagine how severely ganked he had to be to end up on the Great Highway......

Sympathies to the kiter involved and all his people.......

[marinkiter]

it is difficult for me to imagine how severely ganked he had to be to end up on the Great Highway......

Sympathies to the kiter involved and all his people.......

I've never been lofted before, but I have been pretty airborne. The kite seems steerable in the air in my experience, but I've never been caught in a kiteloopmare or horizontal. Do you get to a point where you can't help the direction you are going and you can end up over land? Trying to picture how this happened.

[Tony Soprano]

It was hight tide and not much beach, I have been told. He was on too big a kite. The wind at OB is directly onshore, so downwind in the air, would bring you onto the beach.

[jethrozimm]

As a second year kiter, I am trying to understand what this guy could have done once he started to get dragged across the beach. I understand his kite was apparently oversized for the wind conditions, but should he have released his chickenloop and safety once he started to lose control?
I hope he is ok...